Study says obesity leads to asthma Web Posted: 02/08/2007 08:01 PM CST
Wendy Rigby
KENS 5 Eyewitness News
Pulmonary function tests are a mainstay of managing patients with asthma. Doctors at Audie Murphy VA Hospital are seeing an increasing number of people with the disease, and many of them are overweight.
"And what we found in our study, that 58 percent of adults who have asthma in this region are obese. And unfortunately, 28 percent of children with asthma in our area are obese," said Jay Peters, a pulmonologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center.
That mirrors the
results of a study published by the National Jewish Research Center in Denver . The study shows being overweight puts you at 50 percent greater risk of developing asthma, and if you're obese, your risk is two-fold.
"So, we feel pretty strongly that obesity may be a major factor in either precipitating asthma, or causing asthma not to get better," Peters said.
The new study projects that excess weight may actually cause more than 250,000 new asthma cases each year in the United States. And most asthma patients need hundreds of dollars worth of medications every month.
Though the reasons aren't clear, scientists believe obesity itself causes an inflammatory state in the body, contributing the airway constriction that is the hallmark of the breathing disorder. Animal models support this theory. Lab studies show mice that are overfed tend to develop much more severe asthma and when they lose weight they get better.
So what's the best advice Peters has for his patients?
"In order to minimize their asthma and improve their quality of life, both weight reduction and exercise are going to be key issues that they should consider," he said.
Obesity and Disease 
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