Carrying a few extra pounds could lead you to be more susceptible to developing asthma, a study has revealed.
Watching what you eat is all the more important for people with asthma or those at risk of developing the condition.
The study by Columbia University Medical Centre has led researchers to believe that a hormone released by fat cells could play a part in the narrowing of your airways, which can cause an asthma attack.
The hormone leptin plays a key role in energy metabolism, regulating appetite, fertility and bone mass, but the study shows it may also regulate the diameter of our airways.
The study was conducted on mice and showed that both obesity and anorexia can lead to the development of asthma.
Made by fat cells, leptin circulates the body in the bloodstream and travels to the brain.
Leptin reduces the amount of activity in a branch of the nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system, which affects the constriction of tiny muscles that make up the small airways to the lungs.
Researchers found that the mice with low or high body weight and fat mass had reduced lung function compared to those of average weight.
The study showed the narrowing of airways in obese or anorexic mice, regardless of the inflammation usually associated with asthma.
This means people with asthma would have trouble breathing before the classic factors that cause an asthma attack start to develop.
The asthma symptoms in an obese sufferer would be exacerbated because of this narrowing.
The researchers followed up with two experiments to see if their findings would have any impact on asthma therapy.
They found that, in mice, you can cure obesity-related asthma without affecting inflammation, using drugs that inhibit the signals sent to the parasympathetic nervous system. There are drugs available that do this, but the researchers say more clinical trials are needed before this or alternatives can be used for the treatment of asthma associated with body weight.
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