If you’re an asthma sufferer, make sure the medical history at your doctor’s office includes your employment and recreation plans. A new screening tool developed by Tel Aviv University researchers may save you a trip to the emergency room later on.

It has long been suspected that physical exertion itself, as part of work or play, can trigger an asthma attack, but little medical evidence has been found for this conclusion ? until now. A study by Dr. Shlomo Moshe from Tel Aviv University’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine gives doctors a new way of advising those who may be at risk.

Dr. Moshe’s research, reported in Occupational Medicine, will also help young asthmatic adults find safer and more suitable employment. It could also save lives.

Doctors should be aware of the risk level for asthma in young adult patients, Dr. Moshe says. “Using our recent research, we have developed a tool that gives both percentages and risks. If you had asthma in childhood, you can certainly develop it again. Family physicians need to know that certain jobs can be risky to their patients. If a patient wants to be a pro-football player, a baker, a carpenter, or a technician in an animal laboratory, his doctor needs to advise him accordingly.”

Dr. Moshe’s most recent research, which follows upon an earlier study, finds an indisputable connection between asthma and exercise. “When young adults start their first job, they should be aware of the pulmonary risks,” says Dr. Moshe, whose research covered nearly 800 young recruits to the Israel Defense Forces. “Exercise and sports like football do cause asthmatic attacks. Logically, that should be considered if someone wants to do a job which includes physical exertion, like being a guard, taking part in competitive sports, or working in a factory on heavy machinery.”

Source: American Friends of Tel Aviv University