Asthma is an inflammatory condition in which a patients body will react negatively to outside stimuli, causing inflammation of the airways, difficulty breathing and then potentially death. There are lots of ways to managed the symptoms of asthma and providing the patient is smart and plans for their condition it’s unlikely that it’ll be anything more than a annoyance. Asthma is a condition linked to hay fever and eczema as all three conditions are influenced by the environment and certain allergens and outside stimulants will effect individuals differently.
Obesity has a lot of negative impacts on our health. It’s well documented to cause a long list of heart conditions as well as make things like type two diabetes much more common, what may not be as well known is that being obese increasing the risk of asthma in a patient. Another thing to add to the long list of potential complications and one which isn’t fully understood by medical professionals as of yet.
In a recent study involving mice, researchers have been looking at leptin as a way of potentially treating asthma or at least easing the negative implications of the condition. The hormone is understood to play an important role in energy metabolism, fertility and bone mass but it’s its ability to regulate airway diameter which has scientists so interested. Asthma causes airways to inflame or contract and in doing so creates a danger to the patient, widening those airways could save lives.
The study showed a great deal of potential in the use of leptin. Though it didn’t do anything for the inflammation what it did do was widen the inflamed airways, meaning that the mouse could still breathe. This essentially cured the mouse of asthma for a time. The next step is human trials but scientists are hopeful that they can replicate the results and help make asthmatics lives easier.
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