Exercise & Performance Breathing Center

Our Mission

The mission of the Exercise & Performance Breathing Center at National Jewish Health is to empower children and adults of any athletic level to exercise to their fullest capacity and overcome associated medical and psychosocial barriers now and in the future through elite clinical care, discovery, and teaching care providers.

Who We Serve

We cater specifically to people for whom exercise is a part of identity, a source of enjoyment in life, and a means for caring for the body. This includes adolescents and teens that thrive on recreational and competitive sports, collegiate and professional athletes, and adults that continue to push the body. We also serve as a specialty referral center for children with special needs struggling with exercise, older adults with confusion around medical diagnoses related to exercise, and those looking to use exercise as a treatment for disease.

Our Services

The Exercise & Performance Breathing Center at National Jewish Health addresses an unmet need for the evaluation of exercise intolerance and treatment of exercise-related respiratory problems. National Jewish Health possesses the personnel needed to make comprehensive evaluations, a state-of-the-art exercise physiology lab, and innovative on-site therapists to aid in treatment of specific problems and to guide administration of exercise as a medicine.

We have exercise specialists with expertise across the age spectrum, including pulmonologists, cardiologists, allergists, otolaryngologists, speech-language pathologists, and behavioral health providers.

We are one of a few centers in the world that can readily perform continuous laryngoscopy during exercise, a diagnostic procedure for exercise-induced laryngeal obstruction (aka vocal cord dysfunction), which enables the visualization of the upper airway during intense exercise.

We have also invented therapies for this condition including therapeutic laryngoscopy during exercise and the Olin EILOBI breathing techniques.

Contact us for more information at Exercise@njhealth.org.

Tests We Offer

• Cardiopulmonary Exercise Testing

• Continuous Laryngoscopy during Exercise

• Therapeutic laryngoscopy during Exercise

• Exercise-Induced Asthma treadmill testing

• Eucapnic Voluntary Hyperventilation for exercised-induced asthma

Our Team

The Exercise & Performance Breathing Center at National Jewish Health is led by J. Tod Olin, MD, MSCS, a pediatric pulmonologist with a specific interest in exercise.

Mohammad Dalabih, MD, is a board certified pulmonologist with specific expertise in pulmonary hypertension and special interest in exercise physiology and cardiopulmonary exercise testing.

Lizzie Fan, PA-C, is a physician’s assistant with specific expertise in pediatric exercise intolerance. She processes specific expertise in continuous laryngoscopy during exercise.

M. Patricia George, MD, is a board certified pulmonologist with expertise in pulmonary hypertension and its interface with exercise.

Darlene Kim, MD, is a board certified cardiologist with expertise in right heart failure and its interface with exercise. She presents a specific expertise in heart catheterization during exercise.

Michael Mohning, MD, is a board certified pulmonologist with expertise in lung injury and repair.

J. Tod Olin, MD, MSCS, is a board certified pulmonologist specializing in exercise medicine and is specifically interested in helping children and adults exercise safely and comfortably, whether sick or well, fit or not, toddlers or Olympic-level athletes. His team invented therapeutic laryngoscopy during exercise and the Olin EILOBI breathing techniques.

Zulma Yunt, MD, is a board certified pulmonologist with expertise in lung injury and repair.

Our team collaborates directly with Rehabilitation Services, Speech Therapy, and Behavioral Health to help our patients achieve their goals. We have ongoing dialogue with specialists in pediatric and adult cardiology, otolaryngology, psychology, performance psychology, endocrinology, and neurology as well as adult pulmonology, cardiology, and performance psychology.

Additional Information

Learn more about asthma and athletes and how they could be misdiagnosed.

Meet Candace Wollert, an elite college athlete diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma. A unique test developed here helped uncover the true cause of her labored breathing.

Meet Lexi Beggan, a runner who used therapeutic laryngoscopy during exercise and the Olin EILOBI breathing techniques to perform her best.