Whether higher or lower than normal, children’s body mass index (BMI) can affect their future respiratory function, according to a team of researchers.
- A study, based on monitoring 3,200 children up to 24 years old, reveals that those with a high BMI are at risk of developing airway obstruction in adulthood.
- However, children whose BMI was high in the early years but who returned to a normal BMI before puberty did not have respiratory problems later in life.
- Children with a stable but low BMI are also at risk of insufficient lung development, and therefore restricted respiratory capacity.
This concerns both overweight young people and those who are a little too light. A new study from Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, has found a link between abnormal body mass index (BMI) in children – whether too high or too low – and impaired lung function in adulthood . The good news is that it is not irreversible, but everything seems to be decided before the fateful passage of puberty.
BMI and lung development from birth to adulthood
As part of their work, published in The European Respiratory Journalresearchers followed more than 4,000 Swedish children from birth to adulthood, divided according to their BMI measured regularly (maximum 14 times). The study, the largest carried out to date on the subject, made it possible to follow the lung development of 3,200 children until the age of 24. It reveals that those with a BMI “consistently high or rapidly increasing” are at risk of developing airway obstruction in adulthood, a disorder in which the passage of air into the lungs is restricted.
To reinforce these observations, the scientists measured biomarkers in urine samples from each group. Children with a high BMI had increased levels of metabolites of histidine, an amino acid linked to conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). “This reveals objective biomarkers for the link between high BMI and lung impairment, although the underlying molecular mechanisms remain to be explored”can we read in a press release.
Act on weight before puberty
The researchers nevertheless observed that children whose BMI was high during the early years but who returned to a normal BMI before puberty did not present respiratory problems in adulthood. In other words, early intervention to regulate your weight increases the chances of preserving your future lung health. “This highlights the importance of monitoring children’s growth from an early age”says Professor Erik Melén, lead author of the research.
The final lesson from the study is that children with a stable but low BMI are also exposed to a risk of insufficient lung development, and therefore restricted respiratory capacity. This highlights, according to scientists, the need to further include these children with low BMI in nutritional measurements, while “the emphasis today is often placed on excess weight”.
