Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, March 5, 1990 TAG: 9003032514
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JANE E. BRODY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The turnabout has been fostered in recent years by a number of world-class athletes who have asthma. Among them are Jackie Joyner-Kersee, the Olympic gold medalist who is widely regarded as the top woman in track and field in the world; Bill Koch, America's top cross-country ski racer; Karin Smith, a four-time Olympian in the javelin throw; Danny Manning, the 1987-88 NCAA College Basketball Player of the Year; and Nancy Hogshead, the swimmer who won three gold medals and one silver medal in the 1984 Olympics.
Researchers now realize that exercise can be even more helpful to people with asthma than to those without any respiratory problem. Regular aerobic exercise _ the kind that raises the heart rate and can be done continuously _ makes the body more efficient in its use of oxygen, enabling it to get by with less.
As a result of aerobic conditioning, lung capacity increases, the heart can pump more oxygen-containing blood with less effort, and the muscles need less oxygen to do the same amount of work.
In her new book, "Asthma and Exercise," Hogshead tells her story of triumph despite asthma. The book, written with sports writer Gerald S. Couzens (Henry Holt & Co., $19.95), also tells of other champion athletes, all of whom insist that physical fitness has improved their lives as well as their health.
Athletes with asthma and medical specialists alike have praised the book as helpful in dispelling the myth that people with asthma cannot exercise. Hogshead and Couzens present straightforward information about the disease, how it can be managed effectively and how people with asthma, both mild and severe, can exercise safely.
For years, Hogshead experienced mysterious breathlessness, frightening coughing fits and occasional blackouts after races and intense workouts. Then a treadmill test revealed that she had exercise-induced bronchospasm, a form of asthma that is triggered by physical exertion.
In episodes of asthma, the breathing passages to the lungs go into spasm, narrowing so that adequate air cannot get in or out.
The American Academy of Allergy and Immunology estimates that 12 to 15 percent of the population shares her problem of exercise-induced asthma, including 40 percent of those with hay-fever-type allergies and 85 percent of those with allergic asthma.
As in Hogshead's case, the symptoms of exercise-induced asthma often go unrecognized, particularly if the person has no asthma symptoms at other times. The symptoms can range from mild to severe wheezing and coughing, shallow breathing, chest pain and even loss of consciousness.
The severity of symptoms varies with the person, the temperature and amount of moisture in the air, the presence of other allergic triggers and irritants (such as air pollutants, dust or viral infection) and the type, intensity and duration of exercise.
The symptoms of exercise-induced asthma rarely appear unless high-intensity activity is continuously maintained for five minutes or longer, the allergy academy said. The symptoms may occur during or immediately after exercise. The most common trigger is rapid breathing of cold, dry air.
Most people with other forms of asthma are affected by exercise. However, preventive use of medications that keep the airways open and a gradual increase in the intensity and duration of exercise can enable most people with asthma to participate in demanding physical activities. Dr. Francois Haas, a pulmonary physiologist at New York University Hospital, has shown in preliminary studies that exercise can improve lung function in people with asthma.
At the start of an exercise program, the sedentary people with asthma whom he tested experienced a 30 percent drop in lung capacity after exercise. But after three months of regular workouts, lung capacity fell only 10 percent after exercise.
For a person who was once incapacitated by asthma, especially those who feared that every little exertion would trigger an asthma episode, exercise can be a great confidence-builder.
by CNB