Hiking 30 minutes per day cures Asthma

[Fredt4]

Interesting article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151007140619.htm

Just 30 minutes a day: Regular exercise relieves asthma symptoms
Those who undertake physical activity year round breathe easier
easier Date: October 7, 2015

My take: Get your asthma suffering bodies out of the doctor's offices out onto the trail. Way too many are looking for a pill or whatever to cure them, when the cure is simply exercise.

[Traveler]

Interestingly, medication is needed via inhaler prior and following exercise to avoid an asthma attack.

But, it does seem to help with the symptoms of asthma, it is not a cure as you suggest.

[Water Rat]

This is no "cure." Yes, exercise can absolutely help with lung function, but it will not "cure" asthma. First, there are different types of asthma - activity induced, chemical induced/occupational, cold induced (as in temperatures) and allergy induced are just a few of the types. All have different triggers. All suck big time. Like with many things, there is no one size fits all answer.

I hate taking medications and try and use my inhalers as little as absolutely necessary because once the body gets used to them, it relies on the medications to perform the functions it is supposed to do on its own. That means that over time, your body will adjust to the medication and you will have to increase the dosage provided. No thanks. I plan on avoiding that as long as possible.

There is a time and a place for the medications, though. I have to use mine when I have respiratory ailments, when my allergies are at their worst, change of season to colder weather, in higher elevations, etc. I choose to use my medications as little as possible and let my body do the work when it can. I believe that was the original intention of the medication in the first place.

I have by no means cured myself - I have simply taken the time to understand what my asthma triggers are and I then I manage my asthma as needed. In addition, I am always out wandering around and hiking and I am not a couch potato. But, there are times when medication is (in my case) needed and I use it in a responsible manner.

If I do have an acute asthma attack it is no fun to have to use the epi pen. Have had to do that two times in my life, when proper medication (administered at the proper time) did nothing to slow down the acute attack. That sucked, but that is just life with my lungs. I have never smoked, always been active, and I take care of myself. Some of us are just born with crappy lungs.

However, I do agree that way too many look to a pill/inhaler/quick and simple "fix" for whatever trendy ailment they happen to have. For those people, the excise could be far more beneficial to them in getting them to think a bit more clear about what they are doing to their bodies.

[Odd Man Out]

My graduate research thesis adviser died of an asthma attack while camping, so be careful.

[burger]

Interesting article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151007140619.htm

Just 30 minutes a day: Regular exercise relieves asthma symptoms
Those who undertake physical activity year round breathe easier
easier Date: October 7, 2015

My take: Get your asthma suffering bodies out of the doctor's offices out onto the trail. Way too many are looking for a pill or whatever to cure them, when the cure is simply exercise.

Did you read the study? I did, and it does not say what you said.

First, this wasn't an experiment--it was observational. So there is no way to know if asthma exercise actually controls asthma. It could easily (really easily) be the opposite: people who have their asthma under control might exercise more. That makes a lot of sense to me.

Also, there wasn't a clear linear relationsihp between exercise and asthma. The people who exercised the most had the fewest problems, and the people who did zero exercise had the most, but in between it was something of a mess. So it's not obvious that more exercise = less asthma except at the extremes.

And lastly, once they controlled for other factors like age, sex, and smoking, there was no relationship between asthma and exercise level.

Basically, what happened here is that Science Daily did a bad job of reporting on the study. And since most people aren't trained enough to go back and read the original source material, they take the word of the journalist (don't take offense at this if you're not a scientist--I'm not trained to do your job either). I used to get mad when I saw this kind of bad analysis of a scientific paper in the media, but it happens so often that it's hard to get upset anymore.

[TJ aka Teej]

Relieves symptoms, doesn't "cure".

[Tipi Walter]

I don't know about this info. I live in the TN valley and near the Smokies which has the worst air pollution for a national park in the country. They say the TN valley air is as bad as Los Angeles. Inhale deeply my friends. Especially those of us climbing nutbuster hills with heavy loads---go outside and suck it all in.

Asthma may be the least of our problems---I'm thinking more like lung and bladder cancers etc.

[Snowleopard]

Exercise and hiking are good for your health, but will not improve asthma much if at all. Some people with asthma have exercise induced asthma and need to take meds to be able to exercise.

Uncontrolled asthma can be life threatening. It's rare that people taking inhaled corticosteroids die of asthma. If you have any degree of asthma you should consult a respiratory physician and take your meds. Avoiding your triggers is very important, but keep in mind that you can't always have control over what you're exposed to.

My asthma is mainly triggered by chemicals, including ozone air pollution and tobacco smoke. TipiWalter is correct that the Smokies have high air pollution, usually higher than the AT in the northeast. If I hike the southern AT, I'd probably have to hike it in winter/early spring when ozone levels are lower. I'd have to avoid shelters when smokers are there.

Here's a pdf of the full article; I've only read the abstract so far:
http://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/2/1/e000083.full.pdf+html

[Fredt4]

This study is consistently with my view on life. Get outside and exercise. Too many people protect their children but are simply making matters worse. Obese people go to a doctor when they should be hiking. Doctors probably will never cure you and rarely seem to adequately manage the situation. Couple of doctor's had a practice treating asthma patients. Patients would end up in the E.R. One doctor would give the patient medication and lecturer to patients on lifestyle. The other would lecture then give the medication. I asked the E.R doctor which was the better approach. He replied that it didn't matter as without the medication they couldn't listen and once they had the medication they wouldn't listen. Simply put the patients wanted a cure without being willing to change their lifestyle. I've seen the same with obesity patients, back problems, and many other ailments.