Can I Prevent Exercise
With planning and preparation, you may be able to avoid an asthma episode. Before physical activity, you should:
- Allow yourself time to warm up: Before starting any physical activity or exercise, warm up for six to 10 minutes. Warmup routines vary depending on your age, health and sport or activity. Talk to your provider about the right one for you.
- Check pollen and air quality: Before going outside to exercise, check the air quality index. If pollution and pollen levels are high, you may want to stay indoors.
- Cover your mouth and nose: Use a mask, scarf or gaiter to protect your airways from cold, dry air.
- Manage asthma symptoms: If you have asthma, work with your provider to get symptoms under control before you start an exercise program. Follow your providers instructions when using inhalers and taking asthma medications.
- Tell coaches and teachers: If your child has asthma, make sure teachers and coaches are aware. Adults should know what symptoms to watch for, what to do if symptoms appear and how to help with medications.
- Watch for symptoms: Monitor yourself for symptoms of sports-induced asthma. Have a plan in place if you notice signs of an EIB episode. Remember that symptoms can appear minutes after you finish exercising.
Signs Symptoms And Complications
How often signs and symptoms of asthma occur may depend on how severe, or intense, the asthma is and whether you are exposed to allergens. Some people have symptoms every day, while others have symptoms only a few days of the year. For some people, asthma may cause discomfort but does not interfere with daily activities. If you have more severe asthma, however, your asthma may limit what you are able to do.
When asthma is well controlled, a person shows few symptoms. When symptoms worsen, a person can have what is called an asthma attack, or an exacerbation. Over time, uncontrolled asthma can damage the airways in the lungs.
When Should I See My Healthcare Provider About Eib
If you or your child has symptoms of exercise or sports-induced asthma, call your provider. Several conditions have symptoms that are similar to EIB. Its essential to get evaluated.
If you or your child has severe shortness of breath or trouble breathing, seek immediate medical attention. Call 911 or go directly to the emergency room.
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Many people with exercise-induced asthma play sports, enjoy a range of activities and live an active lifestyle. People of all fitness levels, including Olympic athletes and marathon runners, manage asthma and excel at their sports. If you or your child has EIB, be sure to include a warmup routine before exercise. Keep an eye on pollen counts and air quality before you head outside. Talk to your provider about medications that can help you breathe easier. With lifestyle changes and prior planning, you can stay active and exercise safely.
Last reviewed by a Cleveland Clinic medical professional on 03/17/2021.
References
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If You Have Asthma Your Diagnosis Will Include Severity Of Your Condition
If you have asthma, your follow-up treatment and long-term prognosis can vary significantly depending on the severity of your condition, its cause, your overall health, and many other variables.
When it comes to the severity of asthma, doctors usually break asthma down into four categories:
- Mild Intermittent Your asthma symptoms show up less than twice a week, and you wake up on fewer than two nights a month because of your symptoms.
- Mild Persistent You have symptoms two or more days each week, and you wake up three to four nights a month.
- Moderate Persistent You have symptoms every day, and you wake up one or more nights a week.
- Severe Persistent You have symptoms during the day, every day, and you wake up every night due to asthma.
Depending on the severity of your asthma, treatments could range from inhalers to oral or intravenous corticosteroid medication or even surgery.
Its important to note that asthma can either be severe because symptoms are persistent all the time or because symptoms are difficult to control either the individual has problems adhering to treatment and symptoms go mismanaged or because symptoms are so severe that even with medication and other treatments, symptoms are difficult to control.
What If Ive Already Filed A Claim For One Of These Disabilities
- If youre filing a new claim for Asthma, Rhinitis, or Sinusitis, and you qualify for presumptive service connection for any of these conditions, you simply add the condition, and under the What caused this service connected disability section, select my disability was caused by an injury or exposure during my military service.
- If you have a VA claim currently pending for these conditions, the new rules will be automatically applied, and you dont need to do anything else.
- If you have claimed Asthma, Rhinitis, or Sinusitis conditions before, but they were denied, then you must reapply by submitting a VA Supplemental Claim. Youll need to complete the Decision Review Request for a Supplemental Claim .
Also, veterans who served in these areas will continue to qualify for any original presumptive claims specifically associated with the region in which they served.
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Video: What Happens After Being Diagnosed With Asthma
Transcript of ‘What happens after being diagnosed with asthma?’
0:00 It can be really scary to be told you have asthma and it’s natural to worry about how it might affect your life. The
0:08 good news is that there’s lots of support out there to help you manage the condition and to help you to stay well.
0:15 You may wonder if your asthma can be cured. Well, even though we don’t have a cure for asthma at the moment, there’s so much we can do with the right medicines,
0:25 the right treatments, the right advice and support to help you stay well, so that the asthma won’t affect your life,
0:31 whether it be work or your play. You might find that when you’re just diagnosed with asthma it takes a little
0:38 bit of time to get your medicines just right so that you are living without symptoms every day. Be patient, hang on in there.
