ASTHMA & OBESITY- IS THERE A LINK? #13

    For many years, both the medical community and the public in general have felt that there is a definite linnk between obesity and asthma.

• asthma is an inflammatory process
• obesity leads to systemic proinflammatory state
• adipose tissue expresses many proinflammatory molecules including tumor necrosis factor, interleukin-6, C-reactive proteins and others
• ASTHMA IS AN INFLAMMATORY PROCESS

   As you can see it's easy to make this association. However, it is still not clear that the systemic proinflammatory state caused by obesity can alter or otherwise affect lung function. Many studies have demonstrated a relationship between obesity and asthma, it can still be argued that  indivuals with asthma can develope obesity  due to inactivity, drug side effects, other other factors. This is not the only association between these two conditions and other pathologies like sleep apnea and GERD where is it easy to make an assumption that obesity is the primary cause.
   One thing can be noted, obesity can have mechanical effects on the lungs that can lead to symptoms without the telltale changes commonly seen in asthma (inflammation). Other factors assocciated with obesity that effects lung function may include excess soft tissue weight on the thoracic cage, fatty infiltration of the chest wall and an increase in pulmonary blood volume. These can all increase the work required in the simple act of  breathing.
   Though it seesm to be a logical assumption to link obesity to asthma, it is not that simple . Even though there are studies that show improved asthma control after weight loss in obese individuals, the resultas have been modest in many cases.
   In conclusion, yes it is healthy to lose weight in high BMI individuals. Yes there does seem to be a connection, though modest, between improved asthma control after weight loss. Yes do encourage weight loss in asthmatics. Yes we will have to wait for more intenisve studies that show direct, significant link between obesity and asthma.