Excessive Weight May Cause More Than Labored Breath
Medpagetoday.com May 23, 2007
New research suggests that the growing trend of obesity in America is contributing to the growing severity of asthma, and that various triggers such as dust mites and pollen are no longer the only proven culprits of the chronic lung disease.
After using a technique called gene profiling at Sydney’s Garvan Institute, researchers found that a fatty acid binding protein called aP2 could be the connection between asthma and obesity. Researchers Dr. Michael Rolph, the asthma project leader, and fellow colleague Bennet Shum, found the aP2 protein in high levels in human lung cells that had been tricked into thinking they were undergoing an asthma attack. According to Rolph, the finding suggests that the threat of asthma is three-fold among obese individuals, with both risk and severity increasing with weight.
In addition, a study done of 3,059 asthmatic adults at Emory University, Atlanta, led by Brian Taylor of Emory Crawford Long Hospital, found that when compared with normal-weight adults, obese patients were 52 percent more likely to have persistent asthma. The researchers also found evidence that the hormone Leptin, which plays a key role in regulating energy intake and expenditure, may also link obesity and asthma through its role in regulating the inflammation of airways.
Though obesity has been associated with increased prevalence of asthma in the past, Dr. John Mastronarde of Ohio State University in Columbus noted that these new findings are the first to correlate obesity with asthma severity. While it is unclear whether aP2, Leptin or yet another hormone is responsible for this link, the results may open the door to explore potential treatments for asthma patients that take into consideration an individual patient’s body mass index. Taylor and his associates are now involved in research looking at whether obese patients who undergo weight-loss surgery experience a lessening in asthma compared with those who do not.
For the complete articles please visit:
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20071806-16011-2.html
http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ATS/tb/5738
These news briefs have been summarized from external sources. They have been placed here as resources on lung health issues. Breathe California does not endorse their findings nor have they verified their accuracy.