Exercise may benefit asthma sufferers after all!

If you are asthmatic, you may want to consider adopting a more active lifestyle, as new research suggests that adult asthma sufferers could see their symptoms relieved somewhat with just 30 minutes of exercise per day.

In the Canadian study – published in BMJ Open Respiratory Research – the researchers assessed the exercise habits of 643 participants diagnosed with asthma.

The researchers discovered that those who had completed optimal recommended levels of physical activity on a regular basis, were actually almost 2.5 times more likely to have good control of their asthma symptoms, in comparison to the participants that had not done any exercise.

The good news is, the physical activity required to significantly reap the benefits doesn’t appear to have to be too strenuous, such as competing in a marathon, and can be something simple such as walking, riding a bike or doing yoga.

Lead author Simon Bacon, a professor in the Department of Exercise Science at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, saw how whilst there was evidence of exercise benefits for asthma patients, the majority of the findings emanated from studies involving children. Therefore, the decision was made to investigate exercise and asthma control within adults.

In the past, those that suffer with asthma have typically been told to severely limit exercise, stemming from the belief it will cause a shortness of breath and asthma attacks. Bacon explains that simple precautionary measures can be taken to avoid the discomforts brought on by physical activity.
However, Professor Bacon says that there are basic precautionary measures asthmatics can take to limit symptoms that can arise as a result of physical activity.

“The issue of exercise-induced bronchospasm is real but if you use your reliever medication, blue puffer, before you exercise, and then take the time to cool down afterwards, you should be okay. Even if you have asthma, there’s no good reason not to get out there and exercise,” he said.

Professor Bacon and his team of researchers found that only 100 of the study’s 643 participants reported doing the optimal 30 minutes of exercise a day. In addition, 245 admitted to doing no exercise whatsoever.

According to Professor Bacon, this statistic does indeed reflect the general population, as 40% of people do not do any exercise at all.

He states that doing some exercise is better than nothing, and more is better than less. “Even the smallest amount of activity is beneficial,” he says. “We are not talking about running marathons here.”

He adds that exercise is vital throughout the year, which includes the winter season, when people tend to ease off with exercise in line with temperature and cold air can cause a flare-up of asthma symptoms.

Professor Bacon appreciates that not everyone can or even wants to exercise outside, and suggests maybe going to the gym, or if not, use the stairs as much as possible. Indeed anyone can be creative and indoor environments, where the cold is not such a major problem. “It would be great to see physicians recommending physical activity to patients with asthma, alongside traditional pharmacological treatments”, he concluded.

Perfumes and aftershaves pose hospital asthma risk say doctors

Think twice before you next go to visit a friend or relative in hospital whilst doused in your favourite smelly, for perfumes and aftershaves could be triggering asthma attacks and allergies within hospitals and should be banned from them, doctors have argued.

An estimated three in ten people claim they are sensitive to the artificial scents worn by those around them, with around 25% of asthmatics saying that their asthma condition was is worsened by being exposed to perfumes and aftershaves.

Researchers also state that more than half of asthma attacks are caused by various irritants such as cigarette smoke, cleaning fluids, perfumes and strong odours.

There are countless other things that can trigger an attack however, which include animal proteins like animal hair, cat saliva and house dust mites, household cleaners pollens (tree and grass pollens are the most common to affect asthma sufferers, changes to weather/temperature and fumes from traffic.

However, writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, doctors Ken Flegel and James Martin have argued the case that perfumed products should be forbidden from inside of hospitals.

In their editorial, they said: “There are many practices that are acceptable outside hospitals – but not inside. One of these is the application of artificial scents to our bodies.

“While artificial scents are designed to make us more attractive, they may result in unintended harm to those who are vulnerable.

“There is emerging evidence that asthma in some cases is primarily aggravated by artificial scents.
“This is particularly concerning in hospitals, where vulnerable patients with asthma or other upper airway or skin sensitivities are concentrated.

“These patients may be involuntarily exposed to artificial scents from staff, other patients and visitors, resulting in worsening of their clinical condition.

“As patients, family members and emergency physicians will attest, the attacks can be quite sudden and serious. There is little justification for continuing to tolerate artificial scents in our hospitals.”

The researchers added that other workers have protection from artificial scents. They said: “The high prevalence of asthma and its adverse effects on health and productivity argue strongly for greater consideration of the air we breathe in our health care centres.

