Your belly bulge may be denying you asthma relief
In my experience, most overweight people don't need any extra motivation to drop pounds. They know how the extra weight harms their quality of life.
But if they need the motivation, they can just look at all the recent research showing how being overweight leads to so many other health problems.
A recent study showed how people who are overweight may not be getting the asthma relief they need. The new study from National Jewish Health hospital in Denver shows that steroid inhalants are 40 percent less effective in overweight or obese patients than with patients who have a healthy weight.
With obese asthmatic patients, the steroids apparently don't do the full job of reducing inflammation. This is particularly troubling, because nearly half of the 20 million Americans who have asthma are overweight, with a body- mass index of 25 or higher.
If you already have asthma, the message here is to try and keep your weight under control. If you're overweight and asthmatic, dropping a few pounds may make your medication work a whole lot better.
But I'd also encourage you not to rely on steroid inhalants as the only treatment for asthma. There are plenty of natural treatments available. For example, make sure the antioxidant manganese is prominent in your diet. You can find manganese in fruits, nuts, barley, rye, split peas and oatmeal.
Also, make sure you have the cleanest air possible in your home environment. There are plenty of good filtration systems out there.
Finally, fish oil supplements, which contain omega 3 fatty acids, can help to reduce the inflammation in asthmatics' airways.
