In a new study, researchers found people who enjoy exercising outside during winter need to be wary of the effects plunging temperatures can have on their lungs.
The research was conducted by a team at the University of Alberta.
The problem with intense cold-weather exercise is that increasingly cold temperatures make it harder for the lungs to warm and humidify the air, which causes the lining of the airway to dry and, in some cases, become irreparably damaged.
The inflammatory response is so large that the lungs never recover back to a healthy baseline.
The idea for the study came from research done in advance of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, in which researchers screened nearly 40 U.S. winter sport Olympians doing exercise time trials compared with the standard lab test and found that many of the athletes were positive for exercise-induced asthma after their exercise time trial but not the lab test.
Previously, the team had shown that athletes who exercised in temperatures below -15 C put their lungs at risk of severe lung constriction and possible damage.
In the study, they asked an array of cold-weather sports athletes to complete the standard lab test (breathing dry air from a gas tank to provoke constriction) compared with a five-kilometer outdoor run when the thermometer hit -15 C.
They found that five out of the 16 participants were positive for exercise-induced bronchoconstriction on the lab test, while seven tested positive on the cold air test.
That number lines up with previous studies showing that between 40% and 50% of all Nordic or winter sports athletes reported some sort of exercise-induced asthma (bronchoconstriction) due to cold-weather exercise.
Lungs also run counter to other parts of the body, like the heart, and responds to stressful situations by getting bigger, stronger and more efficient.
When the lungs are exposed to stressful environments, like the cold, they don’t remodel positively, and lung function gets worse over time—especially during exercise.
And not all lungs are created equal. People with a smaller stature are most vulnerable to cold-weather lung constriction.
The team says for those who are determined to exercise in the cold, it’s a good idea to do an indoor warm-up to help dilate the lungs, which will reduce the effects of cold air.
In addition, covering your mouth a little bit also has a significant effect on reducing the constriction effect due to cold air.
The leader of the study is Michael Kennedy.
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