Exercise May Boost Aging Immune System

Abstract

The other study offers the first evidence that asthma also may be linked to PTSD. Renee D. Goodwin, MPH, PhD, of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City, and colleagues found that Vietnam veterans who report the most symptoms of PTSD are 2.3 times more likely to have asthma than those who report the least PTSD symptoms, based on an analysis of 3065 male twin pairs from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry (Goodwin RD et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2007;176[10]:983-987). The work also confirmed other studies’ findings of an association between asthma and depression in adults. Further analysis involving a comparison of the results within identical and fraternal twin pairs did not find a substantial difference between the two groups, suggesting that genes do not play a large role in the association between asthma and PTSD. The scientists also probed the relative contributions of some environmental or behavioral factors, including body mass index, smoking, exposure to combat trauma, and the sociodemographic characteristics of the individuals, and found none that fully explained the link between asthma and PTSD. Goodwin and her team are planning longitudinal studiesofchildrentoexamine whether prenatal factors, such as havingamotherwhosmokedduringpregnancy, may explain the association betweenasthmaandpsychiatricproblems. In the meantime, Goodwin said, physicians should be aware that patients with asthma who are exposed to trauma or other difficult life events might have an elevated risk of developing PTSD or other psychiatric disorders, and consider screening them for such comorbities.