Archive for October, 2009

Exercise Induced Asthma Causes Asthma Symptoms During Aerobics Exercise

Exercise induced asthma is breathing difficulty triggered by aerobic exercise. An indication that you may suffer exercise induced asthma is if during or after exercise you cough, wheeze or feel out of breath.

Physical exertion can provoke asthma type symptoms that last for several minutes. Other activators of asthma are allergies, pet dander or respiratory infections.

Exercise induced asthma is caused by inflammation of your bronchial tubes. Its symptoms resemble those of allergic asthma, including:

  • fatigue
  • dyspnea
  • coughing
  • wheezing
  • chest tightness

Your asthma symptoms may occur 10-15 minutes into your aerobic exercise or after you’ve finished. For some, their asthmatic onset may not happen for hours afterwards.

The benefits of exercise are too important to forgo a regular fitness program. What’s necessary is to chose an activity that is less likely to provoke symptoms.

Exercise induced asthma is typically more prevalent while engaged in cold-weather aerobic activities, like:

  • skiing
  • ice hockey
  • ice skating
  • cross-country skiing

It’s best not to participate in any other sport that involves continuous vigorous outdoor aerobics exertion as well, such as running or bicycling.

Swimming is one of the recommended aerobic exercises if you have exercise induced asthma. Also, participating in fitness regimes that are made up of short aerobic exertion periods intermingled with rest works well too, like tennis, golf and baseball.

Factors that can contribute or worsen exercise-induced asthma symptoms consist of:

  • GERD
  • dry air
  • obesity
  • air pollution
  • high pollen count
  • cold temperatures
  • poor physical shape
  • respiratory infections ~ common cold, bronchitis
  • chemicals ~ chlorine, paint, fertilizers, herbicides

Those with asthma are more likely to suffer exercise induced asthma. And exercise induced hives and anaphylaxis are completely unrelated conditions.

Air Pollution Impact on Lungs During Exercise

Under normal “sitting around” conditions, you’ll draw in at least a couple gallons of air per minute. During aerobic exercise, this amount increases dramatically. At least ten times, but likely more.

Not only does the volume of air you breath substantially increase, but you’ll breath in deeper and that air won’t pass through your pollutant trapping nose. Larger particles tend to get caught up in the mucous of your nose, mouth and throat. The nose being the most efficient at ensnaring them.

Course your lungs’ mucous and cilia participate in keeping the crap out as well. Yet, less is best when it comes to air pollution’s impact on your lungs.

Exercise is all about oxygen delivery. You get that oxygen from the air. But, sometimes you also get noxious pollutants right along with it. More specifically, unhealthy levels of ozone, carbon monoxide, airborne particles, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide or lead.

When you exercise in polluted air, you’ll draw air in deeper and increase your lungs’ contact with these pollutants. This foreign matter causes inflammation and lung lining cell damage. Not only will your lung function be reduced on the spot, but studies indicate repetitive incidences may lead to cancer, scarring and permanent reduction in lung function.

You can minimize your deep lung exposure to air pollution by checking the level of pollutants in your area. And then don’t engage in deep lung inhaling exercises when it’s unhealthy or above.

Exercise Induced Hives, Exercise Hives, Physical Urticaria

Exercise induced hives, or urticaria for formal, is a physical cause of hives and other allergic reaction symptoms. Not completely understood why, but exercise seems to cause the release of histamines in some individuals.

For many, exercises hives occur after exercise on particularly hot, humid or cold days. And it can lead to exercise-induced anaphylaxis, albeit rarely.

Exercise hives are a form of physical urticaria. Physical urticaria may be caused by sunlight, heat, cold, water, pressure and vibration as well.

Other allergy symptoms that may accompany your exercise hives include:

  • priuritis
  • flushing
  • headache
  • swollen tongue
  • stomach cramps
  • difficulty breathing
  • hand, facial swelling

You should always stop exercising immediately if you experience hives.

Eating certain foods before you exercise may contribute to fitness induced urticaria outbreak. So, you may want to avoid exercising for several hours after you eat.

Certain antihistamines can prevent symptoms sometimes. And avoiding certain exercises may prove to be helpful.

Causes of Exertional Exercise Headaches, Exercise Induced Headaches, After Exercise Headache

Exertional, or exercise, headaches are ones that occur during or shortly after strenuous exercise. And this type of headache usually diminishes once you curtail the arduous activity.

