Obesity increases the risk of childhood asthma by a quarter, according to a large-scale study that suggests that about 100,000 British children have the disease because of their weight. American scientists say that a tenth of asthma cases in childhood could be avoided if children stayed a healthy weight. The links between asthma and weight are disputed, some saying that obesity could contribute by stunting lung and airway growth. Researchers looked at data on half a million American children over four years, during which time 41,000 had asthma diagnosed. They reported in the journal Pediatrics that 2.4 children of a healthy weight per 1,000 developed asthma each year, rising to 3.2 per 1,000 for…

Source: The Times November 26, 2018 04:52 UTC