Chocolate City Jordanaire wrote:When I was growing up in PG County, my best friend suffered from asthma.
I can remember him being hospitalized two or three times when we were in HS or Jr high. I never could figure out how he could beat me running (took my spot on the relay team) and he could destroy me in basketball one-on-one, but he had asthma. (Only thing I could do is kick his ass when things got too competitive. Also, he didn't make the football team). He was a really good athlete despite his asthma.
This same friend some years after HS attempted to join the marine corps. He lied about his health. Ended up starting out doing very well, but you guessed it, he had an asthma attack in training and ended up washing out.
Funny thing is most of the people I know who have asthma are pretty good athletes. My first ex-wife was a good volleyball player and she was a really good bowler, not that that requires aerobic capacity. She also could swim well (but then again I was a non-swimmer back then, so relative to me anything was swimming well).
I have always found that asthma is much better managed when you exercise regularly, it seems to strengthen your system/lungs, and you're better able to handle physical demands. Of course as I said earlier, any kind of illness, or ingestion of food or drink that has a negative impact on it can derail a lot of the strengthening work you've done.