Athletic Training Blog Series
Is It Exercise Induced Asthma or Paradoxical Vocal Cord Dysfunction?
Mr. Erickson and I received an email back in December (man does that feel like a million years ago) from a parent of an athlete from a different town about this very topic, so now seems like a great time to explain the differences of these two syndromes.
Exercise Induced Asthma is a narrowing of the airways in the lungs caused by strenuous exercise. It causes shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing and other symptoms during or after exercise. The prefered term is Exercise Induced Bronchoconstriction as it differs from the root causes of Asthma. Many athletes are still able to participate in their chosen activity while taking preventative measures, and alleviating symptoms with common asthma medications such as Albuterol or Pro Air.
Paradoxical Vocal Cord Dysfunction (PVCD) is the abnormal closing of the vocal cords when you breathe out. It also can be triggered by strenuous exercise, allergies, environmental irritants and upper respiratory infections. The symptoms are identical to asthma. However with PVCD asthma medications do not work to alleviate the symptoms. So how can they diagnose the difference? There are a few differences that you and your MD should take note of:
- Harder to breathe out when symptoms flare
- Asthma medications don’t work
- Typical Asthma/Breathing tests are normal, or only show minimal changes
- Tightness tends to be in the throat versus the chest in asthmatics
Now that you have the diagnosis-how should you treat PVCD? Exercises focusing on the breathing technique are the way to go. Each athlete has to learn to be self aware of his/her breathing. Then re-training to use diaphragmatic breathing during exercise. Visualization also helps. Focusing on keeping the throat/airway as wide as he/she can during rapid breathing. All exercises start in a supine (lying down) position and progress to sitting, then standing, walking, then finally running. It is a re-training of the neuromuscular system, and how the systems react to exercise.
If you think this describes your experience with asthma-please let me know, there are several local people who specialize in this. I have also included below a link to one such person that was included in that email from way back when, and more informational links as well.
Stay Healthy.
