Weighing In on Kidney Disease Linked to Obesity
Weighing In on Kidney Disease Linked to Obesity
April 26, 2001 -- Just as railroads and airlines charge extra for heavy cargo, the human body exacts a heavy price for obesity in the form of heart disease and diabetes. And with the major rise in body size seen in the U.S. and other western nations over the last 15 years, there has been a 10-fold increase in a serious form of kidney disease called obesity-related glomerulopathy.
"We had a definite subjective sense that the incidence of this disease was increasing, and we put it to the test by actually looking at our numbers and indeed we show a 10-fold increase in the incidence over a 15-year period," says Vivette D. D'Agati, MD, professor of pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.
D'Agati and colleagues studied nearly 7,000 kidney biopsy samples collected over a 15-year period, and found that the incidence of obesity-related glomerulopathy, or ORG, jumped from 0.2% of all samples taken from 1986 to 1990, to 2% of all samples taken from 1996 to 2000. That leap is significant enough for the researchers to title the report of their study in April's Kidney International "An Emerging Epidemic".
The increase in ORG coincides with a sharp increase in rates of obesity in the U.S. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination survey, nearly one-fourth of Americans are obese, defined as a body mass index (height to weight ratio) greater than 30. The survey also found that more than half of Americans are overweight, defined as a BMI greater than 25.
"One of the first things we showed in this paper that has not been described before is that there is also an association of this disease with submorbid obesity; in other words, patients who have [mild-to-moderate] obesity," D'Agati tells WebMD.
The researchers found that the patients with ORG had an average BMI greater than 41, putting them in the category of morbidly obese. With the excess pounds come increased risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, insulin-resistance, and type 2 diabetes, all of which can have adverse effects on the kidneys as well.
Weighing In on Kidney Disease Linked to Obesity
"We had a definite subjective sense that the incidence of this disease was increasing, and we put it to the test by actually looking at our numbers and indeed we show a 10-fold increase in the incidence over a 15-year period," says Vivette D. D'Agati, MD, professor of pathology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.
D'Agati and colleagues studied nearly 7,000 kidney biopsy samples collected over a 15-year period, and found that the incidence of obesity-related glomerulopathy, or ORG, jumped from 0.2% of all samples taken from 1986 to 1990, to 2% of all samples taken from 1996 to 2000. That leap is significant enough for the researchers to title the report of their study in April's Kidney International "An Emerging Epidemic".
The increase in ORG coincides with a sharp increase in rates of obesity in the U.S. According to the National Health and Nutrition Examination survey, nearly one-fourth of Americans are obese, defined as a body mass index (height to weight ratio) greater than 30. The survey also found that more than half of Americans are overweight, defined as a BMI greater than 25.
"One of the first things we showed in this paper that has not been described before is that there is also an association of this disease with submorbid obesity; in other words, patients who have [mild-to-moderate] obesity," D'Agati tells WebMD.
The researchers found that the patients with ORG had an average BMI greater than 41, putting them in the category of morbidly obese. With the excess pounds come increased risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, insulin-resistance, and type 2 diabetes, all of which can have adverse effects on the kidneys as well.
Source...