High levels of leptin, an inflammatory compound produced by body fat, may raise the risk of asthma in premenopausal women, new research suggests. However, levels of leptin have little to do with the well-described association between obesity and asthma, Reuters reported. Because previous reports have linked leptin levels with asthma in children, Dr. Akshay Sood, from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, and colleagues decided to see if it held true in adults as well. Using data from 5876 participants in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the researchers found that elevated leptin levels did, in fact, correlate with doctor-diagnosed asthma in adults. This association was stronger in women than in men and stronger in premenopausal women than in postmenopausal women. Consistent with earlier reports, body mass index (BMI) -- a measure of weight in relation to height -- was directly linked to asthma risk. Taking leptin levels into account had very little effect on this association, according to the team's report in the medical journal Thorax. --More 23 08 Local Time 20 08 GMT
