Exercise induced asthma follows a pattern in which asthma symptoms occur during exercise that is strenuous, continuous, and sufficient to increase the heart rate to 80 per cent of the predicted heart rate for the patient’s age group. In a person who has exercise induced asthma, symptoms usually develop after six to twelve minutes of exercise.
Symptoms are typically at their worst five to ten minutes after exercise has stopped. Asthma is more likely to occur with long distance running, as opposed to football, baseball, or tennis, where there are short bursts of physical activity interspersed with frequent stops.
The mechanism thought to explain exercise induced asthma is that strenuous exercise necessitates breathing heavily through the mouth. This bypasses the nose, which normally serves to warm and humidify air that travels to the airways.
With rapid mouth breathing, the air reaching the airways is cooler, dryer, and lacking in humidification, thereby triggering the asthma response. Swimming is thought to be the best exercise for asthma patients, as the air just above the water line is already humidified.
By understanding the basic points about exercise induced asthma, management suggestions become clear. Exercise induced asthma is best manageed before exercise begins. One helpful technique is to use a warm-up period just prior to exercise, so that you can try to get through the critical first fifteen minutes of exercise without developing asthma symptoms. It is during this time period that exercise induced asthma symptoms usually occur.
Other techniques include using a face mask or a scarf when exercising in cold weather to partially warm the air, and taking one of several acceptaable medications to block asthma symptoms before they start. By following these suggestions, most asthma patients should be able to take part in exercise. Needless to say, the extent of exercise depends on the person’s overall health and physical condition.
The lung function actually improves during the first few minutes of exercise, though to be as a result of the body releasing its own adrenalin, in response to the physical exercise. This initial bronchodilation can be misleading, however, as asthma symptoms usually begin in susceptible individuals after several minutes of exercise.
Some patients report that they are sometimes able to run through asthma symptoms during exercise simply by continuing to exercise without stopping. However, if you have exercise induced asthma, you should discourage the temptation to skip your pre-exercise medication in the hope that you won’t need it, because the medication will not work to block an asthma flare once symptoms have begun.
With the success of the currently available medications, it seems wise to pretreat yourself with the prescribed medication routinely before exercise, if you a pattern of developing exercise induced asthma symptoms during a program.
Although exercise induced asthma usually subsides without treatment within one hour, you need to know what to do if symptoms continue or are troublesome. You should be sure that you are familiar with the steps your doctor recommends for you.
One suggestion is to use your inhaler again by taking two additional puffs spaced by five minutes. If this proves unrewarding, you should start taking the theophylline products our doctor has prescribed in your medication program. If asthma symptoms still do not seem to be subsiding, notify your doctor.
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