Studies probe links between childhood asthma and obesity.

Fordecades, investigators have been documenting associations between obesity and asthma in adults, although the underlying mechanisms involvedhave remained largelyunknown.Ongoing work is revealing a link in children as well and is providing new insights into the potential basis of the association. “Thereappear tobecausative links from the perspective of obesity preceding asthma,but itdoesnotappear tobeasimple causal pathway,” saidDeepaRastogi,MBBS, MS, director of the Pediatric Asthma Center of theChildren’sHospital atMontefiore/ Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.