Exercise Induced Asthma

Of all the different variants of asthma this is the most simple.  For starters there is a clear stimulus to the response of asthma.  We do something (exercise), and the response from your body is to produce a symptom of asthma.

It is a little like wacking your thigh with a mallet.  We can expect our thigh to become bruised and sore.  So how did our thigh get a bruise?  Something we did?  If we accept that it was - it gives us great power.

What is the equivalent in exercise induced asthma?  Let's look at the process.  We begin to exercise, and then soon after we get a wheeze, tightness or cough.  What are the things we did?

Firstly, we did exertion.  We did physical work.  Other people do this and dont get asthma - what else did we do?

Well, we breathed when we did the physical work.  Did we breathe differently to other people who do physical work and dont get asthma?  Maybe.

How can we test this for asthma?

There is a very simple model of asthma - in a nutshell -  if we breathe out more carbon dioxide than we produce- our body will act to stop the continued loss of carbon dioxide.  Without going into the science here - let's just pretend for the sake of it that it might be true.

What if - as soon as we begin to exercise adopt a breathing practice that is more powerful than it needs to be.  We blow out more carbon dioxide than we produce - and our body responds by making us breathe less - by blocking or tightening our airpipes.  If this was true - then all that would be needed to remove the "attack" would be to hold our breaths and "suffocate" a bit - and the "attack" would stop.  Hmmm.

What if - when we stop exercising - we keep breathing as if we were still exercising.  Would we lose more carbon dioxide than we were producing - causing the level in our lungs to drop?  Well yes.  And if our body did not like this - just pretend for now - would it try to reduce this loss of carbon dioxide by closing the airpipes?  Maybe.

What if - you just wanted to test the idea that losing too much carbon dioxide will produce asthma - or even exercise induced asthma - how would you do it?

Well.  The simplest test would be to breathe as if you were exercising while you were sitting quite still.  ie hyperventilate.  You could do this.  Or you could do the breathing test as shown elsewhere on this site - do a measurement pause.  If it is less than about 20 seconds - you are probably quite good at getting exercise induced asthma.

The thing is - it is not so bad?  Take a puff of reliever before you exercise and you will be fine?  Do you really believe that?  Here is a secret.  Once you learn how to exercise without the puffs - your performance will massively improve.  Imagine running until your legs fail - not your breathing.  If you are doing something while or after you exercise - adjust that - dont take a drug to counteract it?

Put on your Sherlock Holmes fedora, and think about it.  You have all the clues.  Something you do predictably produces the symptoms of exercise induced asthma.  Test it.  Try and make yourself get the asthma - by doing something specific with your breathing.  If you can make it appear - you can make it disappear by doing the reverse.

If this is not clear enough for you, try this.  Breathe only through your nose while exercising, and when you stop - breathe so gently that no one can tell you are breathing at all.  Chances are that you will never get it again. 

Regards

James Hooper

Ps subscribe to the newsletter and read the instructions for children.  If you still cant figure it out - buy my asthma book - The Buteyko Manual for Asthma.  It is guaranteed, you cannot lose anything but your asthma.  If a 6 year old can do it - can you?