ERS 2018: People with asthma at higher risk of becoming obese

Obesity is known to be a risk factor for developing asthma but a new study shows that the reverse is also true: people with asthma are more likely to go on to become obese. The new research indicates that those who develop asthma as adults and those who have non-allergic asthma are at the greatest risk of obesity.  The research was presented by Dr Subhabrata Moitra, a European Respiratory Society research fellow at ISGlobal – the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (a centre supported by the "la Caixa" Foundation), Spain. He explained: "We already know that obesity can be a trigger for asthma, perhaps via a physiological, metabolic or inflammatory change. The team behind the research say it suggests the relationship between asthma and obesity is more complex than previously thought and more research is needed to better understand and tackle these two growing health challenges. Moitra: "Until now there has been very little research on whether the reverse is true – whether asthma can lead to obesity. In this study, we have enough people and we have followed them for long enough to observe the relationship between these two conditions." The research was part of the…