Obesity Can Worsen the Impact of Asthma

According to researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand, obesity can severely worsen the impact of asthma. What’s more, it may also mask its severity in standard tests.

This is the first study that reveals a significant comparative difference in how the airways and lungs respond to a simulated asthma attack in obese and non-obese individuals. It establishes a direct link between obesity and the development of a phenomenon known as “dynamic hyperinflation”-when air breathed into the lungs cannot be exhaled

The study is published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.