Rates of asthma and obesity are both at all-time highs in America, and according to The Spectrum, researchers at the University at Buffalo in NY have found a link between the two conditions.

Frank Cerny, professor and lead researcher, found that the increase in pressure of the chest walls caused by obesity may contribute to increased asthma symptoms.

"This pressure increase leads to the reducing of lung volume strictly altering the airways," Cerny says.

"The study originated out of the reviewing of statistics showing us the rapid increase in obesity over the past fifteen years," he continues. "Combine this with the yearly increase of asthma diagnoses, and you have two things that seem to be undoubtedly intertwined."

During the study, lung pressure was increased in subjects to simulate obesity.

"As the severity of the simulated obesity increased in the volunteers, lung volume was greatly decreased and airways became extremely agitated," Cerny says. "Physicians are mistaking this for asthma, when it really is normal breathing patterns of people with obesity."

Cerny advises that physicians need to use caution when diagnosing asthma in obese patients, recommending that the patient should lose weight prior to taking any medication, especially since it may not be required.