– Combination better than either alone

by Salynn Boyles, Contributing Writer
September 13, 2017

MILAN — Eating a healthy diet and engaging in regular exercise are lifestyle interventions commonly recommended to obese asthma patients to keep their asthma under control. Now research presented here suggests that they can also help normal-weight patients breathe easier.

Non-obese asthma patients who engaged in eight weeks of both supervised exercise and dietary intervention in the randomized, controlled trial scored 50% better than participants randomized to no intervention in the study for self-reported asthma control and quality of life.

Participants randomized to the individual exercise or dietary interventions scored, on average, about 30% better than controls, but these differences did not reach statistical significance.

Study lead author Louise L. Toennesen, MD, PhD, of Bispebjerg University Hospital in Copenhagen, told MedPage Today that only patients in the combined diet-and-exercise intervention group showed statistically significant differences in asthma control and quality of life compared to the control group.

“Neither exercise nor diet seemed to be more important than the other,” she said.

The study included 149 non-obese, adult patients randomized to one of four groups: an exercise group, a diet group, an exercise and diet group, and controls (usual care).

Toennesen explained that the exercise training component consisted of three supervised spinning classes a week for eight weeks, combining high-intensity activity interspersed with lower-intensity exercise.

Participants who took part in the dietary intervention ate a high protein, low glycemic index diet during the eight-week trial, that included at least six portions of fruits and vegetables per day.

A total of 125 patients remained in the study for the full eight weeks.

Pre- and post-intervention, asthma control, asthma-related quality of life, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁), and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) levels were measured.

Participants in the exercise plus diet group showed significant reductions in asthma control and a significant improvement in asthma-related quality of life, compared to control patients (mean change -0.6, 95% CI -0.1 to -0.2, P<0.01 and 0.5, 95% CI 0.1-0.9, P<0.01, respectively)

No significant changes were observed between the two groups in the objective measures of asthma control, FEV₁ airway responsiveness and FeNO.

There were no adverse events related to the high-low intensity training, suggesting that this type of cardiovascular exercise is safe in this setting, Toennesen said.

The researchers concluded that clinicians caring for adult patients with asthma should include discussions about the benefits of diet and exercise in their patient consultations.

“We know that many patients are interested in whether they can improve their asthma control with exercise and a healthy diet,” she said. “Our research suggests that people with asthma should be encouraged to eat a healthy diet and take part in physical activity.”