Childhood obesity linked to asthma

MANHATTAN, Kan., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A Kansas State University doctoral student in nutrition found a correlation between childhood obesity and asthma.

Sara Rosenkranz and colleagues found healthy children with higher levels of body fat and lower levels of physical activity had greater amounts of airway narrowing after exercise.

"Kids who are overweight and inactive are having a negative response to exercise challenge tests, which might be contributing to the increase that we've been seeing over the past several decades in asthma prevalence as well as obesity prevalence," Rosenkranz said in a statement.

The researchers recruited 40 children ages 8 to 10 to participate in exercise studies. All were healthy, none took medication or had diagnoses or history of acute or chronic disease, including asthma.

After the exercise, the researchers measured the children's airways and found that the higher the body fat and the lower the level of activity, the more likely they were to have asthma-like symptoms following exercise. Some children could be classified as having exercise-induced asthma. Exercise can even induce an asthma attack in people who do not experience asthma under other circumstances.

The findings were reported at the Central States chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine.