Lung function in premenopausal, postmenopausal women can decline due to obesity

Obesity has been shown to affect the risk of airway obstructive disease and can lead to a decline in lung function. A new study suggested that abdominal obesity may result in a greater risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma in premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

According to previous studies, women experience greater lung function impairment and have a higher risk of developing COPD than men, despite less exposure to smoke. Female smokers experience a more rapid decline in lung function between 45 & 50 years of age, compared with male smokers. The hospitalisation rate of asthma is also higher in women than in men. It is also believed that female hormones contribute to the greater incidence of asthma in women.

The incidence of COPD in people who are obese is significantly higher than in those of normal weight. In addition, women who are obese are more likely to experience asthma than men who are obese.

Until now, little has been known about the effects of obesity of COPD and asthma in women before and after menopause. This new study, based on data collected from more than 1 million women, aimed to determine the effect of BMI and waist circumference on COPD and asthma development in premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

The researcher concluded that, regardless of menopause status, high BMI and waist circumference were found to significantly increase the risk of COPD and asthma. Moreover, the higher the BMI and waist circumference, the greater the risk. In addition, being underweight was also identified as a risk factor for COPD in postmenopausal women, suggesting that controlling weight and maintaining a healthy body shape are key to help preventing COPD and asthma in women.

This study highlights yet another detrimental effect of obesity and abdominal adiposity in women and specifically identified that women with a high BMI and / or waist circumference had a greater risk of developing COPD and asthma. In addition to avoiding tobacco use, maintaining a healthy body weight and composition may help reduce the incidence of COPD and asthma in women said a Dr.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

Asthma Worsens at Night, but Why? Influence of the Circadian System Pointed Out as Reason And Not Sleep!

For hundreds of years, people have observed that asthma severity often worsens in the nighttime. Researchers have pinned down the influence of the circadian system as the reason and not sleep and physical activities as traditionally thought.

As many as 75% of people with asthma report experiencing worsening asthma severity at night. Many behavioural and environmental factors, including  exercise, air temperature, posture and sleep environment, are known to influence asthma severity.

In the study, the team from Brigham and Women’s hospital and Oregon Health Science University wanted to understand the contributions of the internal circadian system to this problem.

The circadian system, is composed of a central pacemaker in the brain ( the suprachiasmatic nucleus) and “ clocks” throughout the body and is critical for the coordination of bodily functions and to anticipate the daily cycling environmental and behavioural demands.

This is one of the first studies to carefully isolate the influence of the circadian system, from the other factors that are behavioural and environmental, including sleep”, said Frank AJL Sheer, director of the Medical Chronobiology Programme in the Division of Sleep and Circadian disorders at the Birgham.

We observed that those people who have the worst asthma in general are the ones who suffer from the greatest circadian-induced drops in pulmonary function at night, and also had the greatest changes induced behaviours, including sleep,” added Steven A Shea, Prof. and director at Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences.

The findings are published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

To understand the influence of the circadian system, the team enrolled 17 participants with asthma ( who were not taking steroid medication, but who did use bronchodilator inhalers whenever they felt asthma symptoms were worsening) into 2 complementary laboratory protocols where lung function, asthma symptoms and bronchodilator use were continuously assessed.

In the “ forced desynchrony” protocol, participants were placed on a recurring 28 hour sleep/wake cycle for a week under dim light conditions with all behaviours scheduled evenly across the cycle.

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations  
https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes    
https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement