No deep breaths with excess weight: Belly fat can hamper your lung function

Apart from the other disadvantages of having excess weight around the waist, love handles may even harm your lungs. A study by French researchers suggests that belly fat can limit your ability to take a deep breath.

The study analysed health information on more that 120,000 people from the Paris Investigations Preventives et Cliniques Center, and assessed demographic background, smoking history, alcohol consumption, as well as lung function, including FEV1 (forced expiratory volume in one second) and FVC (forced vital capacity, or the total expiratory volume) with respect to BMI, waist circumference and other measures of metabolic health. “After adjustment for age, sex, BMI, smoking status, alcohol consumption, leisure time physical activity and cardiovascular history, metabolic syndrome remained independently associated with lung function impairment,” wrote lead author Natalie Leone.

“We found a positive independent relationship between lung function impairment and metabolic syndrome mainly due to abdominal obesity.” Abdominal obesity was defined as having a waist circumference of greater than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men. “[This] study demonstrated that only mild abdominal adiposity, even with a normal body mass index (BMI), in associated with lower FVC,” said Paul Enright, M.D., of the University of Arizona, in an accompanying editorial. “This association may result from the mechanical effects of truncal obesity and/or the metabolic effects of adipose tissue,” wrote Dr. Leone. “Abdominal obesity may mechanically affect the diaphragm and chest wall compliance with decreased lung volumes.”

Moreover, adipose tissue itself is known to be involved in a complex metabolic feedback cycle- the mass of adipose tissue in one’s body directly and positively correlates with pro-inflammatory markers and negatively correlates with anti-inflammatory markers. “[A]dipose tissue may act as an additional source of systemic inflammation.” wrote Dr. Leone. The researchers also found a significant interaction between metabolic syndrome and smoking status, with estimated lung function impairment risk in current and former smokers being higher than in those who never smoked. The study has been published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.