Originally published February 16 2006
Risk of kidney failure increases in obese patients
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Foodconsumer.org reports on a study authored by Chi-yuan Hsu, MD, UCSF assistant professor of medicine, the results of which indicate that obesity increases a patient's risk of kidney failure.
Overweight or obese people face a significantly higher risk of developing end-stage renal disease (ESRD) or kidney failure compared with those who have normal body weight, according to a study appearing in the Jan. 3 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco Compared and Kaiser Permanente of Northern California Division of Research conducted the current study, finding obese people were seven times more likely to have kidney failure compared with those with a normal weight.
The findings suggest that obesity should be considered a risk factor for the illness, and that kidney failure is yet another consequence of obesity.
"There are more and more people with kidney failure, but it hasn't been appreciated much that kidney failure can be a consequence of obesity," said Chi-yuan Hsu, MD, UCSF assistant professor of medicine and lead author of the study.
"If you are mildly overweight, not even frankly obese, you are roughly 90 percent more likely to develop end-stage renal failure," Hsu said.
According to the study, for the morbidly obese, the risk could be over 700 percent greater.
The study involved over 320,000 Northern California Kaiser members whose body mass index (BMI) was calculated during health checkups between 1964 and 1985.
Being overweight is defined as a BMI of over 25 kg/m2, while a BMI of over 30 kg/m2 is viewed as class I obesity.
The correlation was strong even after risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and smoking were considered.
In the United States, more than 400,000 men and women need long-term kidney dialysis and almost 100,000 new ESRD patients begin renal replacement therapy each year, according to the National Healthcare Quality Report.
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