Otago Examines Obesity

A University of Otago study has found that obesity in women may worsen the impact of asthma and also mask its severity in standard tests. The findings were published in the first issue for May of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. It’s the first prospective study to find a significant comparative difference between obese and non-obese people in how the lungs and airways respond to a simulated asthma attack. Principal investigator at the University Dr Robin Taylor said among women with greater BMI, an asthma-like episode has the potential to cause greater breathing difficulties than in non-obese women. “Obese individuals lose the ability to inhale as deeply or exhale as fully as normal weight individuals,” Taylor said.