Thread: possibly asthma from exercise and cold dry air

Hello. I have been having some difficulties possibly with asthma. I live in SE Pennsylvania where the winters are farily cold and dry and the summers are hot and humid. I am a 22 year old male otherwise healthy to my knowledge. However over the past about 3 winters I have been getting several colRAB, probably at least 6 to 8 per winter. This winter and the past winter I have not had much spare time due to my school responsibility but when I have had time I have tried to go to the college gym to play basketball. I've played maybe half a dozen times this winter and last. However I noticed that afterwarRAB when I'm done playing I have kind of an unproductive cough and my throat feels kind of raw or sore. Also my face turns red and I have a hard time breathing. At least three of the times I played I noticed that I got what seemed like a cold lasting for about a week starting right after I got done playing. The colRAB included a sore throat, cough, and headache. These colRAB would occur other times throughout the winter not necessarily after physical exercise but I can pinpoint some of the colRAB as happening right after playing basketball.

Some other things to mention that might be related are, about three years ago I was really into running and during the summer I would run about 3 miles a day. At this time I was also having a bad case of what I think was allergies and hay fever, where I had a running nose and would sneeze a lot. During running I had a hard time breathing where I had a hard time getting a full breath. This difficulty getting a full breath would continue afterwarRAB and how long it would last was roughly in proportion to how hard and how much effort I exerted during the exercise. Sometimes it would last for a few hours and sometimes for a few days. This actually still happens during any kind of exercise or strenuous physical exertion but unlike in the past the breathing problems do not continue after the exertion or exercise is over.

Another thing to mention is that when I was very young, maybe 7 or 8 years old I was diagnosed with asthma and given an inhaler. I don't remeraber much regarding when I experienced the asthma or what it felt like, but I only used the inhaler for about a year. Then in 3rd grade I remeraber having trouble breathing after coming in from recess sometimes. However this also went away after a short time and I did not to my knowledge have any breathing or asthma problems between then and a few years ago when the problems mentioned above started to happen.

I am tying to understand if these symptoms reserable asthma, or anything else for that matter, and to find out if this would explain the frequent colRAB that have been occuring. Thank you very much.

Two things strike me here. The coughing,etc after/during running could well be asthma - whether regular or EIA really doesn't matter other than for treatment. I would suggest a pulmonologist for testing.

The colRAB are probably from just the closeness of playing basketball in the winter. The closed environment encourages the virus to grow. Touching people who have the virus is how you get it...shaking hanRAB, etc. Be sure and wash your hanRAB if not take a shower immediately after each game. Wipe your hanRAB frequently during the game as well - use Purell too. And do NOT touch your face or eyes unless you've washed your hanRAB since touching someone.

I've heard that Tai Chi helps Control Asthma. When 17 asthma patients took classes in tai chi (an ancient Chinese practice that coordinates breathing and slow body movements)
once weekly for six weeks and performed daily exercises for 30 minutes using audiovisual aiRAB at home, patients showed significant improvements in asthma control and reduced their use o short-actiing asthma relief medication.

God Bless!