Asthma Common Among Olympic Athletes

THURSDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) — Asthma and airway
hyper-responsiveness are the most common chronic conditions among Olympic
athletes, affecting about 8 percent of the competitors, according to a new
study.

The Australian researcher suggested the conditions may be linked to the
athletes’ intense training, particularly those who participate in
endurance sports or winter sports. The inhalation of cold air contributes
to airway damage.

Airway hyper-responsiveness involves marked narrowing of the airways in
response to some kind of outside trigger.

“Inhaling polluted or cold air is considered an important factor which
might explain the cause in some sports, but not in all,” explained study
author Kenneth Fitch, of the University of Western Australia, in a
university news release. “The quality of inhaled air could be harmful to
the airways, but does not cause the same effect in all sports.”

Fitch counted the number of athletes with asthma and airway
hyper-responsiveness from the five Olympic games between 2002 and 2010. He
identified the athletes by tracking the use of inhaled beta-2 agonists, an
anti-asthma drug commonly used by top athletes.

In 2001, the International Olympic Committee recognized the increased
use of the drug between 1996 and 2000, and issued a new rule requiring
athletes to provide proof of their condition to safeguard the health of
Olympic athletes, not as an anti-doping measure, according to the news
release.

Fitch noted that athletes with asthma have routinely beaten their
opponents. He added, however, there is no proof that treatments for the
condition improved their performance. He suggested that training harder
than other athletes could help explain why many athletes develop asthma or
airway hyper-responsiveness as adults.

The study was published online in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine
.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute provides more
information on asthma.

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