Exercise-Induced Asthma and Immune System. Impact on allergic disorders.

Exercise can induce some modifications of immune parameters like cytokines, secretory IgA and lymphocyte count. One of our studies on a team of professional athletes (football players), in which we checked cytokine levels and lymphocyte subclasses in various phases of the championship series, is used to hypotesize the links between sports, asthma and allergic disorders

Exercise-Induced Asthma: an update

Exercise-induced asthma (E.I.A) affects 12-16% of the general population and most of the patients affected by extrinsic or intrinsic asthma. Surprisingly, also a high percentage of professional and Olympic athletes are affected, showing that E.I.A. does not impair physical activity, whereas endurance sports bear a higher risk than the others. The mast cell role, late asthmatic responses, diagnosis, therapy, theories and data about immunological parameters in sports are taken into consideration in this revie