Suffering from Exercise-induced Asthma? Homeopathy Can Help You

If you’re vying for gold in a sport that demands a lot of huffing and puffing, you’d think that asthma would be a pretty significant disadvantage. Right? But, the record books are filled with athletes, football players, and swimmers who overcame asthma on their way to victory. Some developed asthma as children; others were already at the top of their game. Either way, asthma didn’t stop them from success on the track, field, court—or in the pool.

Let’s consider an example of Jackie Joyner-Kersee –

This track-and-field star, four-time Olympian, and three-time gold medalist was diagnosed with asthma as a freshman at UCLA. She was playing basketball and running track at the time and couldn’t catch her breath after strenuous workouts. Afraid of losing her scholarship, Joyner-Kersee would duck into the bathroom to hide her condition from her coaches and teammates. Even after a doctor diagnosed her with asthma, Joyner-Kersee didn’t take her medication consistently—and as a result she suffered a life-threatening asthma attack years later.  

At last, she accepted her condition and treated it well. However, there are many people who will do anything to avoid work outs – they give excuses of suffering from exercise-induced asthma.

Excuses and skipping workouts is certainly not required if you know following things and are determined to make your condition better -

What is Exercise-Induced Asthma?

Asthma is a lung disorder in which there is inflammation and narrowing of the respiratory airways causing wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and cough. Exercise-induced asthma is asthmatic attack caused by physical activity like exercise or any strenuous activity like prolonged exercise, breathing exercise, swimming, running etc.

Causes

Ever noticed that you normally inhale through your mouth when you exercise? Well, you do because your body needs to work harder, meaning it needs more oxygen to keep it going. Inhaling through your mouth allows you to breathe faster and deeper.

The trouble with mouth breathing is that it causes the air to be dryer and cooler than when you breathe through your nose. Dry and cold air trigger your airway to narrow, so exposure to it during exercise is more likely to cause asthma symptoms than exercising in warm, humid conditions.

Related: How to Breathe Easy with Asthma?

Symptoms

Exercise-Induced Asthma causes symptoms of asthma, which may include:

• Coughing
• Wheezing
• Chest tightness
• Shortness of breath.

More often than not, symptoms won’t occur immediately at the beginning of an exercise session. Rather, they may start during the session and can become progressively worse five to 10 minutes after stopping.

Symptoms typically resolve within 30 minutes. Some sufferers may even feel a second wave, or “late-phase” of symptoms 4 to 12 hours after exercising. These are typically less severe, though, and can take up to 24 hours to settle.

Triggers

There are certain triggering factors which can make your Exercise-induced asthma symptoms worse:

• Pollution level
• Pollen count
• Exposure to irritants such as smoke and strong fumes.

Dealing with the asthma

There are a number of medications and asthma treatments used to treat exercise-induced asthma. It's a question of working out what's best for you with regards to the frequency and severity of symptoms.

Related: Treat Asthma With Homeopathy

There may be a number of different causes for wheezing and shortness of breath in exercise, not just asthma. Some people are just given an inhaler when it's not actually asthma, which actually may make their symptoms worse.

A homeopath can become your best bet to address the condition. Because, asthma treatment in homeopathy treats the person, the individual, by taking a holistic outlook - it examines not just the symptoms one experiences during an attack, but also all the changes and variations that occur on the physical, mental and emotional levels. This helps to determine how a person’s health and well-being have been altered. Homeopathy for asthma analyses the hereditary factors and environmental triggers, too — to complete the individual’s constitutional portrait, while stimulating the individual’s immunity by treating the cause of the illness — and, not just the illness state or diagnosis.

Recommended exercises

There's no reason to stop playing sports or working out because you have exercise-induced asthma. Exercise is great for everyone. As well as keeping you fit, exercise can strengthen the breathing muscles in the chest and help your lungs work better.

Some sports are less likely to cause problems, though. These recommended activities include:

• walking
• jogging
• hiking
• golf
• baseball
• football
• gymnastics
• shorter track and field events

You can probably still do even the most challenging sports if you truly enjoy them. It just takes careful management, homeopathic treatment for asthma, and proper training.

Quick tips to keep in mind

• Warm up carefully before any exercise to prevent chest tightening
• Breathe through your nose during exercise
• Take brief rests during exercise
• Avoid exercising outside during really cold weather; if you have to; wear a scarf around your nose and mouth or a ski mask
• If pollen or pollution triggers your asthma, exercise indoors on days when the air quality is bad or the pollen count is high
• Don't exercise when you have a cold or the flu.