In Germany, around 3.5 million people live with medication-treated asthma. But what is the best way to deal with this in everyday life? For example, should you avoid sports and physical exertion if you have asthma? On the contrary – say experts and studies.
Asthma is a widespread disease in Germany. According to the health atlas, 3.5 million people are dependent on medication.1 Most cases are boys under the age of 14 and women over the age of 70. But being diagnosed with asthma doesn’t mean you have to take it easy and give up physical activity. Instead, experts and studies advise doing sport even if you have asthma, as this can alleviate the symptoms of the disease. However, you should pay attention to a few things.
Causes and Symptoms of Asthma
Asthma is a chronic lung disease that can affect people of all ages. The causes are not yet fully understood, but there are a number of risk factors. For example, allergic diseases such as hay fever or neurodermatitis (both in those affected and in the family) and when people were born with a below-average weight. In addition, boys are affected more often than girls. Also, if the parents smoke, it can favor asthma in the children.2
Also interesting: 3 household items that can trigger and worsen asthma
The most common symptoms of asthma include the following:
- cough and cough irritation
- shortness of breath
- shortness of breath during exertion
- Noises when breathing (whistling, buzzing)
- tightness in the chest
- fatigue and exhaustion
Exercise can help with asthma
But there is also good news for asthmatics. Anyone who does sport regularly can, for example, increase the trigger threshold for asthma during exertion. This means that you can put more strain on your body without getting short of breath. Because the lung capacity increases and you can take in more oxygen. Sport also improves the transport of mucus in the lungs, which among other things reduces the urge to cough.3
The following endurance sports are particularly recommended for asthmatics:
Then endurance sports increases lung volume and improves breathing depth. It is important that you start exercising slowly to give the body and especially the lungs enough time to get used to the exertion. In general, it is better for people with asthma to train at low intensity several times a week than to exercise at high intensity once a week. A good indicator of low intensity is if you can still talk to someone while jogging or cycling, for example.
Also interesting: It is best for allergy sufferers to jog in the morning
Study shows positive impact of exercise on asthma
British scientists have studied the impact of physical activity on asthma sufferers. To do this, they evaluated 25 international studies that contained data from over 1,800 subjects.4 Because asthmatics in particular tend to do little sport. “We found that physical activity promotion interventions had significant benefits in terms of increasing physical activity, reducing sedentary time, improving quality of life and reducing asthma symptoms,” says one of the study authors, from the University of East Anglia.5
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Even weight training is suitable for asthmatics
Another study showed that not only endurance sports have a positive influence on the symptoms of asthma sufferers.6 Because the scientists examined the advantages of various sports, including weight training. It turned out that people with asthma reacted to weight training in the same way as non-asthmatics without having any complications. Provided they trained with light weights and high repetitions 2-3 times a week.
Consult a doctor before exercising
It is important for asthmatics to talk to their doctor before doing sports. This is because he has to decide whether medication needs to be taken before exercising. You should also always have the emergency spray to hand when exercising, in case of unexpected problems. In principle, asthmatics should observe the following points when exercising:
- Warm up for 5 to 10 minutes before exercise
- Slow down or reduce your exertion if you get out of breath
- don’t push yourself to the limit
- stress phases with recovery periods alternate
- cool down slowly following exercising / do not stop abruptly