The demanding fitness activities that typically cause exercise induced headaches are running, rowing, tennis, swimming and weightlifting. After exercise headaches typically strike those with a familial history of migraines.

Exercise headaches that aren’t connected to a health condition are considered harmless. The primary symptom for benign exertion headaches tend to be throbbing on both sides of your head. And they’re more likely to happen in hot, humid weather or high altitude exercise settings.

It’s generally believed that the cause of inducing a throbbing head is the muscles of the head and neck need more blood when you exert yourself. This causes the blood vessels to dilate and swell inside your skull resulting in an exertion created headache.

Exercise headaches can also be caused by various health conditions, some of which can be serious. These headaches may provide a clue for such issues as:

  • brain tumor
  • heart disease
  • sinus infection
  • brain hemorrhage
  • cerebrospinal fluid obstruction
  • brain serving blood vessel abnormality

Aside from a lingering headache, secondary exercise headaches may be accompanied by:

  • double vision
  • nausea & vomiting

After exercise headache related symptoms that warrants immediate medical attention are:

  • vision disturbances
  • numbness & tingling
  • progressively worsens
  • weakness on one side
  • episodes begin after age of 50
  • sudden, explosive onset upon exertion

Exertional headaches that are not instigated by some other condition respond well to standard headache treatment. Try taking your chosen medication an hour or two ahead of commencing your fitness regime.

Tenacious after exercise headaches respond well to indomethacin, an anti-inflammatory requiring a prescription, and propranolol, commonly used to treat hypertension, tremors or chest pain.

You should always have your exercise induced headaches evaluated by your doctor to ensure their cause isn’t a vascular or grey matter problem.

Benefits of Exercise for Staying Healthy, Disease Fighting, Weight Loss

Exercise is any physical activity that is repetitively performed for the purpose of conditioning your body, improving your health and maintaining fitness. And the benefits of routinely exercising are enormous.

For starters, exercise delays or prevents disease and helps you maintain a healthy weight. And you’ll live longer and feel better if you stay active. So yeah, regular exercise definitely plays an important role in staying healthy. And here’s a couple reasons why.

Exercise, or physical activity, improves the efficiency of your cardiovascular system. This means oxygen and nutrient delivery, along with waste removal, via your blood, is happening readily.

Therefore, the bad junk doesn’t hang around too long to do harm and the good stuff is on hand to meet organ demands for smooth functioning. Translates to more nutritious energy to fight disease.

Regular exercise has many staying healthy benefits, some of which are:

  • strengthens bones
  • enhances circulation
  • increases endurance
  • lowers blood pressure
  • maintains joint function
  • boosts the use of oxygen
  • builds energy levels so you can do more
  • strengthens your heart & cardiovascular system
  • improves muscle tone, strength, balance & joint flexibility

Exercise not only improves health and builds endurance, but it may also reduce your risk for many conditions associated with aging, or otherwise, such as:

  • stroke
  • obesity
  • diabetes
  • dementia
  • arthralgia
  • weakness
  • heart attack
  • osteoporosis
  • back problems
  • high blood pressure
  • coronary heart disease
  • some cancers ~ prostate, breast, colon, ovarian

Exercise assists the disease fighting white blood cells to move out of the organs and into the bloodstream. This is especially beneficial for fighting a cold, influenza and other infections.

Exercising causes the production of endorphins. This chemical is the one that causes those peaceful and happy feelings. Exercise can help with mild depression, low self-esteem, stress and anxiety. And you’ll likely sleep deeper.

One way exercise aides in weight loss is it builds muscle. Muscle uses more calories than fat, thus it increases your metabolism and you lose weight.

Another weight loss benefit exercise provides is you’ll burn more energy than you would if you remain sedentary. Therefore, if you consume relatively the same number of calories, then the extra energy usage renders you with a loss in weight.

Tend to moving so you’ll never be denied the benefits of exercise!

To achieve some of these staying healthy benefits, you need to get 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week. But don’t go out there and overexert yourself. Especially if you suffer from exercise intolerance.

Always give your body some rest time, lest you want to end up with a muscle strain or stress fracture. Or even low blood counts and an iron deficiency.

Another cautionary tidbit is exercising in unhealthy air quality makes your lungs vulnerable to health damage. Air pollutants can involve ozone, carbon monoxide, fine particles, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide or lead. So know your local air status before you breathe in poisonous air deep into your lungs.

From a global perspective, staying healthy depends on you giving support to your disease fighting immune system via consuming a healthy diet, exercising regularly, snatching sufficient rest and curtailing stress.

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