0:47 The most important thing is to develop a really good relationship with your doctor or nurse. With them you can draw up an asthma action plan, which you can
0:56 download from our website. That’ll really help you to manage your asthma well, and we know that you’re four times less likely to need to go to hospital if
1:04 you’ve got one of these. So, if you have just been diagnosed with asthma, try and stay positive. There’s so much you can do to stay well. You can visit our website,
1:14 or phone one of our friendly asthma nurse specialists, or even join a forum. Remember that we’re here to help.
List Of Burn Pit Exposure Presumptive Conditions
Effective August 5, 2021, 38 CFR 3.320 establishes presumptive service connection for the following chronic respiratory conditions related to burn pit exposure:
According to VA Disability Expert Brian Reese, Asthma is a high-value claim and can be rated at 10%, 30%, 60%, or 100% depending upon the frequency, severity, and duration of symptoms.
Rhinitis and sinusitis are diseases of the nose and sinuses, which can also cause or aggravate obstructive sleep apnea.
Thus, a veteran can file a VA claim for sleep apnea secondary to rhinitis or sinusitis.
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Keep A Record Of Asthma Symptoms
If you or a family member have breathing difficulties, keep a diary of symptoms to discuss with your doctor. You could also make a video or audio recording of the wheezing, using your mobile phone.The diary may include:
- when the symptoms occur such as during the day or worse at night
- how bad the symptoms are and how often they happen
- how long the symptoms remain and whether they change with time
- whether the symptoms are worse after exercise, playing, laughing or after an infection
- whether the symptoms are worse after exposure to animals, pollens or mould.
Southern Cross Medical Library
The purpose of the Southern Cross Medical Library is to provide information of a general nature to help you better understand certain medical conditions. Always seek specific medical advice for treatment appropriate to you. This information is not intended to relate specifically to insurance or healthcare services provided by Southern Cross. For more articles go to the Medical Library index page.
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How To Know If Your Dog Has Asthma
The symptoms of asthma in dogs are similar to those of humans. They can include:
- Difficulty breathing
- Pollution
- Smoke from cigarettes, pipes, cigars, or vaping
If someone in your household smokes, you should ask them to do so outside away from your dog to help prevent an asthma attack.
If your dog spends time at boarding facilities, your veterinarian may recommend they receive a vaccine for kennel cough. Learn more about vaccinations for dogs.
Comorbidities And Risk Factors
Both for adults and children, the detection of potentially modifiable risk factors for exacerbations may be useful in asthma monitoring and includes the exposure to specific allergens, smoking, high SABA use, poor adherence to therapy and incorrect inhaler technique. As already mentioned, GINA guidelines state that a previous sever exacerbation in last 12 months and a history of access into an intensive care or intubation are major independent risk factors for exacerbations .
Moreover, the asthma monitoring cannot be separated from an early identification and management of associated comorbidities .
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Using A Peak Flow Meter
Some healthcare providers like to recommend a peak flow meter to anyone with a new diagnosis of asthma. It can be especially helpful in children. A peak flow meter may help them recognize the signs and symptoms of their asthma getting worse.
What Is a Peak Flow Meter?
A peak flow meter is a portable, inexpensive, hand-held device used to measure how air flows from your lungs in one fast blast. In other words, the meter measures your ability to push air out of your lungs.
Who Should Use a Peak Flow Meter?
Patients age 5 years and older are usually able to use a peak flow meter to help manage their asthma. Not all healthcare providers recommend peak flow meters to help children and adults manage their asthma. Many healthcare providers believe a peak flow meter may be of most help for people with moderate and severe asthma. If your asthma is mild or you do not use daily medication, a peak flow meter may not be useful for your asthma management. A peak flow meter is a helpful tool for school health staff to monitor a childs asthma during the school day.
Why Should I Measure My Flow Rate?
Peak flow meter measurements can help your healthcare provider make decisions about your treatment and adjust your medicines, and the measurements also can alert you when your asthma symptoms are worsening.
Why You Should Pursue Your Claim For Sinusitis Rhinitis Rhinosinusitis Or Asthmaasap
If youve suffered with one or more of these conditions and served in one or more of the established duty locations during the time periods specified, dont delay in taking advantage of this new presumptive service connection.
If you served during one of these periods in the designated theaters, and dont already have a claim or rating related to one of these conditions, we strongly encourage you to pursue this claim!
If you dont already have an official medical diagnosis for your condition, its important to obtain one right away and get your claim filed while youre still in the window to qualify.
As mentioned above, sinusitis, rhinitis and asthma are already high-value claims to support you receiving the highest disability rating you deserve.
