American Heart Association: Asthma as a Kid, Stiffer Arteries as an Adult?

In 2014, it was reported that blacks were almost three times more likely to die from asthma related causes than the white population. Just a year later, black children were marked 4 times more likely to be admitted to the hospital for asthma, as compared to non-Hispanic white children. The unfortunate truth is black children had a reported death rate of ten times that of non-Hispanic white children.

According to a new study, having asthma as a child is associated with developing stiff arteries earlier in adulthood.
The study, published in the journal Hypertension, sought to explore the link between asthma, a chronic lung disease that makes breathing difficult, and stiff arteries, which is associated with heart disease and stroke.

“Abundant evidence has linked adulthood asthma with cardiovascular disease, but whether or not a history of asthma from childhood influences arterial stiffness was largely unknown,” said the study’s lead author Dr. Dianjianyi Sun, a postdoctoral research fellow and senior biostatistician at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans.