When exercising, does your breathing become labored or does your chest feel tight? If you're not a high-risk candidate for a heart attack or angina, you might have exercise-induced asthma. Then again you may not.

"Exercise-induced shortness of breath or chest tightness is a common manifestation of asthma," says Dr. Miles Weinberger, professor of pediatrics at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and director of the Pediatric Allergy & Pulmonary Division at UI Hospitals and Clinics.

"Generally, asthma is completely treatable. People shouldn't have to limit activity because they have asthma. Seek help from your physician to determine the type and severity of asthma affecting you," he says.

"A type of medication called an inhaled bronchodilator, when used prior to exercise, is highly effective in preventing exercise-induced shortness of breath from asthma for up to two to four hours when pulmonary function at rest is normal or near normal," Weinberger says. The same inhaled bronchodilator should also promptly relieve symptoms of asthma once they occur. Asthma associated with abnormal pulmonary function, even when symptoms occur other than just with vigorous exercise requires consideration for using a scheduled daily maintenance medication.

How asthma affects you depends on the severity of your general physical condition. Obesity and poor physical conditioning increase exercise-induced asthma.

Weinberger cautions that exercise-induced shortness of breath or chest tightness that is not prevented by or promptly relieved by an inhaled bronchodilator requires further evaluation. An exercise study on a treadmill while measuring oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide production, heart rate, and lung function can identify both exercise-induced asthma and many other causes of exercise-induced breathing problems.