Heavy, high-fat meals appear to inflame airways within a few hours and inhibit the response to Ventolin (albuterol), an asthma relief medication. Since asthma is on the rise in westernized countries, some already believe it may be responsive to environmental factors such as diet. This means that for some sufferers at least, there may be some relief in changing lifestyles. Our western diet tends to be higher in fats than other cultural culinary traditions.
High dietary fat intake is believed to activate the immune response, which can mean greater susceptibility to inflammation. To test whether this affected the airways, researchers recruited 40 asthmatics and randomly served them either a high-fat, high-calorie meal of fast food burgers and hash browns, or a low-fat, low-calorie meal of reduced fat yogurt. Sputum samples were collected before the meal and 4 hours later.
Those who had ate the burgers suffered inflammation of the airways. The TLR4 cell surface receptors in their airways were activated by the nutritional fatty acids. They responded to the saturated fatty acids as if they were being attacked by a pathogen and released inflammatory mediators. Further, when given medication, they were less responsive to its effects.