Asthma and Obesity

by Nutrition Focus

A prospective study of 86,000 healthy women found that the heavier they were, the more likely they were to have a diagnosis of asthma during 4 years of follow-up. In addition, women who gained weight after age 18 were at a greater risk of developing asthma. The study appeared in the November 22, 1999 Archives of Internal Medicine.

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/159/21/2582

Almost 1600 cases of asthma were reported by the women over 4 years and there was a graded risk with increasing body-mass index. Women with a BMI of 30 or more were 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with asthma.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

The authors concluded that the increasing prevalence of obesity may explain increases in the number of people with asthma. The medical journal thought this finding so important they had an editorial accompany the research article.

Accompanying a report that obesity was related to newly diagnosed cases of asthma in adult women was an editorial in the November 22, 1999 Archives of Internal Medicine whose title was "The Association of Asthma and Obesity: Is it Real or a Matter of Definition, Presbyterian Ministers' Salaries, and Earlobe Creases?". The authors of the editorial took exception with many of the conclusions in the research study. http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/159/21/2513

The editorial pointed out how unreliable diagnoses of asthma are, even when made by physicians. The authors cited statistics that up to 65% of diagnoses are in error. They also pointed out that statistical associations do not prove cause and effect.

There was a close association during the 1950s between salaries of Presbyterian ministers in Massachusetts and the price of rum in Havana. While the association is real there is no causal relationship. Similarly, in the early 1980s earlobe creases were thought to predict heart disease until it was realized that both conditions are strongly related to obesity. Until that realization, dozens of studies were conducted.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

It is possible that obesity causes other conditions such as reflux into the esophagus that triggers asthma. But there may be no causal connection between the two conditions. It is impossible to know this from epidemiologic observations. This should be considered a provocative preliminary finding that stimulates more research on this question.

Copyright 2004 - Nutrition News Focus

Tags: asthma obesity