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Patients with asthma benefit from regular exercise, but endurance sports such as swimming and cross-country skiing might actually increase risk for asthma development. Some elite endurance athletes have increased airway hyper-reactivity and asthma symptoms that are thought to be caused by high minute ventilation in an environment with airway irritants such as chlorine byproducts or cold air.
Investigators analyzed data on athletes who competed at the 2005, 2007, and 2009 Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA) World Championships and the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. From 2004 until 2010, all athletes who used β-agonists in these contests were required to show proof of asthma with evidence of reversible airway obstruction or airway hyper…