Exercise: Getting Over the Asthma Hurdle

If you're watching world-class athletes getting ready to compete, you may see one of them take a puff on a little plastic L-shaped tube. That athlete is one of the millions of people who have to manage their asthma to perform at their best possible levels.

If Olympic athletes aren't letting their asthma stop them, neither should you. Exercise is important for everyone, and with a little care - and guidance from their doctors - most people with asthma should be able to get as much exercise as the next person.

In fact, if you have asthma and your doctor approves, you should exercise. A landmark article in The Physician and Sports Medicine stated that with proper management, people with asthma should exercise four or five times a week, just as anyone else. With careful planning and management, exercise can improve lung function and reduce the frequency of attacks. Exercise can also reduce the need for medications.

Exercising with asthma can present three problems:

• Allergens and pollution in the air may make it more difficult for you to breathe effectively.
• The exercise itself may bring on asthma, which is called exercise-induced asthma (EIA).
• If you've had bad experiences in the past trying to exercise, your muscles and lungs may be weaker, making it harder to get started again.

If you have these problems, don't give up. With proper management, you should be able to get the same cardiovascular and other health benefits of exercise, and also feel and look better.

Think about which form of exercise might be best for you. You may prefer walking, running or biking, or sustained sports like basketball. Maybe sports with long or short rest periods - like softball or tennis - are more your style. If your lungs and muscles are weak, you might want to start out with slow to moderate walking and some light weight training.

Winter sports and cold-weather exercise can be great for people who are allergic to pollens and molds, but cold weather itself can bring on asthma symptoms. If you have this reaction to cold weather, wearing a scarf across your nose and mouth can help warm the air you breathe.

No matter what the environmental conditions, plan to spend 10 to 15 minutes warming up before exercise and 10 to 15 minutes cooling down afterwards. Warming up decreases the likelihood that exercise will bring on asthma symptoms.

Before beginning any exercise program, it's very important that you talk to your doctor and, afterwards, that you adhere to your doctor's recommendations.

Talk to your doctor about:

• Your choice of a sport or exercise.
• How cautious you should be when exercising.
• How you can tell the difference between symptoms brought on by allergens and pollution and those brought on by exercise-induced asthma.
• Whether you should take medication before exercising.
• What you should do if you have symptoms during exercise.
• Whether you should stop if you have symptoms.
• Whether and how often you should use a peak flow meter.
• How to record your exercise, progress, symptoms, medication and peak flow.

Record your symptoms and how often you have to use a rescue inhaler. This is important for your next visit to the doctor. Working with your doctor in developing a sound exercise program will help ensure you're achieving your peak performance.

Sources:

"Exercise for Asthma Patients: Little Risks, Big Rewards," by Vincent Disabella, DO. The Physician and Sports Medicine, June 1998.

American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology.

This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.