Asthma, allergy, the athlete and the Olympics

Abstract

As the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing approach, both the general public and health care professionals are gaining interest in the potential health implications of sport. When asthma and allergy are present in athletes, this may affect their performance and achievements and justify the special attention of health care professionals who specialize in taking care of top athletes. However, the impact of allergy and asthma on sport and exercise goes further than just top athletes. The Editors of Allergy decided that in this issue they would focus the attention of allergy and asthma specialists by presenting a series of articles on the relationship between sport, asthma and allergy in the hope that an increased awareness of these problems would be highlighted not only for sports medicine doctors but also for all practicing allergists. Exercise-induced asthma (EIA) is a general concern for growing children and adolescents. In most international guidelines, one of the main objectives of treating asthma during childhood is for the child to be able to master EIA. Also among athletes, and especially elite athletes, EIA and bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) have become major problems with regard to the correct diagnosis and to treatment. EIA is increasingly common among the top athletes of several different types of sport. Traditionally this has been reported mainly in athletes competing in endurance sports in cold climates, especially among crosscountry skiers (1, 2) and swimmers (3, 4), but also among endurance athletes in summer sports (5). A surprisingly high prevalence of asthma (56%) diagnosed by the reversibility of lung function to inhaled s2-agonists (56%) was reported among professional Canadian football players (6). The prevalence of EIA among top athletes has increased over the past decades. Weiler et al. reported 11% prevalence of EIA among American athletes participating in the 1984 Summer Olympic Games (7) and an increase to a prevalence of more than 20% was noticed among American participants in the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta (8).