The Causes
If you are an asthmatic and also a sports person, especially often participating in high-intensity exercise, you may be aware of or even suffer from exercise-induced asthma.
The causes of asthma can be many, such as
- Family history / genetic
- Airborne allergens, such as pollen, dust mites, mold spores, pet dander or particles of cockroach waste.
- Respiratory infections, such as the common cold.
- Physical activity.
- Cold and dry air.
- Air pollutants and irritants, such as smoke.
In the Exercise-induced Asthma context, Physical activity, Cold and Dry air are the more likely causes.
Our airways are naturally accustomed to warm and moist air. At rest, we normally breathe gently via the nose in low tidal volume and slow breath rate typically around 500ml and 12 breaths per minute respectively. When cold and dry air passes the upper airways through the nose, the air gets warmed and moisturized before traveling to the lower airways and lungs where airways are narrower and more sensitive to cold and dry air. Thus normally when ventilation is low, the upper airways work well as an air conditioner to ensure the lower airways are not experienced with cold and dry air.
However, when we do high-intensity exercise, we often breathe more quickly via the mouth, where tidal volume increases dramatically such as to 2.0 liters or more, and the breath rate can go up to 40 breaths per minute or more. The minute ventilation at high-intensity exercise can be 15 times or more than that at rest. At such a ventilation volume with cold and dry air, the upper airways simply cannot cope, leading to the cold and dry air reaching the lower airways and lungs, causing inflammation and contraction of the small airways making them narrower or even blocked. When the situation is severe enough, it triggers an asthma attack.
How to prevent it?
Most people with Exercise-induced Asthma continue to exercise and remain active by treating the symptoms with asthma inhalers, which are typically steroid-based prescribed medicines. All medicines can have some side effects. Common side effects of asthma medicines include:
- A faster heartbeat
- A hoarse voice
- A sore throat
- fungal infections of the throat
Most asthma inhalers work as an anti-inflammatory drug, and this is a passive strategy in that, it mitigates the effects caused by the cold and dry air but does not address the source of the issue directly.
The good news is, there may be ways to prevent Exercise-induced Asthma at the source without using asthma inhalers. AYO BT is one of them when used correctly.