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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Asthma / December 2006Athletics in cold air: warning by Finnish researchers
See especially the last sentence " It appears to be difficult to change the 'natural course' of asthma in athletes by anti-inflammatory treatment" in "Asthma, Airway Inflammation and Treatment in Elite Athletes. Sports Medicine. 35(7):565-574, 2005. Helenius, Ilkka 1 2; Lumme, Aki 1; Haahtela, Tari 1 Abstract: Highly trained athletes are repeatedly and strongly exposed to cold air during winter training and to many inhalant irritants and allergens all year round. Asthma occurs most commonly in athletes engaging in endurance events such as cross-country skiing, swimming, or long-distance running. As well as the type of training, a major risk factor is atopic disposition. A mixed type of eosinophilic and neutrophilic airway inflammation has been shown to affect elite swimmers, ice-hockey players, and cross-country skiers. The inflammation may represent a form of repeated thermal, mechanical, or osmotic airway trauma resulting in a healing or remodelling process. Elite athletes commonly use antiasthma drugs to treat exercise-induced bronchial symptoms. Only a few controlled studies have been conducted on the effects of antiasthma drugs on asthma symptoms, bronchial hyperresponsiveness and airway inflammation in elite athletes. Inhaled [beta]2-adrenoceptor agonists are effective against exercise-induced bronchospasm. In contrast, airway inflammation, bronchial hyperresponsiveness and symptoms have responded poorly to inhaled corticosteroids and leukotriene antagonists. As discontinuing high-level exercise has proved effective in reducing eosinophilic airway inflammation, exercise or training should be restricted in athletes having troublesome symptoms and sputum eosinophilia. Switching training to less irritating environments should be considered whenever possible. It appears to be difficult to change the 'natural course' of asthma in athletes by anti-inflammatory treatment." For nine further references see last part of article on http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/asthma.html Regards, Richard Friedel > " It appears to be difficult to change the 'natural course' of asthma > in athletes by anti-inflammatory treatment" I happen to be an elite nordic skier.The mechanism of my adult asthma onset still remains unclear to me, and I don't respond to traditional medicines like Advair and Singulair (consistent with the article). I do find that skiing in a facemask with an air-humidifying filter helps. The mask I use is by AllerG. It's not perfect, but... > > " It appears to be difficult to change the 'natural course' of asthma > > in athletes by anti-inflammatory treatment" [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > find that skiing in a facemask with an air-humidifying filter helps. > The mask I use is by AllerG. It's not perfect, but... I've always been fond of breath-synchronized exercise like squats. I do some ice-skating and am surprised at the comparative freedom from bronchospasm when going along steadily with synchronized breathing and optimizing nitric oxide acquirement from the nose as Weitzberg would possibly be telling us to enhance lung blood circulation Maybe non-breath-synchronized exercise is bad for us. See http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/219/4582/251 "This hints that strict locomotor-respiratory coupling may be a vital factor in the sustained aerobic exercise of endothermic vertebrates, especially those in which the stresses of locomotion tend to deform the thoracic complex." There are horrific reports one the high percentage of competing nordic skiers having asthma diagnoses. One can only suppose that they recover when they discontinue. Hope I'm not being tactless. Regards, Richard Friedel mask I use is by AllerG. It's not perfect, but... > I've always been fond of breath-synchronized exercise like squats. I > do some ice-skating and am surprised at the comparative freedom from [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > when they discontinue. Hope I'm not being tactless. Regards, Richard > Friedel An interesting (and an "old") paper. Breathing in sync with locomotion should be more common in endurance sports (running, nordic skiing) as opposed to sprint-type sports (hockey, figure skating). I have discontinued nordic racing a year ago, and did not get any better, which makes me hope that it's not the skiing that made me sick (and that I can resume if I am cured). Coincidentally, they recently found that I've got chronic Lyme; I am hoping that taking care of that will hep the asmtha, too. > mask I use is by AllerG. It's not perfect, but... > > [quoted text clipped - 28 lines] > found that I've got chronic Lyme; I am hoping that taking care of that > will hep the asmtha, too. Well, as regards synchronized breathing, I've been doing something resembling the Flowbar workout (see long impressive video at http://www.flowbar.net/take_the_test.htm) but with cheapened equipment- just one strong metal ring (http://i13.ebayimg.com/01/i/05/82/6e/c1_1_b.JPG) held with both hands with padding wound round it and an adjustable length of rope slung over an overhead beam . I suppose two handles screwed to a cupboard or door would be almost as good. I have the ring at chin height. Of course the amount of work performed per duty cycle can be set by changing the height. Then the exercise is almost automatically breath-synchronized and as a result much more enjoyable than other 15 minute cardio workouts aiming at an age-related elevated pulse rate. I feel that my breathing pattern has been modelled for a long time afterward. Like a steam engine piston steadily doing its stuff instead of my usual so fatally neurotic spontaneous breathing pattern with the tendency to fall into a vicious circle of worsening hyperventilation and constriction of airways. Joseph Pilates' exercises (see f. i. http://www.easyvigour.net.nz/fitness/h_breathing.htm) might be basically good for asthma, but seem unnecessarily complex, at least for a beginner. Although he overcame his own asthma, the present Pilates system is not centered on asthma treatment. Surely an asthmatic needing some trick to evade bronchospasm but wanting to do a heavy, vitalizing workout without using a spray would be attracted by a simple, EIA-proof routine. This might be a breakthrough, if one accepts that reality lies in the breathing pattern and not in the millions of findings on asthma drugs. For a workout with kettlebells which does not seem to improve breathing, see video on http://www.kbnj.com/windmill.rm. Here breathing is obviously not synchronized and after a plunge or lunge the instructor is gasping for breath after holding it (a cardinal sin of asthmatics) and probably not tackling his basic condition. One must be very grateful to him for providing material for discussion in this way. Regards, Richard Friedel |
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