Dust Allergy: 5 Tips for Safe Exercise
Dust allergy is one of the most common types of allergic rhinitis. This condition occurs because the immune system overreacts to foreign substances present in the dust.
Dust allergies occur when the immune system overreacts to particles in dust, such as mites, mold spores, cockroach carcasses, or animal dander and dead skin cells. Various kinds of dust allergy trigger particles are referred to as allergens.
When you dust contains an allergen, the immune system will perceive it as something harmful. The immune system also responds by releasing compounds that cause allergic reactions.
Dust allergy causes various symptoms in the respiratory system. can not be cured completely, you can prevent and control the symptoms through lifestyle changes and consumption of allergic rhinitis drugs as recommended by the doctor.
allergy sufferers often limit certain activities, including when exercising in certain places. This is deliberately done to avoid recurrence due to contact with allergens. For that, so that they can still be active and exercise.
Exercise Tips for People with Dust Allergy
1. Use a sport-specific mask
Outdoor exercise clearly has the potential to make dust allergies recur. Therefore, use a special sports mask (training mask) that is sold at sports equipment stores or online.
Avoid using disposable masks that you often see everyday. Because, there is a possibility that it actually makes breathing so short of breath.
2. Increase endurance
Meanwhile, allergic relapse reactions will usually get worse if you are in an unfit condition. Therefore, before doing tiring physical activity, it’s a good idea to first increase your endurance.
How to increase endurance can be by increasing the intake of vegetables and fruit (especially those containing vitamin C), taking supplements, and improving rest patterns. Also avoid staying up late before exercising.
3. Choose a safer type of exercise
In some people, especially those who are really sensitive, dust allergy is very easy to recur. If you are worried about this condition, then from the start choose a sport that will not come into contact with dust, such as swimming.
Swimming has many benefits, for example it can relieve symptoms of joint stiffness in arthritis sufferers, reduce anxiety symptoms, strengthen bones, and increase lung capacity and volume.
However, even though swimming doesn’t cause a recurrence of dust allergies, that doesn’t mean you can choose a public swimming pool arbitrarily. Choose a swimming pool with clear water, not a lot of trash, and if necessary there is a special guard who can handle critical conditions in the pool.
4. Take allergy medicine only when allergies recur, not to prevent
Because of the fear of allergies relapse, some people actually have taken allergy medicine first to prevent it. In fact, such an action is not recommended by doctors.
To prevent this, it is enough to increase endurance and perform the steps above. No need to use drugs. If allergy medicine is continuously taken just to prevent recurrence, your body might become immune and allergy medicine will no longer be able to function optimally.
So, take allergy medicine only when dust allergy recurs and don’t drink it with drinks other than water to prevent contradictions of the active ingredients.
5. Make the room condition is not humid
If the sport you choose is an indoor sport, such as gymnastics or yoga, then pay attention to the humidity of the chosen room, especially if you don’t have air conditioning. So that the room is not damp, does not smell musty, and the air circulation is smooth, it is better to open all the windows in the room. Let the wind and sunshine in.
In addition, there is nothing wrong with asking other people for help to clean the room you want to use and get rid of some “old stuff” that is already dusty. The more relieved, not damp, and clean the condition of the room that is used, the risk of experiencing energy relapse is also getting smaller.
Those are 5 exercise tips for people with dust allergies. From now on, dust allergy is no longer a barrier for you to do physical activities outside or inside the room.