Asthma is a chronic illness that occurs when the airways inflame and narrow. This makes breathing difficult and causes wheezing (a whistling sound when breathing), tightness in the chest, coughing and shortness of breath. But maybe some of you know that swimming has been proven beneficial to asthma patients. Here’s why.
Swimming is a healthy form of aerobic exercise for asthmatic people. This is because water-based exercises have reduced or zero levels of allergy-triggering substances commonly found in land-based exercises. Some research also states that swimming regularly would eventually help the lung functionality in people with asthma.
A "Scientific World Journal" study in July 2007 tested the result of swimming indoors and asthma education program in 65 adults with mild, persistent asthma under inhaled medication. Six months later, results show that those who joined the program had improved lung function and lessened airway reactivity compared to those who did not join. Although more research is needed to determine the specific effects of swimming on adults with asthma since there was a time constraint in that said study.
Swimming should be regularly done by people with asthma for the improvement of their cardiovascular fitness. An article of "Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews" in April 2013 says researched the effect of swim training on asthma patients younger than 19 years old. The authors figured that swimming improves lung function and fitness of heart and lungs. It didn’t show that swimming had negative effects on asthma control and flare-ups.
