Research
Mixed
Obesity is associated with a higher prevalence and severity of asthma, characterized by increased symptoms and reduced response to corticosteroids, likely due to mechanical factors and systemic inflammation rather than increased airway hyper-responsiveness.
If you have asthma and are overweight, your condition may be harder to control with standard medications due to mechanical and inflammatory factors. Losing weight can improve your lung function and make your asthma medications more effective.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The frequency of self-reported symptoms of breathlessness and wheezing increases with BMI in patients with asthma... obese patients who manage weight loss by diet or bariatric surgery are found to have improvements in their lung function and asthma symptoms... clinical response to beclomethasone declined with increasing BMI.
Why this rating
Based on meta-analyses and observational studies.
Source
Obesity and respiratory diseases
Himender Makker · International Journal of General Medicine · 2010
DOI 10.2147/ijgm.s11926
narrative_reviewCited 323×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Obesity causes restrictive lung physiology (reduced FRC, ERV, TLC) and increased work of breathing, leading to exertional dyspnea and respiratory symptoms independent of primary lung disease.Good
- Weight loss, particularly through bariatric surgery or intensive diet, significantly reduces the severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome (OHS), though complete resolution is not guaranteed.Good
Related findings · Mixed
- Bariatric surgery (VSG and RYGB) is the most effective and sustainable treatment for obesity, producing marked and sustained weight loss that non-surgical interventions cannot match.Strong
- Severely protein-deficient diets (2–3% energy) induce lean body mass loss and metabolic imbalance, whereas adequate protein intake (0.66 g/kg/d minimum) is a prerequisite for maintaining muscle, bone, and physiological function.Strong
- For patients with Class III obesity (BMI >39.9 kg/m2), metabolic bariatric surgery (MBS) is significantly more effective than any currently approved medication, with BilioPancreatic Diversion (BPD) showing the highest estimated weight loss.Strong
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