“Hospital environments free from artificial scents should become a uniform policy, promoting the safety of patients, staff and visitors alike.

“As education and promotion programmes have some effect on this practice, these programmes too ought to be part of our accreditation standards.

“Until this happens, individual hospitals must take the lead, particularly in spaces where susceptible patients wait.”

Eating more fibre could ease asthma symptoms

The results from animal studies suggest that asthma treatment may bizzarely come in the form a diet rich in fruit and vegetables.

Tests on mice, as reported in the journal Nature Medicine, has found that a high-fibre diet can impact the balance of microbes in the gut and make airways either more or less susceptible to the inflammation involved in allergic airway conditions such as asthma.

Asthma is a long-term respiratory disorder, where the air passages within the lungs unexpectedly become inflamed, narrowed, and swollen. This then prevents airflow into and out of the lungs. Attacks often occur in response to an allergen, cold air, exercise, or emotional stress. It is these triggers which create an inflammatory cascade in the bronchial tree.

The last three decades have witnessed a surge in rates of allergy-triggered asthma, in particularly in the more developed nations. Many health experts have attributed this to changes in dietary habits, such as a decrease in our fibre intake.

The reported stated: “In recent decades, there has been a well-documented increase in the incidence of allergic asthma in developed countries and coincident with this increase have been changes in diet, including reduced consumption of fibre.”

Therefore, Dr Benjamin Marsland of the University Hospital of Lausanne in Switzerland and colleagues, decided to study the variations in the immune and inflammatory responses of mice when the amount of fibre in their diet changed.

They discovered that those mice on a low-fibre diet experienced more lung inflammation after coming into contact with dust mites. In comparison, mice given food enriched with pectin – found in cell walls of plants – suffered with less allergic airway problems.

It was established that this boost in soluble fibre – most often contained in fruit and vegetables – was converted into short-chain fatty acids. These fatty acids increase resistance to irritation in the immune system.

For those who may struggle to adapt their diet to include more fibre, the researchers say that a fatty acid supplement may be instead taken to ease asthma symptoms.

Dr Marsland, spoke to BBC News, saying: “There’s a very high probability it works in humans, the basic principle of fibre being converted to short-chain fatty acids is known. But we don’t know what amount of fibre would be needed and the concentrations of short-chain fatty acids required might be different. It is early days, but the implications could be far reaching…Moreover, these data can be interpreted within the context of epidemiological studies showing as fibre content in the diet has decreased, the incidence of allergies has increased. Taken together, our findings support the concept intervention strategies targeting diet are a valuable approach for not only intestinal diseases but also respiratory inflammatory diseases.”

It would be foolish though to suggest asthma sufferers should disregard their blue reliever and brown preventer asthma inhalers just yet and merely rely on consuming more fibre. A diet rich in fibre may well be beneficial for asthmatics but it is generally recommended for everybody as it can to help to lower cholesterol, decrease the risk of heart disease and lessen the risk of some types of cancer.

Brits still have a poor perception of asthma

Considering there are a staggering 5.4 million asthmatics in Britain, it could be assumed that the majority of us are pretty clued-up on the serious lung condition asthma. Unfortunately, the results of a new survey suggest this could be far from the truth.

Research conducted by supermarket giant Asda showed that whilst 94% acknowledge asthma as a serious health condition, 1 in four respondents could not recognise key symptoms associated with asthma. In fact, 17% incorrectly believed blocked sinuses are a sign of the lung condition.

An additional 15% of those surveyed simply thought feeling dizzy was asthma-related and 13% bizarrely assumed having itchy eyes was somehow a key symptom of asthma. In reality, the primary common symptoms of asthma are having a shortness of breath, wheezing (accompanied by a whistling sound), chest tightness/pain/pressure, coughing (especially at night or early in the morning).
Sufferers usually find their symptoms to be particularly worse at night time, after exposure to cold air, exercise-induced, or brought-on by a reaction to an allergen – similar to hay fever sufferers.

Other wrong assumptions held by Brits include thinking there is a permanent cure for the lifelong condition; incredibly a third of us believe this to be true. Moreover, 15% merely think that asthma is something that only ‘unfit’ people have.

This is clearly untrue though and many are obviously forgetting the countless famous asthma sufferers who have reached the top of their field, such as the multimillionaire and recently retired footballer David Beckham and cyclist Laura Trott, who won gold at the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games in the Team Pursuit and Omnium events.

