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An Athlete With Asthma

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Preventive...Exercise?

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Introduction

Woe is Me

Becoming an Athlete

Blue in the Face

Return to the Deep

All that Asthma and Nowhere to Go

Bring On the Cold

The Great Outdoors

It isn't a Mystery

Asthma Out of the Blue?

     
 

Return to the Deep
by Caroline Hellman

Caroline HellmanWell, dear readers, I wrote last time about how my asthma became worse once I stopped swimming in college. I do feel that there's a direct connection between swimming and the state of asthma, at least for me.

I don't know if it has to do with breath control and healthy lung workouts resulting from the anaerobic sets in which swimmers breathe only a couple of times per lap, or whether the correlation has more to do with being in better general shape as a result of consistent exercise. But either way, it helps a lot.

And so last month, when I felt my asthma becoming much worse--I knew not why--I decided to bite the bullet and begin swimming again. I started swimming with a local women's college team, and it was just what the doctor ordered.

After two practices, amazingly, my asthma seemed to be more under control. I wasn't wheezing as much, and I was getting in exercise without making my lungs burn and chest hurt. Granted, these things can be signs of a good workout, but to the asthmatic, they have different implications. In the meantime, I've started running again, and the cold weather is not killing me any longer.

In a bizarre way my body craved the chlorine. It had just gone too many years without the special scent, eau de chlorine, that was its trademark from 1991-1999. You, too, can wear this scent, and I encourage you to do so!