Los efectos de la obesidad sobre el asma

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterised by airways that narrow too easily and too much to stimuli. These episodes of airway narrowing present symptomatically as periods of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and/or coughing In obese patients with asthma, symptoms appear to be less responsive to inhaled corticosteroids compared to non-obese asthmatics. It is unclear as to whether obesity "up-regulates" the normal asthma disease pathway or directly increases asthma symptoms without altering asthma pathophysiology. Recent evidence from our laboratory suggests that obesity detrimentally affects asthma control independently of any effect on the normal asthma disease pathophysiology. Furthermore, obesity increases the amount of airway closure during bronchoconstriction, although it is unknown as to whether this leads to worse asthma control in obese asthmatics. Nonetheless, our research suggests that, in obese asthmatics, consideration should be given to the role of obesity-related factors that are not responsive to inhaled corticosteroid treatment in the manifestation of asthma-like symptoms.