If you have asthma, chances are you have exercise induced asthma (EIA). I was actually a bit shocked as I read this post and learned that of the 18 million Americans with asthma, 80-90 percent have EIA.
What I also found stunning was that this article from the New York Times noted half of all cross country skiers, and 17 percent of Olympic-level distance runners, have been diagnosed with EIA. Likewise, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI.org), 23 percent of all olympians have EIA.
I have EIA, and chances are you do too if you've ever experienced the following symptoms during or 5-15 minutes after exercise:
When these symptoms occur they can be treated with your rescue inhaler (like Albuterol) and rest. Although, witih proper diagnosis and treatment, these symptoms can be controlled so you can exercise as normal.
Yet, before we get into diagnosis and treatment, let's describe EIA.
The best definition I could find came from this post at AAAAI.org, which notes exercise doesn't necessarily "cause" asthma, but that "hyperventilation (fast breathing) associated with exercise cools and dries the upper and lower airway resulting in the release of histamine and other substances that produce the bronchospasm (spasming of the muscles in the air passages in your lungs)."
Likewise, when an asthmatic exercises when the temperature is cold, and the air dry, "Hyperventilation of cold dry air produces a similar response."
In this way, asthmatics are more likely to have asthma symptoms when they exercise in cold, dry air.
Dr. Randolph also said it isn't so much the cold weather that triggers the asthma attack, but the fact that the air is dry. Asthmatic lungs have a diminished ability to humidify the air, and this triggers the asthma response. This has been proven via various studies.
AAAAI.org also notes it doesn't help that "During strenuous activity, people tend to breathe through their mouths, allowing the cold, dry air to reach the lower airways without passing through the warming, humidifying effect of the nose."
Actually, according to Dr. Christopher Randolph, a clinical professor at Yale University who was interviewed by The New York Time's, EIA is not quite the same as asthma. He notes the "'preferred term' in the scientific community for exercise-induced asthma is exercise-induced bronchoconstriction, or EIB.
Thus, 13 percent of the non-asthmatic community has EIA, and up to 40 percent of those with a history of allergic rhinitis and allergies, the AAAA.org notes.
So, why is it that so many athletes have EIA?
One theory proposes that, according Dr. Randolph, "elite endurance athletes, especially those training more than 20 hours a week, actually 'injure their airways' by breathing so much and so hard. 'They take in up to 200 liters of air per minute,' he says, in comparison to perhaps five or six liters per minute at rest, all of which must be humidified."
