Obesity and the lung: 4 · Obesity and asthma
- 1The Providence Heart and Lung Institute at St Paul’s Hospital, Denver; The James Hogg iCAPTURE Center for Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Research; Department of Medicine (Respiratory Division), The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
- 2National Jewish Health, Denver; University of Colorado, Denver, Colorado, USA
- Dr E R Sutherland, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, 1400 Jackson Street, J201, Denver, CO 80206, USA; sutherlande{at}njc.org
- Received 21 November 2007
- Accepted 23 April 2008
Abstract
Over the past 30 years there has been an epidemic of both obesity and asthma in the western world. A large body of robust epidemiological data has linked obesity with the development and severity of asthma in both children and adults and weight reduction with improvements in asthma severity and symptoms. However, it remains unsettled whether this relationship is causal or confounded by some other factor(s) as mechanistic and physiological studies have produced heterogeneous and at times conflicting findings. This review examines the clinical and epidemiological relationship between obesity and asthma and the purported mechanisms that may link these two processes together.
Footnotes
-
Funding: Grant support: Canada Research Chair (DDS); NIH HL090982 (ERS).
-
Competing interests: None.
