This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information:
verify here.

Rewarding for
you and us
Defeat Diabetes Foundation

Defeat Diabetes
Foundation
150 153rd Ave,
Suite 300
Madeira Beach, FL 33708

Asthma Tied to Diabetes and Heart Disease

Posted: Tuesday, April 05, 2011

People with asthma may have a higher risk of developing diabetes and heart disease.

Experts were surprised by the findings, which looked at medical records from the late 1960s through the early 1980s and found higher rates of diabetes and heart illness among asthmatics than other people.

Dr. Young J. Juhn, of the department of pediatric and adolescent medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, who led the research, found that people with asthma were not at greater risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease or rheumatoid arthritis, but Juhn said that was likely due to the small sample size. "The trend was in a positive direction for all four pro-inflammatory conditions," he said.

One expert said the results were unexpected because asthmatics have a different immune system profile from cardiac and diabetes patients.

Dr. Jennifer Appleyard, chief of allergy and immunology at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, explained, "It was surprising because there are two broad categories (of immune profiles) that they're looking at here."

One type of profile is more common to people with asthma, and the other more common to those with inflammatory diseases such as arthritis and coronary heart disease, she said. Appleyard noted that, in theory, a person prone to asthma should not be prone to diabetes. She believes that the study findings should be seen as preliminary and more research is needed to understand the relationship.

"It's important to look at how they (asthma, and diabetes or heart disease) interact or affect each other, both looking at possible causes and risk factors, and then specific treatment geared to that part of the immune system," Appleyard said.

In background materials for the study, lead author Juhn noted that although people with asthma have a more allergy-prone immune profile, it is balanced by a counter-regulatory one known as the Th1 immune profile, which underlies pro-inflammatory conditions such as coronary artery disease and diabetes. He speculated that there might be "an inverse relationship" between asthma and those types of pro-inflammatory conditions.

The study found that among asthmatics, about 138 people per 100,000 had diabetes, compared to 104 for people without asthma; the rate for coronary heart disease was close to 189 per 100,000, versus 134 among non-asthmatics.

The study also looked at patients from the 1960s through the 1980s who did not have access to many medications available today, she noted. Treatment 40 years ago was very "steroid heavy," which could have contributed to weight gain -- a known risk factor for diabetes and heart disease, Dahl said. "Sometimes treatment can be part of the problem," she said.

Source: http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10701&catid=53&Itemid=8, Presented at the March 20, 2011, annual meeting, American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in San Francisco.