Mar 08, 2021 19:00:00

Exercising hard in the cold winter can have a negative effect on your lungs

There is a research result that 'exercise in the cold increases the efficiency of fat burning', and there is an opinion that exercise should be done on colder days. Meanwhile, Michael Kennedy, an associate professor of exercise at the University of Alberta, who has been studying 'the negative effects of cold on the lungs' for more than 10 years, claims that 'continuing to exercise outdoors in the winter puts a strain on the lungs.' doing.

Why winter exercise can be especially hard on the lungs | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winter-exercise-lungs-1.5936703

Associate Professor Kennedy was interested in 'the effect of cold on the lungs' when he was working part-time to wax the skis of cross-country skiers when he was a graduate student. Associate Professor Kennedy noticed that athletes always cough around March, when there are national competitions and spring races.

In 2019, Associate Professor Kennedy conducted an experiment in which 16 men and women familiar with winter sports were allowed to race 5km in an outside temperature of 15 ° C. As a result, all subjects reported that they had 'some respiratory symptoms after catching a cold,' and said that most suffered from chronic coughing. When the body of the subject was actually examined, 9 out of 16 subjects showed symptoms of bronchoconstriction or airway stenosis, and were diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma.

According to Associate Professor Kennedy, breathing cold, dry air is the cause of chronic coughing in winter sports players. Inhaling cold, dry air stimulates and contracts the lungs, explains Kennedy.

Associate Professor Kennedy also suggests that the longer you have a history of winter sports, that is, the more you 'exercise in the cold and dry', the more sensitive your lungs may be to irritation. .. 'Repeated stimulation of the lungs over the years reduces the self-healing ability of the lungs,' said Kennedy.

Gordon Giesbrecht, director of the Institute of Athletic Environmental Medicine at the University of Manitoba, also points out that cold, dry air, like Associate Professor Kennedy, puts a strain on the lungs. Geese Brecht likened keeping breathing in a contracted lung 'like trying to take a deep breath with a thin straw.'

Both Associate Professor Kennedy and Director Geese Brecht have stated that cloth masks, neck warmers and scarves are effective because the air is warmed and humidified by covering the mouth. 'It's important to take the time to warm up before exercising, especially on cold days, to slow down the pace of exercise,' said Kennedy.