Happy New Year, fellow asthmatics.  If you're like me you focus on getting in better shape all year, but continue to fail.  I'm going to provide you with some added incentives to never quit trying to get into shape.

It's a simple fact that many of us tend to, well, gain a little weight as we age. It's normal actually. Yet, if you have asthma like me, you need to be a little more careful, because obesity and asthma do not bode well together.  It's a fact.

Quite often I'm asked this question: "Am I short-of-breath because I have asthma or because I'm overweight?" To be honest, the answer might be both.

I actually asked myself that question once, and I got my answer after I started doing the Body-for-Life Program and lost 40 pounds. Not only was I no longer winded, I was able to cut way back on my rescue inhaler usage. It was awesome.

For one thing, if you are overweight your heart is already working extra hard to pump blood through all your extra weight. So even minimal exertion may make you winded even if you don't have asthma.

Plus a full stomach, and stomach fat, may push up on your diaphragm, which may give your lungs less room to expand, which may also make you feel winded.

Eating McDonalds and other Fatty foods is fun and quite convenient, yet many studies show fatty foods may cause asthma.

A study completed by the Center for Disease Control showed that obese adults were 66% more likely than normal weight adults to have asthma. Experts at the University of South California did a study that showed obese children were 1.5 times more likely to be diagnosed with new onset asthma.

Results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2005-2006 (as you can see here) showed that "Obese children were about 26 percent more likely to have allergies than children of normal weight".

According to researchers from Kaiser Permanente, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, people with asthma are five times more likely to be hospitalized for asthma, have a lower quality of life, and have worse asthma control as compared to those with asthma at a normal weight.

Likewise, according to a study released in 2007 by researchers at Emory Crawford Long Hospital, obese asthmatics are more likely to have persistent or severe asthma.

This 2005 study by experts at the Harvard School of Public Health notes that 75% of emergency room visits are among asthmatics that are obese.

The study also notes that many people are obese before they become asthmatics. There are two theories why obesity may lead to asthma:

• Shallow breathing 
• Hormones released from fat tissue

Breaths are shallower than normal due to fat tissue making less room for the lungs to expand.  Full stomachs also puts added pressure on the diaghragm, which further restricts the ability of the lungs to expand.

This shallow breathing increases the probability inflammation will exist in the air passages of the lungs, and this causes the airways to narrow.