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#Post#: 38--------------------------------------------------
Best Breathing Exercises for Asthma
DIR By: LightMove
Date: November 2, 2021, 4:14 am
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This article is based on reporting that features expert sources.
For most of us, breathing is an automatic action we don’t often
think about – it just happens without any conscious effort. But
for some people with lung conditions, the simple act of
breathing can be a much more difficult proposition.
If you're one of the estimated 25 million Americans who have
asthma, catching your breath can sometimes be a challenging
endeavor. But in addition to managing your asthma with
medications, your doctor may encourage you to increase how much
you exercise you get and even offer specific breathing exercises
to improve your lung function.
What Is Asthma?
“Asthma is a chronic lung condition that affects the airways,”
says Dr. Sumita Khatri, co-director of the asthma center at the
Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “Asthma stems from inflammation that
causes airways to narrow, producing symptoms such as cough,
tightness in the chest, wheezing and shortness of breath. Asthma
also causes the cells that line the airways to produce more
mucus.” All of these changes in the lungs can add up to
difficulty breathing.
But asthma is actually a very heterogeneous condition, meaning
that it can take many forms. Dr. Brian Modena, an allergist and
assistant professor in the division of allergy and clinical
immunology at National Jewish Health in Denver, says that
“asthma is an umbrella term,” that describes a diverse array of
symptoms and types.
A few of the more common types of asthma include:
Exercise-induced asthma, or sports asthma, in which symptoms are
triggered or exacerbated by physical activity.
Allergic asthma, in which an allergen such as pet dander or
pollen cause or exacerbate symptoms.
Nonallergic asthma, which is triggered by external factors that
are not allergens, such as infections, medications, stress, food
additives and weather.
Occupational asthma, which is caused or worsened by workplace
exposure to triggers, such as chemical fumes or dust.
Best Asthma Exercises
For all types of asthma, even exercise-induced asthma, “exercise
is important overall for good health,” says Dr. Jack Stewart, a
pulmonologist with St. Joseph Hospital in Orange California.
“Exercise improves the efficiency of skeletal muscles and
improves cardiovascular fitness.” These improvements can help
support your body as it tries to clear the lungs of secretions.
Generally speaking, you should always seek to be as active as
possible, but especially when you have a chronic lung condition
such as asthma.
But when it comes time to exercise, which is the best one for
asthma? Most any kind of exercise can support overall health and
wellness. The key is to pick something you enjoy doing that
you’ll be able to keep up long term. Experts suggest that
certain exercises may be better than others for people with
asthma, including:
Swimming.
Running, walking or biking.
Respiratory therapy or pulmonary rehabilitation.
Yoga and breathing exercises.
Breathing retraining.
If you have asthma but want to start exercising more, talk with
your doctor before you get going. Dr. Purvi S. Parikh, an adult
and pediatric allergist and immunologist with NYU Langone
Health, says it’s important to “get on appropriate medication
and get your asthma under control before you try vigorous
exercise.” Stewart adds that “exercise-induced asthma is usually
able to be well controlled by using two puffs of albuterol (a
rescue inhaler) prior to exercise if the underlying asthma is
well controlled.”
Swimming
Stewart says “swimming may be the best exercise for asthma,”
because in addition to the full-body, low-impact cardiovascular
workout that it provides, swimming often occurs inside a warm,
humid pool area. “Breathing warm, moist air is less likely to
trigger asthma,” Stewart says, but notes that if the chemicals
in the pool aren’t properly regulated, that could actually make
symptoms worse. “Very heavily chlorinated pools might trigger
asthma,” because when chlorine comes into contact with organic
compounds, such as sweat or urine, that creates compounds called
chloramines that can irritate the skin, eyes and respiratory
tract, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
In pools that aren’t well maintained or properly ventilated, a
build-up of chloramines can cause breathing problems in
sensitive individuals.
