Obesity raises asthma risk

The risk of developing asthma increases by 50 percent in overweight and obese people as compared to people with normal weight.Obesity is already an established risk factor for diabetes, sleep-disordered breathing, stroke, heart and blood vessel disease, arthritis and other common ailments.Researchers from the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver found that nearly two thirds of U.S. adults are overweight or obese, and asthma affects roughly 7 percent of the adult population.The researching team quantified the relationship between categories of body mass index (BMI) and the occurrence of asthma by pooling data from seven studies involving 333,102 adults. A BMI of up to 25 is considered normal weight, up to 30 is classified as overweight and 30 or higher indicates obesity. Compared with normal-weight adults, overweight and obese adults were 51 percent more likely to be diagnosed with asthma.Sex did not seem to modify the strength of the association between excess weight and asthma incidence. For overweight and obese men, the odds of developing asthma were 46 percent greater and for overweight and obese women, it was 68 percent higher, compared with their normal-weight counterparts. Moreover, there was a clear dose-response effect of elevated BMI - the higher the BMI, the greater the odds of asthma. Overweight adults had 38-percent greater odds of asthma and obese adults had 92-percent greater odds of asthma, relative to normal-weight adults.If significant weight loss could be achieved in overweight and obese individuals, the number of new cases of asthma in U.S. adult are estimated to fall by as much as 250,000 per year. Significant weight loss in overweight and obese children also promises as significant decrease in asthma cases in children.