According to public health experts, research suggests that there is a link between asthma and obesity, thus reinforcing the significance of having a healthy lifestyle starting from early age. Obesity and excess weight among children can fuel asthma epidemic, which is experienced in many countries. This has been found out by a joint study of UK and Australian research teams teaching peak asthma groups to stress the importance of a healthy lifestyle in kids.
The likelihood of developing the condition caused by chronic inflammation of the airways raises by 55% for each extra unit of BMI (body mass index), according to University of Bristol and University of Queensland researchers.
The study was made to almost 5,000 asthmatic kids aged seven and a half who were registered in a long-term study of children and parents in the United Kingdom. The score that the researchers gave to the kids was based on 32 independent body-mass-related DNA sequence variations, and connections with fat mass, body mass, lean mass, and asthma were estimated then.
Dr Raquel Granell, an allergy expert and the lead author of the study, said that there have been many studies exploring the influence of environmental factors like fumes and pollens on asthma in childhood. However, while the link between asthma and BMI has been suspected ever since then, up until today, there is no casual link that had been shown, she stressed.
She added, “[h]igher BMI in mid-childhood could explain some of the increase in asthma risk toward the end of the 20th century, although the continued rise in obesity but with a slowing in the rise in asthma prevalence in some countries implies that other non-BMI-related factors are also likely to be important." According to her, further research is required to confirm any casual link between asthma and BMI.
Based on a report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the UK, New Zealand, Ireland, and Australia have the highest prevalence rate of asthma in kids. There are more than two million Australians who have the condition. Though the prevalence of asthma among children and young adults in Australia has decreased, it is still considered high in international standards.
Dr Simon Bowler, a respiratory physician and the chair of Asthma Australia’s medical and scientific committee, said that the latest research had aided to define the link between childhood obesity and asthma. While it has been widely accepted that the amount of stored body fat affects our health and wellness, especially those who are asthmatic, this latest research emphasizes obesity as a marker of asthma among kids. Dr Bowler also stressed that one out of every nine children suffer from asthma in Australia.
Treating asthma is a long way off, but this is manageable with preventive measures and medications, and this includes managing your kid’s weight. This makes management of children’s weight in their early years vital for parents.
According to Dr Samantha Walker, research and policy director at Asthma UK, the research, issued in PLOS Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal, was in line with other studies made relating obesity to asthma. She added that asthma is a complex disease, especially in kids, and that “[k]eeping your BMI within normal limits bring all sorts of health benefits and may help reduce the risk of children developing asthma.”