General Information

  • Asthma is a chronic lung disease meaning it is always there even when there are no symptoms
  • The risk of developing asthma is increased if a sibling or parent has asthma or allergies and if the person has another allergic disease such as eczema and environmental allergies
  • Asthma can be controlled and most patients lead healthy lives
  • Common triggers for asthma are colds, allergies, exercise and irritants like tobacco smoke
  • Symptoms include cough, wheeze (whistling noise), feeling short of breath, chest tightness and exercise intolerance (not being able to keep up with peers)
  • Asthma symptoms occur when the muscles around the outside of the airways become tight making the airway smaller and when the inside of the airways become swollen and inflamed

Asthma and Exercise

  • Regular exercise is important for everyone including people with asthma
  • Exercise can trigger asthma symptoms in some patients
  • People with asthma can do any exercise or sport but should not scuba dive
  • To prevent asthma symptoms during exercise:
    • Keep your asthma controlled
    • Always warm up and start exercising slowly
    • Using reliever medication 10 minutes before activity may prevent or decrease symptoms
    • Avoid exercising in cold air, cover mouth and nose with scarf or neck warmer if exercising in cold weather
    • Avoid exercising outside when air pollution is bad or pollen counts are high

Asthma Medications

  • Two types of asthma medications include
    • Controller medications to prevent swelling and inflammation inside the airways
    • Reliever medications to relax the muscles around the outside the airway letting more air in
  • Controller must be used every day to work properly and include:
    • Flovent (fluticasone)
    • Pulmicort (budesonide)
    • Qvar (beclomethasone)
    • Alvesco (ciclesonide)
    • Advair (fluticasone & salmeterol)
    • Symbicort (budesonide & formoterol)
    • Zenhale (mometasone & formoterol)
    • Singular (montelukast tablet)
  • Reliever medications are used only as needed to quickly (within 10 minutes) relieve symptoms of coughing, wheeze, shortness of breath and chest tightness and include:
    • Ventolin (salbutamol)
    • Bricanyl (terbutaline) Asthma Control
  • Good asthma control:
    • No symptoms of cough, wheeze, shortness of breath, chest tightness during day or night
    • Normal exercise and sleep
    • No visits to the emergency room for breathing problems
    • No missed activities or school for breathing problems
    • No need for reliever medicine
  • Poor asthma control:
    • Symptoms of cough, wheeze, short of breath, chest tightness during day or night
    • Exercise intolerance (not keeping up with peers) and sleep disturbance
    • Visits to emergency for breathing problems
    • Missed activities or school for breathing problems
    • Need for reliever medicine more than 4 times per week during the day or more than one night per week
  • Exposure to known allergies such as animals and irritants such as secondhand tobacco smoke can trigger asthma attacks and make asthma control difficult