If you are plagued with severe, prolonged bouts of asthma then maybe you should blame it on your weight. An analysis conducted by a team at Emory Crawford Long Hospital, Atlanta showed that the asthma patients who were obese were more likely to show prolonged symptoms of asthma as compared to asthma patients who were non-overweight. 
These results were put forth after analyzing data from U.S. National Asthma Survey and presented in a study on the same at international conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Francisco. Dr. Brian Taylor, a pulmonary fellow who is involved with this study said,
“Our analysis showed that out of more than 3,000 patients with asthma, obese patients were 66 percent more likely to report continuous symptoms, 36 percent more likely to miss more days of work and 52 percent more likely to be classified as having either moderate or severe persistent asthma when compared to non-overweight people.”
A possible reason as to why obese patients are more affected by asthma could be attributed to the hormone leptin produced by adipocytes. According to previous studies, this hormone may be responsible for airway inflammation as seen in asthma cases. In addition, reduced physical activity owing to asthma may be a cause for weight gain in asthma patients.
However, research that is more detailed needs to be conducted to establish precisely how obesity and asthma severity are linked. But in the mean time addressing the obesity problem will not only benefit in reducing the severity of asthma but also in keeping other lifestyle related diseases in check.
Image: Sabcnews
Via: Yahoo
