People with asthma who are overweight or obese do not respond well to the inhaled steroids that are often used to treat the disease, new studies have found.

Asthma treatments are 40 percent less effective in obese asthmatic patients because obesity limits the pathways by which steroids reduce inflammation in the body, researchers from the National Jewish Health in Denver said

People who regularly use paracetamol are at three fold risk of having asthma, a new research has found.

Study author Dr. Seif Shaheen from Imperial College London and team questioned over 500 adults with asthma and over 500 people without asthma about the use of painkillers. Taking paracetamol weekly increases the risk of asthma three-fold, research has found

More than 70,000 people developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the 9/11 attacks, a new analysis from the World Trade Center Health Registry said.

The report, released by the New York City health department and published in the Journal of Urban Health examines health effects among all 71,437 participants of the WTC Health Registry for up to 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. This is an estimated 17.4 percent of the people exposed to the disaster

Overweight or obese men suffering from asthma are nearly five times more likely to be hospitalised for the condition as compared to non-obese people, a new study has said.

The first of its kind study, conducted by David M Mosen of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research at Denver surveyed 1,113 asthma patients above 35 years of age, while controlling risk factors like smoking, use of oral or inhaled medications, gastroesophageal reflux disorder, and demographics that might explain the obesity-asthma association

For the first time ever, the U.S. Centers for Medicare Services is making the information on hospital death rates available online. This will allow consumers to compare certain death rates at the hospitals with national and statewide averages.

Death rates for patients with pneumonia, heart attacks and heart failure are now posted on Medicare's Web site, www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov. Most area hospitals show 30-day mortality rates for pneumonia, heart attack and heart failure that are little different from the national average of about 16 percent