Asthma and Obesity

Environmental Studies

Asthma and Obesity

Asthma is a very commonly known and acquired disease that affects about 25 million people in the United States, 7 million of which are children (NHLBI). It is the “most common chronic childhood illness in the US, affecting one of every 10 kids” (Everyday Health). Symptoms of asthma are most common because of the increase in air pollution and ozone but recent studies have found that there is an association between obesity and asthma. According to the in-class lecture, given by Carrie Tomasallo, obesity often precedes asthma and is associated with an increase in asthma prevalence and severity. There are also many hypotheses that obesity is an environmental risk factor of asthma.

Many people are familiar with asthma because of it’s symptoms of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath but, what people don’t know is that asthma is a chronic, long term disease that inflames and narrows the airways of the lungs (Asthma.com). An irritant triggers the changes of the airways and causes them to become inflamed, which is the body’s way of dealing with things it believes is foreign or harmful (Asthma.com). These triggers can be biological or chemical substances and are also usually allergens or irritants. Unfortunately, there is no cure to this disease but there are many ways to manage one’s asthma and reduce the symptoms.

Obesity is also very common disease in the population of the United States. “By 2015, more than 700 million individuals over 14 will be obese” (Wiley). Obesity is defined as having an excessive amount of body fat and increases a person’s risk of diseases and health problems (Mayo). Medically, if a person is obese, they have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher (Everyday). This is based on a persons weight in relation to their height. The effects that obesity has on a person is, in many cases, detrimental to the body. In recent studies, asthma has been added to the list of conditions that...