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Managing Exercise Induced Asthma

Exercise can be a trigger for some people with asthma… but that's not an excuse to sit on the couch! Physiotherapist Brigitte Eastwood shares her tips for managing exercise induced asthma.

Exercise is vital for our total body health and wellbeing. Having exercise induced asthma just means you need to find a form of exercise that doesn't affect you as much. Be prepared and monitor the way you breathe while exercising.

First up, some things to remember:

• Your fitness level will play a part in how breathless you are while exercising.
• To improve your fitness it is important to actually get a bit breathless. A good rule of thumb is the 'walk and talk test.' When exercising you should be moderately short of breath but still able to speak.
• Do you really have exercise induced asthma?
  Exercise induced hyperventilation (or disordered breathing) can mimic exercise induced asthma and also cause shortness of breath, chest tightness and feelings of air hunger. In a study of 52 school children in Canada, who had been told they had exercise induced asthma, 40.4% were found to have a form of disordered breathing and 23.1% were merely unfit. Only 15.4% had exercise induced asthma based on diagnostic criteria.

Because of the prevalence of asthma in New Zealand, and the similarity of symptoms, it is easy to see how exercise induced asthma is often the first diagnosis people think of.

What can you do if you have exercise induced asthma?
Firstly make sure you get your asthma under control.

• Talk to your GP and get an asthma action plan
• Use your inhalers regularly and correctly. If you use a "puffer" inhaler make sure you use a spacer.
• Take the asthma control test at www. asthmacontrol.co.nz

You can also:

• Consider when and where you exercise. Check the weather – if there is a cold, dry wind, use a scarf or bandana over your mouth to warm up the air. This trick can also be used if you are exercising around dust or fumes. Exercise inside if you find cold wind, pollen or fumes to be big triggers. This could mean joining a gym, finding an exercise group to join or walking around your local mall.
• Warm up before exercising.
• Consider the type of exercise that you do. Some people prefer exercise which stops and starts for rests such as tennis or team sports; others prefer exercise where they can pace themselves, like running, walking, tramping or swimming...

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Issue: Autumn 2016