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 That was true even after taking obesity into account, the authors
say.
So-called cured meats have been preserved and flavored by the
addition of various combinations of salt, nitrates, nitrites, and
sugar. Examples of such processed meats include bacon, ham,
prosciutto, corned beef, pastrami, and pepperoni.
“Cured meat intake, a typical food in industrialized societies, has
been associated with many chronic diseases, including lung cancer
and COPD, but its association with asthma remained unclear,” study
leader Dr. Zhen Li told Reuters Health in an email. Li is a
researcher at Inserm and Paul Brousse Hospital in Villejuif.
As reported in Thorax, the research team had data on 971 adults from
five French cities who answered questions about diet, weight, and
asthma symptoms between 2003 and 2007.
On average, participants ate 2.5 servings of cured meats per week.
Just over 40 percent of the participants said they had had asthma at
some point, and around half said they had never smoked. Each
participant was assigned an asthma symptom score, ranging from zero
to five, based on difficulty breathing, chest tightness, and
shortness of breath during the previous year.
Follow-up surveys completed between 2011 and 2013 showed that about
half of the participants had no changes in their asthma scores, over
one-fourth said their symptoms had improved and about 20 percent
felt their symptoms had gotten worse.
After accounting for other factors such as smoking, physical
activity, age, other dietary habits, and education, researchers
found that participants who ate the most cured meat (four or more
servings per week) were 76 percent more likely to see a worsening of
symptoms compared to those who ate the least (less than one full
serving per week).
About 35 percent of the participants were overweight and about 10
percent were obese, based on their responses. Those conditions
probably explained about 14 percent of the association, the authors
estimated.
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“Our finding, together with other previous findings, suggests that
patients with asthma might have benefits by following a
multiple-interventional program,” Li said. “That means, besides the
medication, weight control as well as dietary intervention such as
reducing cured meat intake might also help them to control their
asthma symptoms.”
Dr. Sunit Jariwala complimented the study but noted that its
observational design means it can’t prove cause-and-effect.
"Cured meats are rich in nitrites which may lead to any kind of
oxidative stress related lung damage and asthma," said Jariwala, who
is director of allergy and immunology research at the Albert
Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New
York City.
Jariwala, who was not involved in the study, believes obesity is an
important consideration with asthma patients.
"In this study, as well as previous studies, obesity may be linked
to systemic inflammation that can worsen asthma as well as other
obesity related conditions such a sleep apnea," he said.
Jariwala advises patients to follow a balanced diet that includes
fresh, unprocessed foods and is low in salt, sugar, and saturated
fats.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2ht1H5Q Thorax, online December 20, 2016.
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