H.or asthma and I play sports. Indeed, there is a myth to dispel: physical activity is not incompatible with this chronic respiratory disease. On the contrary, physical exercise, especially of the aerobic type, is useful to live better with this disease which manifests itself through chronic inflammation of the airways.
In fact, doing motor activity has positive effects on the control of the disease: in other words, it is an ally for manage it better because it has a beneficial effect on the respiratory and cardiovascular system. For this, theAssociation Breathe Together launched the awareness campaign I have asthma and I play sports.
Sport helps those with asthma
«Sport is recommended for all asthma patients both for general well-being and to improve respiratory function. Yet – he says S.imona Barbaglia, president of the Association – not a few asthmatic boys and girls do not practice sports, despite being interested and motivated to do so, with repercussions on their self-esteem. Often they are isolated or isolate themselves in the occasion of planned sporting activities and at times they become “targets” of discrimination, mockery, bullying, they are made fun of for their unfamiliarity with sport. This is why we have decided to promote the campaign I have asthma and I play sports and convey correct information about the disease and its psychophysical benefits of motor activity“.
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Playing sports helps you feel better
The project started in 2020, the week before the lockdown, and now continues to promote it sport as a health ally for everyone, even for those with a respiratory disease such as asthma. As the Global Initiative for Asthma. “In short, let’s try to dismantle what is in effect fake news, because it is not true that those with asthma cannot play sports” Barbaglia comments. She who sends, in particular, a message to readers who have an asthmatic disease: «Take care of yourself. Play sports. Because sport, which is a fundamental ingredient of a healthy lifestyle, is good for your asthma, because it improves breathing, and is good for your life, because it improves the perception of ourselves and psychophysical well-being ».
Asthma under control
Given the onset of so-called exertional asthma – cough, shortness of breath, wheezing… – one might think that physical exertion is contraindicated for those with asthma. Instead asthma it must not be experienced as a limit, but as a condition to keep under control. And the presence of exertional asthma must not lead to the abandonment of sports activity. After all, as you can read on the website ofPius XII Institute of Misurina, a center specialized in the study, treatment and rehabilitation of pediatric respiratory diseases in the mountains, those with asthma can practice most of the sports at both amateur and competitive level, even with success. An example? The skier Giorgio Di Centa.
What precautions
The pulmonologist also reiterates it Annalisa Cogowho directs the Pius XII Institute and suggests some precautions to be taken. «Consult your referring pulmonologist before starting. An essential and indispensable prerequisite for practicing sports is have your asthma under controlso stick to therapy, pharmacological or not, and start gradually“. A adequate heating before the sporting commitment, so as not to trigger a hyperventilation response, and in the days a lot cold and dry, it may be helpful to cover the mouth and nose with a scarf (there are also special masks) in order to heat and humidify the inhaled air.
Sports and asthma, since childhood
“Physical activity is absolutely recommended, and it is advisable to practice it as a child because regular physical activity will allow adults to have better lung volumes” adds Cogo.
There Italian Society of Pediatrics (Sip) points out that more than half of children with bronchial asthma may cough or wheeze during physical activity (so-called exercise asthma). But this does not mean that they must be kept away from sporting activities.
Through an adequate and regular drug therapy and, if necessary, through the use of bronchodilator drugs to be taken a few minutes before physical activity, the asthmatic child is in fact protected from the broncho-constricting action of physical exercise. In other words, from exertional asthma.
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