Sweating May Guard Against Exercise-Induced Asthma

Sweating - the body’s naturally occurring cooling mechanism – also provides protection against exercise-induced asthma attacks, a new US study suggests. Conversely, active people who make less sweat, tears and salivadefine when exercising are more prone to breathing problems that trigger asthma attacks.

The study is based on the fact that sweat-prone individuals have higher amount of fluids in their airways, making them moist and mushy. This lowers the chance of dryness and irritation in airways that in turn trigger exercise-induced asthma attacks.

The study featuring in the current issue of the medical journal ‘Chest’ enrolled 56 US Navy and Marine Corps volunteers, age 18 to 32, all with possible exercise-induced asthma.

Using methacholine - a synthetic chemical that stimulates part of the nervous system and causes a narrowing of the airways which causes them to constrict, and pilocarpine – a chemical that induces sweating - the researchers at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego found that participants with the least reactive airways tended to sweat the most.

Similarly, the ones who sweated the least had the most reactive airways, researchers highlighted.

"It now appears that how much fluid your airways secrete could be a key determinant in protecting you from exercise-induced asthma," study author Dr. Warren Lockette noted.

Though the study clearly suggests that drier airways may contribute to the symptoms of asthma, including breathlessness and wheezing, in people susceptible to exercise-induced attacks, more research is required to derive practical patient benefits.

"However, it is far too early to say whether or not this research is important for people with asthma, as currently it has generated nothing more than an interesting hypothesis which has yet to be substantiated," Lockette said.