English Transcript
Allergist Payel Gupta, MD: Exercise is very important for patients with asthma, because exercise can help your body improve its oxygen-carrying capacity. So it helps increase your lung capacity, and I want to provide a couple of helpful tips for patients.
People with asthma that want to exercise, and, that is number one, you want to start off with a warm-up period. So that’s important for everyone, but especially important for patients with asthma. You want to warm up your lungs and give them time to get ready for your strenuous activity.
Number two, if you’re exercising outdoors and your asthma is sensitive to cold, then you might want to cover your mouth with a mask or with a light scarf so that the cold air doesn’t rush into your airways and cause your asthma to exacerbate.
Number three, if you have allergic asthma, then you want to watch the pollen counts and you might not want to exercise outdoors when the pollen count is high.
And then lastly, anyone with asthma should make sure that they have their rescue medication on hand when they’re working out, just in case you do have a moment where your asthma is acting up and you need something to help you breathe.
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