Abstract
Obesity is a major health problem worldwide. The prevalence of obesity is increasing and its association with multiple comorbidities is now firmly established. It is considered as an independent risk factor for reduced survival. Obesity directly affects respiratory mechanics at rest and during exercise. Obese individuals usually show changes in certain lung volumes, respiratory compliance and ventilatory behaviour. Dyspnoea is the limiting symptom usually experienced by these individuals.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Jones RL, Nzekwu MM. The effects of body mass index on lung volumes. Chest 2006; 130:827–833.
Berrington de Gonzalez A, Hartge P, Cerhan JR, Flint AJ, Hannan L, MacInnis RJ, et al. Body-mass index and mortality among 1.46 million white adults. N Engl J Med 2010; 363:2211–2219.
Després JP, Lemieux I, Prud’homme D. Treatment of obesity: need to focus on high risk abdominally obese patients. BMJ 2001; 322:716–720.
Sharp JT, Henry JP, Sweany SK, Meadows WR, Pietras RJ. The total work of breathing in normal and obese men. J Clin Invest 1964; 43:728–739.
Pelosi P, Croci M, Ravagnan I, Vicardi P, Gattinoni L. Total respiratory system, lung, and chest wall mechanics in sedated-paralyzed postoperative morbidly obese patients. Chest 1996; 109:144–151.
Alexander JK, Dennis EW, Smith WG, Amad KH, Duncan WC, Austin RC. Blood volume, cardiac output, and distribution of systemic blood flow in extreme obesity. Cardiovasc Res Cent Bull 1962; 1:39–44.
Milic-Emili J, Torchio R, D’Angelo E. Closing volume: a reappraisal (1967–2007). Eur J Appl Physiol 2007; 99:567–583.
Rubinstein I, Zamel N, DuBarry L, Hoffstein V. Airflow limitation in morbidly obese, nonsmoking men. Ann Intern Med 1990; 112:828–832.
Magnani KL, Cataneo AJ. Respiratory muscle strength in obese individuals and influence of upper-body fat distribution. Sao Paulo Med J 2007; 125:215–219.
Rochester D. Obesity and pulmonary function. In: MAJ Alpert, editor. The heart and lung in obesity. NY, USA: Futura Publishing Company, Armonk; 1998. 108–132.
Babb TG, Ranasinghe KG, Comeau LA, Semon TL, Schwartz B. Dyspnea on exertion in obese women: association with an increased oxygen cost of breathing. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2008; 178:116–123.
Watson RA, Pride NB, Thomas EL, Fitzpatrick J, Durighel G, McCarthy J, et al. Reduction of total lung capacity in obese men: comparison of total intrathoracic and gas volumes. J Appl Physiol (1985) 2010; 108: 1605–1612.
Jensen D, Ofir D, O’Donnell DE. Effects of pregnancy, obesity and aging on the intensity of perceived breathlessness during exercise in healthy humans. Respir Physiol Neurobiol 2009; 167:87–100.
Guenette JA, Jensen D, O’Donnell DE. Respiratory function and the obesity paradox. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 2010; 13:618–624.
Sood A. Altered resting and exercise respiratory physiology in obesity. Clin Chest Med 2009; 30:445–454.
Steier J, Jolley CJ, Seymour J, Roughton M, Polkey MI, Moxham J. Neural respiratory drive in obesity. Thorax 2009; 64:719–725.
Sin DD, Jones RL, Paul Man SF. Obesity is a risk factor for dyspnea but not for airflow obstruction. Arch Intern Med 2002; 162:1477–1481.
Ofir D, Laveneziana P, Webb KA, O’Donnell DE. Ventilatory and perceptual responses to cycle exercise in obese women. J Appl Physiol (1985) 2007; 102:2217–2226.
Lafortuna CL, Agosti F, Galli R, Busti C, Lazzer S, Sartorio A. The energetic and cardiovascular response to treadmill walking and cycle ergometer exercise in obese women. Eur J Appl Physiol 2008; 103:707–717.
O’Donnell DE, Hong HH, Webb KA. Respiratory sensation during chest wall restriction and dead space loading in exercising men. J Appl Physiol (1985) 2000; 88:1859–1869.
Romagnoli I, Laveneziana P, Clini EM, Palange P, Valli G, de Blasio F, et al. Role of hyperinflation vs. deflation on dyspnoea in severely to extremely obese subjects. Acta Physiol (Oxf) 2008; 193:393–402.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.
Rights and permissions
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
About this article
Cite this article
Shoukri, A. Effects of obesity on respiratory mechanics at rest and during exercise. Egypt J Bronchol 9, 224–226 (2015). https://doi.org/10.4103/1687-8426.165884
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/1687-8426.165884