With the London Marathon taking place next Sunday (22 April 2018), the University's Dr John Dickinson has timely guidance for anyone running who has asthma.
‘We will see competitors line up who have dedicated at least the last three months to training for this day. It’s no fun getting up at 07.00 on a cold and frosty morning to complete a 20-mile run, often in isolation.
‘As well as having to put in the hard yards of training some competitors will also have asthma. Exercise is an extremely important part of asthma control but competitors will have had to ensure they have control of their condition to maintain airway health which will allow them to train and compete optimally.
‘As competitors with asthma enter the final marathon preparation there are several things they are able to do to ensure asthma doesn’t impact on them on race day:
- Use preventative inhaler therapy regularly (daily) as prescribed by doctor. This will ensure the airway inflammation is kept under control and reduce the occurrence and severity of asthma.
- Practice carrying reliever inhaler (usually blue) on training runs and plan to carry inhaler with them during the marathon. Its important runners with asthma don’t use over this inhaler and if they find they are using more than four inhalations to get through a training run they should seek medical advice to better control their asthma.
- Try and avoid training in environments that trigger asthma eg cold dry air, pollution, pollen.
- If it’s unavoidable to train in environments with asthma triggers take steps to minimise exposure. Some of the research performed at the University of Kent and funded by Asthma UK suggests face masks that are able to warm and humidify air reduce the severity of exercise induced asthma.
- If you know you have a reaction to pollen (eg hay fever) make sure you’re taking the right medicines to treat your hay fever alongside your usual asthma medicines.
- Make sure you have an up to date written asthma action plan so you know what to do if your asthma symptoms come on.
At the University of Kent we are current recruiting for several research projects to investigate non-pharmacological therapy, such as alterations in diet that may impact on asthma linked to exercise.’
Anyone who exercises regularly with asthma who may be interested in taking part as a participant in these studies should contact Dr John Dickinson (J.W.Dickinson@kent.ac.uk) for more information.
Dr John Dickinson is head of the respiratory clinic at the University of Kent and lecturer in the School of Sports and Exercise Sciences. He carries out breathing assessments at Medway Park Sports Centre. He has tested Olympians and elite athletes from almost every sport, including GB cyclists and members of Team Sky.