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If you have exercise-induced asthma, physical exertion may be the only thing that triggers your symptoms. Or exercise may just be one of several things that trigger an asthma attack. The good news is that exercise-induced asthma doesn’t have to limit your athletic goals — whether your aim is a weekly jog or elite competition. Proper treatment can help you keep symptoms under control — and help you exercise as much as you want.

Typically, signs and symptoms of exercise-induced asthma start after five to 15 minutes of exercise. In some cases, signs and symptoms of exercise-induced asthma start after your workout is over.

From the Lung Association at lung.ca:

How to exercise with asthma:

1. Keep your blue rescue inhaler on you (in a pocket, a fanny pack, etc) at all times.

2. Check that your asthma is under control. If it’s not under control, exercise could be dangerous.

3. Take your medications as directed. If you’re having trouble breathing, you should take your rescue medicine (blue inhaler, for example, Ventolin). Your doctor may also ask you to take your blue rescue inhaler or another bronchodilator fifteen minutes before you exercise.

4. Warm up and cool down properly

* Before exercising, warm up slowly by walking, stretching, and doing other low-level activities.
* After you’ve finished exercising, cool down slowly for at least 10 minutes. Don’t stop exercising all of a sudden. If you’ve been running, taper the run to a walking pace. If you’ve been swimming, finish your swim with a slow paddle. Give your body time to adjust.

5. Protect yourself from other asthma triggers while you’re exercising (cold air, smog, pollen, etc.)

* Pay attention to the air quality and temperature in the place you’re planning to exercise. Use your good judgement. You may have to move your exercise to a place with better air quality.
* If you are planning a run outside on a hot, humid, smoggy day, your asthma is likely to be made worse by the air and by exercise. Try running indoors, in an air-conditioned gym, instead.
* If you are running on a grass field but are allergic to grass, your asthma may get worse,. Try running in the woods or on a paved trail.
* If cold air is a trigger and you are cross-country skiing in 25 degrees below zero, your asthma may get worse. Try breathing through your nose or through a scarf, to warm the air up before it gets to your lungs. If your asthma symptoms are bad, wait until the temperature warms up before cross-country skiing.

6. If you have symptoms, stop exercising and take your blue rescue inhaler

* Sit up. Wait a few minutes to see if your symptoms improve.
* If your symptoms improve a lot, warm up again and slowly go back to exercising.
* If your symptoms don’t improve, take another dose of your blue rescue inhaler. Wait a few minutes to see if your symptoms improve.

7. If your symptoms still don’t improve, follow these instructions:

Emergency Sign What to do in an asthma attack

* STOP any activity
* Take your blue rescue inhaler
* Sit up
* If the medicine is not working, call 911
* If symptoms are not getting better, keep taking your blue rescue inhaler until the ambulance arrives

Albuterol (Ventolin or Proventil) works almost instantly to relax the smooth muscles surrounding the airways. It quickly opens the airways and reduces symptoms.

Unfortunately, its success is its greatest danger. All too often, children with wheezing will use a Proventil inhaler alone to treat the symptoms. Each time they use a puff of the inhaler they feel better, but all the while the airway lining is swelling and filling with mucus and fluid. Finally the symptoms come back, but the Proventil inhaler is no longer effective since the airway muscles are already as relaxed as they can get. At that point it is too late to relieve the swelling and inflammation and the child suffocates.

GENERIC NAME: albuterol
BRAND NAMES: Ventolin, Proventil, AccuNeb, Vospire, ProAir

Albuterol dilates bronchial airways by relaxing the muscles that surround the airways. Albuterol also can be helpful in patients with emphysema and chronic bronchitis when symptoms are partially related to spasm of the airways’ muscles. The FDA approved albuterol in May 1982.

I found several different asthma networks, support groups for those with asthma.

Allergy and Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics – http://www.aanma.org/ – tons of great articles.

Merck Childhood Asthma Network (MCAN) – http://www.mcanonline.org/ – a non profit organization established to address the complex and growing problem of pediatric asthma. The mission of the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. is to support and advance evidence-based programs that improve the quality of life for children with asthma and their families and to reduce through dissemination of effective interventions the burden of the disease on them and society. – tons of news and medical updates.

Asthma Network – http://asthmanetwork.org/ – sponsored by the World Asthma Foundation and the Breathe Well Live Well Initiative – lists of top asthma treatment centers – clinics.

In a study of children with a family history of asthma, asthma onset by 3 years of age was found previously to be positively associated with variables from the first year of life, including elevated total immunoglobulin E (IgE), frequent respiratory infections, and parenting difficulties. We followed this cohort of genetically at-risk children to investigate the relationship between factors assessed in infancy and asthma, allergy, and psychological status at school age.

This study of the natural history of childhood asthma focused on the development of asthma into the school-age years in a genetically at-risk group of children. The relationships between biological and psychosocial variables in the first year and school-age asthma support the formulation of asthma as beginning early in life, with the developing immune system interacting with environmental influences. The data provide support for the possible contribution of psychosocial factors to asthma onset and persistence into childhood.