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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Allergies & Athletes

Many of you may be preparing for the NYC ING Marathon, or starting your fall soccer season and so I thought it might be a good time to talk about allergies and athletes.
Most symptoms are provoked by the cold air and mold spores and ragweed pollen tends not to be such a huge factor in the autumn.

Allergies, like asthma and hay fever, can be particularly bothersome for athletes because they get in the way of performing your best. What can you do though? Avoiding the outdoors and excercise isn't an option for most atheletes.

Well here are a few tips to help keep your symtpoms at bay:
* Take your asthma medication at least 30 minutes prior to excercising. This will especially help with those of you who develop cough from cold air.

* Use intranasal corticosteroids on a regular basis, they take at least 24 hours to start working, to prevent you from getting a runny nose.

* Avoid excercising outside when the pollen counts are the highest- early morning between 5AM and 10 AM.

* If you are particularly sensitive to the pollens this time of year, visit your allergist for the most specific advice possible.

I'd be happy to help get you in tip top shape for your next race or game!

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