Prevention and treatment of exercise induced asthma

Asthma attack brought on during the exercise or immediately after exercise is called as Exercise Induced Asthma. The inhalation of dust, pollens or allergens during exercising is responsible for the Exercise Induced Asthma. The Exercise Induced Asthma can be experienced by the patient if the patient of Asthma exercises for a long period of time without taking rest.

Causes: Exercise, increases the respiratory rate of an individual. The person breathes air rapidly with open mouth. Breathing with mouth does not allow the filtration of the air from the harmful particles. Further, the cold air enters in the bronchioles causing the constriction (narrowing) of the soft tissues of the bronchioles and thereby producing the symptoms of Asthma.

Should such patients stop doing exercises completely?

Complete stoppage of exercises is not necessary; but, wise selection of the sport is very important for this type of patients.
It is found that swimming is the best exercise for such patients. Swimming allows the inhalation of warm and humid air which prevents the constriction (narrowing) of the bronchioles and thus helps by not triggering the asthma attack.

Outdoor sports like running, continuous cycling, skiing in cold winter months should be avoided by the patients of Exercise Induced Asthma.

Preventive measures:

• Do not overexert: Always, go on increasing your exercise work out slowly and gradually. This allows your body to get adapted to the amount of exercises you are doing.
• Take medicines regularly: Patients of Asthma should always take their medicines regularly. Missing even one dose can prove dangerous for such patients.
• Selection of a sport: As stated above select your sport wisely with an expert’s advise. Cycling is found to be the best sport for the patients of exercise induced asthma.
• Warm up: Doing warm up exercises for 10 minutes before starting the strenuous exercises is very important.
• Breathing through nose: Try to breathe through the nose so that warm and filtered air goes inside the lungs. Warm air does not aggravate the Asthma.
• Covering the nose and mouth: When you are doing an outdoor sport, always cover your nose and mouth with a clean cloth. This prevents inhalation of allergens such as pollens, dust etc. to enter the lungs and exacerbate the Asthma attack.

Treatment: Patients of Exercise Induced Asthma should immediately consult their treating physician as early as possible. With the help of conventional medicine the acute attack of Asthma can be treated very well.

Homeopathic medicines help in a long run and they help in reducing the dependence of the patient on the conventional medicines.