Hemoglobin – blood element whose function is to distribute oxygen from the lungs to body tissues.

Hematocrit - the measurement of the percentage of red blood cells are in a specific volume of blood.

Often, anemia is a symptom of a disease rather than a disease itself, and usually develops due to the presence of one of these factors:

• Excessive blood loss or hemorrhage
• Insufficient production of red blood cells
• Excessive red blood cell destruction
• Decreased production and excessive destruction of red blood cells

What are the symptoms of anemia?

Most symptoms of anemia occur as a consequence of reduced oxygen in the cells or “hypoxia.” Since red blood cells by hemoglobin, carry oxygen, decreased production or number of these cells result in “hypoxia.” Many of the symptoms do not occur if anemia is mild, because the body can usually compensate for gradual changes in hemoglobin.

Below are the most common symptoms of anemia. However, each child may experience symptoms differently. Symptoms may include, inter alia, the following:

• Abnormal paleness or lack of color of skin
• Acceleration of heart rate (tachycardia)
• Shortness of breath (dyspnea)
• Lack of energy or tiring easily (fatigue)
• Dizziness or vertigo especially when standing
• Headaches
• Irritability
• Irregular menstrual cycles
• Absent or delayed menstruation (amenorrhea)
• Sores or swollen tongue (glossitis)
• Jaundice or yellowing of the skin, eyes and mouth
• Increased size of the spleen or liver (splenomegaly, hepatomegaly)
• Delay or delayed growth and development
• Slow healing of wounds and tissue

The symptoms of anemia may resemble other blood disorders or medical problems. Because anemia is often a symptom associated with another disease, it is important that your child’s doctor is informed of the symptoms seen in children. Always consult your child’s physician for a diagnosis.

Benefits of exercise in children with asthma:

• Improved child development
• Improved physical fitness and exercise tolerance itself
• The attacks caused by stress are reduced or are less strong
• The crisis is best handled
• Helps reduce the nervousness caused by the attacks.

But keep in mind that at least 80% of children with asthma may have a bronchoconstriction with sports, unless appropriate measures are taken). However, given the benefit of sport psycho and integrator, is a great error overprotect the asthmatic child and prevent a normal level of exercise.

When we begin a physical activity for the first time we all get tired, feel fatigue and breathlessness. In the asthmatic child who has done sports before, these feelings are even stronger. Therefore, the adaptation of the child with asthma sports activity should be very gradual, so that eventually learn to distinguish between normal breathlessness by intense exercise and breathlessness by an asthma attack.

Asthma and Sport

Except for diving with air bottles, a child with asthma can play sports. But there are a number of sports less likely to trigger asthma than others.

The free running, which is the basis of the running, athletics, and sports like football or basketball, is the activity which can produce bronchospasm. As there is usually a refractory period of 2 to 4 hours’ duration in the exercise-induced asthma during which no bronchospasm occurs again, however much they continue to exercise, so running causes an intense and continuous more bronchospasm that perform the exercise intermittently.

Activities that cause exercise-induced asthma

In order of severity are:

1. Free Race
2. Career treadmill
3. Cycling
4. Swimming

In addition, sports like swimming in warm pool (hot and humid air), gymnastics, walking, golf, hiking and biking on level ground are much less likely to trigger asthma. The tennis and ball games, but require much free running, usually take the form of intermittent heavy exertion, so are also good, like the martial arts (judo, karate, taekwondo), fencing, etc..

The deep diving with compressed air cylinders is not an activity recommended by the pressure changes involved, and unable to cope with an asthma attack at a certain depth: In the midst of a crisis of dyspnea, it may be very difficult to carry out maneuvers required for decompression to the surface without risk of barotrauma.

The mountain sports in asthmatics (mountaineering, alpine skiing and background, etc.) only have the problem of breathing cold, dry air, which can be minimized by the use of masks or helmets.