Allergic to Exercise?

Exercise is good for your health. It helps you lose weight, stay in shape and keeps you away from illness. You've probably heard this many times before. So what's new? According to latest findings, there are many people who have been found to be allergic to exercise. Although hard to believe, allergy to exercise is real, though not very common.

If after exercising, you break out into rashes, hives, have a breathing problem or suffer from a drop in blood pressure, it is quite possible that you are allergic to your workout. For those who are actually plagued with this problem, a trip to the gym may even be life threatening.

Kinds of exercise-related allergies

There are three kinds of exercise-related allergies that are commonly found.

Cholinergic Urticaria: This exercise-related allergy is related more to the body temperature of the individual rather than the exercise. Symptoms surface while exercising or just after a workout when the body temperature increases. Symptoms may include smaller hives (about two to four millimeters in size) visible on the upper body and neck, difficulty in breathing, fever or emotional stress. This kind of allergy generally afflicts the 10 to 30 year olds. The best way to treat this allergy is to avoid its occurrence. Avoiding exercising on warm or humid days, reducing the intensity of the workout, and stopping the exercise immediately can prevent this allergy.

Exercise-induced Anaphylaxis: This allergy is usually related to what you eat before or after the exercise. Exercise-induced anaphylaxis generally affects young adults. The allergic foods may include wheat and other cereals, celery, seafood, nuts, fruit and some vegetables.

Common symptoms include fatigue and a feeling of warmth, followed by itching and redness of skin. Patients may also develop large hives (over 10 to 15 millimeters) and lose consciousness. Other symptoms include swelling of the throat, difficulty in breathing, choking, gastrointestinal problems, nausea and vomiting. What is important to note is that there is a relation between the severity of the symptoms, the amount of food ingested, how vigourously the exercise is done and the time between the food eaten and the exercise. Clearly severe symptoms are usually found in persons who have eaten only a few hours before the exercise.

To prevent this allergy, you need to do your own detective work and eliminate the allergy-causing food. This can help you detect and avoid the foods that are the problem. By keeping the offending agents at bay, you will be able to exercise safely and bid adieu to this kind of allergy.

Exercise-induced asthma: Exercise is just one of the many things that can provoke the narrowing of the air passages in asthma. Climatic conditions such as temperature, humidity and exposure to allergens in the air can in fact aggravate the condition even further. To avoid exercise-induced asthma, you must take care of heat and moisture i.e. have a light warm up or use a mask while exercising to minimize heat and moisture loss. What's more, different kinds of exercising impact the condition differently. For instance, running outdoors will in general be worse than swimming because it constricts the airways. In fact swimming is one of the best forms of exercise for people with asthma because it usually causes the least amount of chest tightness. Running indoors on a treadmill, or cycling on an indoor exercise bike will come somewhere between outdoor running and swimming.

So remember that if you do suffer from any of the above-mentioned allergies, take adequate precautions or you may have to pay a heavy price for staying in shape.