However, asthma attacks still cause around 1,140 deaths each year and a substantial number of those could have been avoided with more awareness about the condition and how to efficiently control it. Only 37% of Brits have a decent knowledge about asthma medication or can differentiate between the purpose of blue and brown inhalers.

Unfortunately, this perhaps demonstrate a worrying lack of awareness about the fact a person’s asthma can be better controlled with regular and correct utilisation of brown preventer inhalers such as the commonly used Qvar Beclometasone and Easi-Breathe inhalers. Over time, the brown preventers are effective at reducing the need for blue inhalers – which are taken immediately to relieve asthma symptoms and essential in treating asthma attacks.

Visit the ‘Asthma and Allergies’ area of the Medical Specialists Pharmacy website for a full list of all the preventer and reliever inhalers we provide for suitable patients.

If you have already been prescribed an inhaler, have lost your inhaler, or run out and cannot get a prescription immediately, we are able to supply you an inhaler to help your asthma symptoms. You can undergo a quick and easy confidential online consultation with one of our GMC-registered Doctors and if suitable, they will write you a prescription which is passed to our in-house RPSGB–registered Pharmacists and dispensed to a location of your choice, all within just 24 hours!*

*Allow extra time for overseas deliveries.

Hull man dies from asthma attack triggered by cold weather

A man from Hull has tragically lost his life following a severe asthma attack, thought to have been induced by severe cold weather.

Steven Metcalfe, 38, had been hospitalised on a number of occasions because of his asthma, and recent temperatures in the UK that plunged in minus figures, had only worsened his breathing difficulties.

His father Tony, 58, and also an asthma sufferer, spoke on Wednesday describing how he had immediately flown home from his job on a North Sea oil rig after receiving the devastating news that his son had died at home on April 5.

Mr Metcalfe said: “Asthma can strike you down – people need to take it a lot more seriously. It has knocked us for six. No one expected it.”

Steven was employed as a welder and shared a home with his girlfriend of two years Debbie Brennan, 39, on the Longhill estate, East Hull.

Steven’s father added: “Steven had been in and out of Castle Hill Hospital twice in the past few months. In particular, Steven had been having a lot of trouble with his circulation. The cold usually makes asthma worse. Over the past few weeks especially, he always seemed out of breath,” adding that his son had died in bed as a result of both heart failure and asthma.
“When you have asthma, your heart has to work that much harder,” said Mr Metcalfe, employed with rig company Wood Group along with his other son Lee, 31.

He continued: “Lee and I were on different rigs but a helicopter collected us and flew us back to Aberdeen. We were then flown to Humberside Airport. Unfortunately, Steven had already died.”
Mr Metcalfe says like himself and the majority of other asthma sufferers, Steven had to use two inhalers and always made sure to take his medication.

“The blue inhaler is used in case of an attack and the brown one each morning and night to prevent attacks,” he said.

Dr Samantha Walker, director of research and policy at the charity Asthma UK, said: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the death of Steven Metcalfe and our thoughts are with his friends and family at this difficult time. Asthma can be an extremely serious and potentially fatal condition with more than 1,100 people in the UK dying from asthma each year. We are working hard to develop ways of stopping people getting asthma and helping those who have it to stay fit and healthy. Our dedicated asthma nurses can offer expert advice and support through the Asthma UK Adviceline, on 08001 216244.”

Cold weather however is only one of many triggers and others include:

. Tobacco smoke.  This can irritate the lungs and it is imperative that you stop smoking immediately if you smoke and have asthma, or avoid coming into contact with secondhand smoke.
. Pollen from certain trees, grasses and flowers. Pollen is linked to problems for both asthma and hay fever sufferers. Many health experts believe the two are connected and that asthma suffers also benefit from taking an anti-histamine such as Loratadine on a regular basis, to act as a precaution to allergic and asthmatic reactions.
. Air pollutants such as car exhaust fumes and the already mentioned tobacco smoke can release gases and particles that affect the airways. Evidence actually suggests a higher risk of asthma developing in people living nearby to roads with heavy traffic.
. Many asthmatics are sensitive to the droppings of house dust mites; tiny creatures that inhabit carpets, beddings and soft furnishings.
. Changes in air temperature. For instance, leaving a warm room and going outside into colder air can sometimes trigger an attack.
. Some asthmatics find that exercise triggers an asthma attack and may need to use their reliever inhaler such as Ventolin Evohaler.