The good news is that exercise-induced asthma is totally treatableand it doesnt have to interfere with your workouts.
Ahead is everything you gotta know about exercise-induced asthma, including tips for maintaining your exercise regimen.
What is exercise-induced asthma?
Staying active can actually help you manage exercise-induced asthma.
As its name implies, exercise-induced asthma is when you experience trouble breathing while pushing yourself physically.
Some people only experience this while theyre working out, hence the name exercise-induced asthma.
Experts often refer to exercise-induced asthma with the more specific name exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.
Other individuals may have asthma that can strike at any time but gets triggered when they exercise.
Either way, Dr. Chupp says he considers exercise asthma real asthma.
What causes exercise-induced asthma?
Though there may be many causes of exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, experts have pinpointed one main factor.
What are the most common exercise-induced asthma triggers?
But you might also experience exercise-specific issues, like an abnormal level of fatigue during your workouts.
All of this can make people feel out of shape when theyre actually not.
A common lung test is called a spirometry test.
How is exercise-induced asthma treated?
Usually, this kind of treatment does the trick, Dr. Benzaquen says.
What happens if exercise-induced asthma is left untreated?
Its possible, that your exercise-induced bronchoconstriction could stay mild, Dr. Sindher says.
For some individuals, the condition progressively worsens over time.
Can you exercise with exercise-induced asthma?
We want to double-check everyone is able to achieve their exercise goals, says Dr. Sindher.
In other words, it makes your breathing more efficient, he says.
Here are a few simple-but-effective tweaks it’s possible for you to make to your exercise routine.
They may have other tricks, and if not, suggest switching to inside activities during the winter.
The important thing is to know your triggers and listen to your body.
Ive had Olympic athletes and marathon runners that are asthmatic, Dr. Chupp says.
Practice deep breathing:Breathing exercisescan improve your quality of life and reduce reliance on rescue medication4.
Any exercise that emphasizes deep breathingsuch as yogacan be a great practice to start.
Basically, there are a lot of options out there that can help if you struggle with exercise-induced bronchoconstriction.
