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Excess belly fat triggers bronchial asthma
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Excess accumulation of fat in the abdomen, known in medical practice as central obesity, may be associated with the development of bronchial asthma, say the authors of a study presented at the Annual Congress of the European Respiratory Society in Amsterdam.
This is the first study to show a link between central obesity and the development of asthma. Previously, scientists have shown that excess belly fat provokes the development of diabetes and heart disease.
In this study, the researchers analyzed the waist circumference of a group of people, which serves as an indicator of obesity, to see whether central obesity could increase the likelihood of developing asthma.
Over the course of 11 years, scientists monitored 23,245 people aged 19 to 55, whose waist circumference and BMI were measured. In addition, the participants in the experiment were required to report possible cases of bronchial asthma.
It turned out that participants who had central obesity were 1.44 times more likely to suffer from bronchial asthma, and those people who had central and general obesity were 1.81 times more likely.
The authors of the study cannot yet explain the reason for this dependence, however, it may be associated with metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance syndrome, which often develop with central obesity.
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