In some cases, professionals have found asthma, obesity and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) occurring concurrently in a single patient. Disclosing the probable causes of this issue, scientists from the National Institutes of Health assert that there could be factors beyond randomness that may explain the overlapping of obesity, asthma and sleep disordered breathing in patients.
So far, the link between rhinitis and asthma has been apparent, where the former seemed to follow asthma. There are some reports talking of an association between obesity and asthma too. In a set of 108 children visiting an asthma clinic, the scientists found a link between asthma and SDB. The latter was reportedly found in adults and also in kids coming from an African American origin with poor controlled asthma. Treating SDB could eventually lead to relief from asthma too, the investigators believed.
In another consequent study, it came to light that kids with poor sleep patterns and disordered sleep were more likely to be weak academically and in cognitive tasks. This put forth a link between inflammation, sleepiness and cognitive deficits along with SDB. Considering that obesity is a chronic systematic low-grade inflammatory disorder, it may have the potential to intensify the effects of all the aforesaid conditions.
Therefore, the analysts concluded that probing into all 3 factors of obesity, SDB and asthma is crucial to develop remedial measures for the same. The study is published in the Journal of Pediatrics.