Many veterans who have asthma have not previously had a means for service connecting it. Asthma is a high-value claim that caps out at 100%. If youre able to service-connect chronic sinus conditions, this opens up the potential to win a secondary sleep apnea claim.
Rhinitis and sinusitis are also helpful conditions to have service-connected, because sleep apnea secondary to these two is a fairly simple nexus to establish, and getting your rating for sleep apnea secondary to these conditions legitimately increases your total combined disability rating.
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Gaps In Knowledge And Future Directions
Other testing approaches may be part of future algorithms. Measurement of inflammatory markers such as sputum eosinophils or exhaled nitric oxide is already being used in some settings to evaluate asthma control and formulate management decisions. However, although such tests show clinical promise, they have not yet been rigorously investigated for use in the diagnosis of asthma and are currently limited to tertiary care centres and research facilities.
A 10% or more fall in FEV1 from baseline is considered an abnormal response following hyperventilation with dry air, as is a fall of 15% from baseline following challenge with hypertonic aerosols. For adenosine monophosphate, a 20% or greater fall in FEV1 at a concentration of less than 400 mg/mL is considered abnormal. Furthermore, a positive response to bronchial provocation by eucapnic voluntary hyperventilation is considered acceptable confirmation of exercise-induced asthma it is in fact the current standard of the International Olympic Committee, although it is not often used in other settings.
In the future, genetic testing may allow individually targeted diagnostics and therapeutic decisions.,
How To Perform A Pef
Before doing a home lung function test, to measure your PEF, remove any food, gum, and excess saliva from your mouth, as such obstructions could interfere with the efficiency of the test. Also check the peak flow meter for obstructions or foreign objects, then follow these eight simple steps to effectively perform the test.
After blowing into the peak flow meter a total of three times, record your highest value for the day. If instructed, also record the other readings.
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Diagnosis Of Asthma In Children
Its often difficult to diagnose asthma in children under 5, particularly as they find breathing tests difficult.Your doctor will assess your childs symptoms and your explanation of their symptoms, and may give your child asthma medicine to measure its effect this iscalled a treatment trial. Your doctor will monitor the effect this medicine has on your child and will use the results as part of their diagnostic process.
The Test Can Save Money
A spirometry test generally costs less than $100. Not having the test can cost a lot more money. If the test shows that you do not have asthma, this can save you hundreds of dollars a month for asthma medicines. If you do not have the test and you have asthma, an emergency room visit for an asthma attack can cost thousands of dollars.
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Fractional Exhaled Nitric Oxide Test
If after routine testing, including spirometry and bronchodilator responsiveness, an asthma diagnosis isn’t certain, a FeNO test may be performed, according to National Institutes of Health recommendations for asthma management. This test determines the presence of inflammation in the lungs and is performed using a portable device that measures the level of nitric oxide in parts per billion in exhaled air.
How To Use A Peak Flow Meter
When you first get a peak flow meter, ask your GP, asthma nurse, or pharmacist to show you how to use it and how to take a reading.
Take these steps to make sure you use your peak flow meter correctly:
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Breathing Problems During Exercise
If you have chest tightness, cough, wheeze or shortness of breath during exercise, your doctor may perform extra tests to see if you have a type of asthma called, exercise-induced asthma or exercise-induced bronchospasm. For some people, they will only have asthma symptoms during exercise. There are many benefits to exercise, so work with your doctor to find the best management steps and treatment options for you.
Terms Used In This Guideline
This section defines terms that have been used in a particular way for this guideline. For other definitions, see the NICE glossary.
Expiratory polyphonic wheeze
A wheeze is a continuous, whistling sound produced in the airways during breathing. It is caused by narrowing or obstruction in the airways. An expiratory polyphonic wheeze has multiple pitches and tones heard over different areas of the lung when the person breathes out.
ICS doses
ICS doses and their pharmacological strengths vary across different formulations. In general, people with asthma should use the smallest doses of ICS that provide optimal control for their asthma, in order to reduce the risk of side effects.
For adults aged 17 and over:
-
less than or equal to 400 micrograms budesonide or equivalent would be considered a low dose
-
more than 400 micrograms to 800 micrograms budesonide or equivalent would be considered a moderate dose
-
more than 800 micrograms budesonide or equivalent would be considered a high dose.
For children and young people aged 16 and under:
-
less than or equal to 200 micrograms budesonide or equivalent would be considered a paediatric low dose
-
more than 200 micrograms to 400 micrograms budesonide or equivalent would be considered a paediatric moderate dose
-
more than 400 micrograms budesonide or equivalent would be considered a paediatric high dose.
Objective test to diagnose asthma
Risk stratification
Suspected asthma
Uncontrolled asthma
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