Chronic airway conditions affect 8 percent of the elite competitors, research shows.
Aug. 2012 (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.
After analyzing the data of five Olympic Games that is from 2002 to 2010, it has been found that 8% of the athletes have been suffering from asthma, a breathing problem.
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 .
(SOURCE: University of Western Australia, news release, July 31, 2012)
Copyright © 2012 HealthDay . All rights reserved.
Asthma Common Among Olympic Athletes
August 5, 2012 by
About Team CelebrationTeam Celebration is a devoted group of women dedicated to sharing information that will better the lives of all women making this space a truly convenient Resource for Women globally. Speak Your Mind: You are invited to leave comments and questions below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You simply type a KEY WORD into our SEARCH BOX at TOP RIGHT of Homepage and a list of associated topic articles offering truly educational and informative features will be at your fingertips.
