A chronic lung disease affects athletes. At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games they have taken this into account and there is assistance for them.
Los Olympic Games highlight the most impressive athletic achievements of the world, literally. In the case of the participants in Paris 2024it is likely that most suffer in some way from the same chronic illness.
Between 15% and 20% of Olympic athletes suffer from asthmaaccording to a study published in 2023 in the revista Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports to which ‘Euronews’ has had access.
The same study states that up to 80% of endurance sports athletes see affected by exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), also known as exercise-induced asthma.
Asthma It is a chronic lung disease which causes inflammation and narrowing of the small airways. Symptoms includen difficulty breathing, coughing, wheezing, and tightness in the chest which can trigger a life-threatening asthma attack when extreme.
In 2019, there were 455,000 deaths related to this condition throughout the world, according to World Health Organization (OMS).
Inhalers are prescribed as treatment in two ways: preventive inhalers (brown in color), used daily; and relief inhalers (blue), to control symptoms when necessary.
Although it is usually diagnosed in early childhood, Asthma can also develop in adulthood. Genetics, allergies, pollution and lung infections are all listed as possible causes. British National Health Service (NHS). Even so, there is a lack of scientific evidence to confirm this with certainty.
Why do so many Olympic athletes suffer from asthma?
High resistance exercise triggers symptoms in nine out of ten people with asthmaaccording to a non-profit organization dedicated to this pathology.
“If you are an elite athlete, you are twice as likely to suffer from a condition related to asthma than if you were just a member of the general population,” John Dickinson, professor of Sports and Exercise Sciences from the University of Kent.
Exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB), or exercise-induced asthma, refers to a variety of asthma that is triggered by extreme physical activitiesespecially in cold and dry conditions.
“When you exercise, ventilation rates increase, so you breathe more air. And much of this air enters through the mouth. When it reaches the lungs, it’s pretty dryit hasn’t been filtered and it hasn’t been heated,” explains Dickinson.
“The airways of athletes who suffer from exercise-induced asthma They become dehydrated because they have to humidify the air they have just breathed. This causes a kind of inflammatory answer. “And then you get this muscle constriction around the airways.”
It is more likely to affect endurance athletes who practice in cold air, such as cross country skiersprofessional cyclists and track runners.
According to a study published in the journal Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunologyswimmers are those who more asthma suffer compared to other water sports.
- This is believed to be due to the byproducts ofl chlorine on the pool surfacewhat They can irritate the lungs.
“One of the problems that swimmers have is the substance that is created when Chlorine cleans the pool and remains in the form of gas trichloramine just above the surface of the water,” explains Dickinson.
ADVERTISING“If recreational swimmers breathed it for an hour, three or four times a week, there would be no problem, but these elite swimmers They breathe it five hours a day, six days a week, they make your airways are more sensitive and are more likely to have asthma.
How is exercise-induced asthma treated at the Olympic Games?
Olympic participants diagnosed with asthma can use inhalers during the Gamesbut they must be careful with the type of inhaler they use and the dose.
Those containing glucocorticoids are fine, but inhaled beta-2 agonists that relax the airway muscles are mostly banned outside of specific doses by the World Anti-Doping Agency (OR).
“Most of the banned drugs are those that relax the muscle surrounding the airways, called beta-2 agonists, and we won’t give them to an asthmatic unless they are severely asthmatic,” Dickinson explains.
ADVERTISING“Inhaled doses of beta-2 agonists are allowed, but only up to certain amounts. So, for example, the blue inhalers that you see people using, lAthletes can only take six inhalations of that inhaler in an eight-hour period.
The key is prevention
“One of the preventive inhalers is called cinhaled orticosteroid. Although it has steroid in the name, It is an inhaled corticosteroidso it doesn’t act on the whole body, but only on the lungs, so athletes have no restrictions on how much they can take,” adds Dickinson.
The British long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe, whom diagnosed with exercise-induced bronchospasm When he was a teenager, he held eThe women’s world marathon record for 16 yearswhile the American athlete Jackie Joyner-Kersee, who suffered from asthma, won six Olympic medals (three of them gold) throughout his career.
