New Ray of Life for Obese Asthma Patients

According to a new study published in an issue of European Respiratory Journal, Singulair pills can help obese asthma patients for have a good reason of life. On the other hand, it was found that leaner people can have benefits from inhaled steroids such as beclomethasone.

As per lead author lead author Marc Peters-Golden, M.D., professor of internal medicine and director of the Fellowship Program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, there was no evidence that can suggest that obesity is influenced by responses of people to specific asthma medications.

From News-Medical.Net:

Researchers looked at data from four previous multi-center, randomized clinical trials from 3,073 patients with moderate asthma. The data included the patients' responses to Singulair/montelukast, a beclomethasone inhaled steroid and a placebo, and the participants' body mass index numbers, which placed them in the categories of normal, overweight and obese.

In general, the severity of people's asthma was found to be greater among those in the overweight and obese groups, which supports findings from other studies.

In addition, the inhaled steroid was found to be better than Singulair at increasing the number of asthma control days (ACD) among people in the normal weight category. An ACD is defined as a day with no more than two puffs of an inhaler, no night-time awakenings and no asthma attacks.

On the other hand, the inhaled steroid resulted in a reduced effect in the percentage of ACDs among obese people in the study - that is, the benefit of the inhaled steroid declined with increasing body mass index.

In contrast, the positive impact of Singulair did not decrease in obese and overweight people when compared to its impact on people of normal weight. The research also suggests that the higher a person's body mass index, the greater his or her response to Singulair compared to a placebo, a pill with no medicinal benefit. This is an indication, Peters-Golden says, that obese and overweight people may in fact respond better to this medication.

Still, he is not inclined to suggest that doctors change the way in which they prescribe medication - not yet, anyway.

"Our study looks back at material from previous trials. I'd like to see a prospective study in which lean patients and heavy patients are enrolled at the outset, and you compare both types of medications in both groups," Peters-Golden says. If verified by other studies, this insight may help physicians to better tailor medication regimens to meet individual patient needs.

Peters-Golden also remarked that a multitude of varying factors including genetic and acquired factors combine in an intertwined way to influence a patient's response to asthma medications.