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New Exercises Help Athletes With Asthma & Other Breathing Problems Get Back In The Game

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – We know exercise is good for our health, but it can also trigger asthma attacks and other breathing problems.

As CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez reports, there are special breathing techniques that can get athletes back in action.

For all the miles Jack Robb has run over the years, it was only recently that he began to struggle to breathe. At times, he says, it was so scary he started to panic.

"Everything just starts moving real slow. You feel like somebody has a hand over your mouth and you just can't, you know, let loose," he says.

Something similar would happen to Saurabh Agrawal when he would run on a treadmill.

"My lungs start, you know, shortness of breath, wheezing and all that stuff," he says.

That was also happened to Alexis Beggan, but she doesn't have asthma. With careful testing, she was diagnosed with something called exercise induced laryngeal obstruction, or EILO.

Video shows her vocal cords tightening, causing noisy and labored breathing that can be terrifying for those who experience it.

Now, a study in the Journal of Voice reports that EILO is actually common in young athletes. It also describes a new breathing technique – putting patients on exercise bikes and recording videos of their throats while they pedal as fast as they can.

"When patients are able to precisely control the airflow through their mouth, they can affect the behavior of their throat," says Dr. Tod Olin, of National Jewish Health.

National Jewish Health researchers teach athletes a gradual, step-by-step process that works even when they're out of breath and may feel panicked.

"You exhale all the way out so that you get all the air out, and then you breathe in through your teeth. Then kind of, as he would describe it – Darth Vader sound. So you open your mouth really wide, kind of like this," Beggan says.

The new study says 80 percent of athletes who tried the technique reported significant improvement in their ability to exercise at high intensity, helping them get to playing the sport they love.

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