Why do I get asthma when I exercise?
Exercise is a very common trigger in patients with asthma, affecting 80 to 90 percent of patients with asthma. Certain physiologic changes occur when you exercise in patients who have asthma. Certain chemicals get released, certain neurologic mechanisms get stimulated which cause the release of certain chemicals that cause the mucous formation, the tightness in your chest, the feeling that you're getting short of breath. It usually occurs after you've stopped exercising. Usually the pattern is the patient has exercised for five to ten minutes and then they stop, and a few minutes after they stop, they feel some spasm or tightening in their airways. The best way to treat exercise-induced asthma is to pre-treat; in other words, take a short-acting bronchial dilator 15 to 20 minutes before you exercise. Very often, I'll tell patients, especially professional athletes, to warm up first to release some of these chemicals that cause spasm, then to use their inhaled bronchial dilator before they're going to actually have their meet or their competition. A lot of patients with exercise asthma have chronic asthma, but they're not aware of it because it's only when they exercise that they really feel the tightness. So in many cases, doing pulmonary function tests at rest that show that there might be some asthma affecting their lungs might necessitate using a controller medication on a regular basis and then using the rescue medication, in addition, prior to their exercise.