Running, Walking or Biking
In addition, “running, walking and biking are all good options,
but you should avoid doing so on days with bad air quality,”
Stewart says. The Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards,
a division of the Environmental Protection Agency, publishes a
zip-code searchable air quality index online, and this
information is often included in your local weather report. The
air quality index measures how much pollution is in the air. The
more pollutants, such as ozone, carbon monoxide and sulfur
dioxide are in the air, the more difficult it becomes for anyone
to breathe. People with severe asthma are likely to be a lot
more sensitive to fluctuations in air quality levels.
Similarly, breathing in cold air can trigger asthma symptoms in
some people. This is because cold air is drier than warm air,
and that dryness can pull fluid out of your lungs faster,
resulting in coughing. In some people, cold air can also trigger
the body to produce histamine, the same compound the body makes
in response to an allergen. Increased levels of histamine can
lead to wheezing, coughing and other allergy responses. This all
means that activities like cross-country skiing may be a less
ideal option than cycling indoors on a cold day.
Respiratory Therapy and Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Although asthma is sometimes thought of as a children’s disease,
it also affects adults. It’s incurable, and most people with
asthma have symptoms their entire life. The CDC reports that 1
in 12 people have asthma, a total of some 25 million people. The
statistics further show that 7.7% of adults and 8.4% of children
have the disease. If you have asthma but struggle with mobility,
Stewart recommends seeking out a “supervised exercise program
run by a physical therapist or respiratory therapy.” In severe
cases of asthma at any age, a pulmonary rehabilitation program
might be a right approach. Pulmonary rehabilitation is a
combination of education and gentle exercises usually led by a
respiratory therapist and designed to help you breathe easier.
Your doctor can help connect you with a good program.
Yoga and Breathing Exercises
Not all exercise has to be super strenuous to be effective.
Carol Krucoff, a yoga therapist with Duke Integrative Medicine
and co-author of “Relax into Yoga for Seniors: A Six-Week
Program for Strength, Balance, Flexibility, and Pain Relief,”
says yoga can be a great option for people with breathing
difficulties because much of a yoga practice centers on learning
to breathe in a more efficient way. “Everyone alive knows how to
breathe. That’s a given. But the reality is that many people in
Western culture don’t breathe correctly; they don’t breathe
efficiently.”
She’s talking about our tendency to breathe shallowly, out of
the chest, instead of breathing deeply from the belly.
Diaphragmatic or belly breathing uses the diaphragm, which is
the large muscle under the rib cage, to help push more air into
and out of the lungs. In her book, Krucoff writes that
diaphragmatic breathing “can be a powerful way to help people
with lung disease to strengthen and learn to properly use the
diaphragm, which is the main muscle of breathing.” In some
patients with severe asthma, air can get trapped in the lungs.
Focusing on belly breathing and practicing it regularly until it
becomes a habit can help you remove every last bit of spent air
from your lungs.
Another breathing exercise that can help improve how air flows
into and out of your body is a technique called pursed lip
breathing. This type of breathing, in which you position your
lips as though you were trying to blow out candles on a birthday
cake, keeps your airways open longer to help flush out any spent
air caught in the lungs. In addition to yoga, you can also
choose to use a breathing trainer like OPUMP to perform the
above breathing exercises anytime,
anywhere.
HTML https://theopump.com/
Breathing Retraining
Studies have shown that a strategy called breathing retraining
that focuses better breath control can be helpful for many
asthma patients. There are a variety of approaches out there,
and some formal programs, such as the Papworth method or Buteyko
breathing. The basic idea of breathing retraining is to relax
and relearn how to breathe. Breathing retraining may include:
Focusing on breathing through the nose instead of the mouth, as
this gives your body time to warm up the air and add moisture to
it as it passes through the respiratory tract.
Slowing down your rate of breathing by adding pauses and breath
holds as much as possible to prevent hyperventilation and to
allow the lungs to completely empty between breaths.
Relaxing and trying to not feel anxious or tense about
breathing.
Encouraging good posture, which can improve how air flows into
and out of your lungs.
As with other forms of exercise, talk to your doctor before you
embark on any specific training regimen and get some pointers
from a qualified provider for the best ways to apply different
breathing techniques and exercises.
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