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Weight gain within the normal range increases risk of
Chronic Kidney Disease
Newswise — Healthy
individuals who gain weight, even to a
weight still considered normal, are at risk
for developing chronic kidney disease (CKD),
according to a study appearing in the
September 2008 issue of the Journal of
the American Society Nephrology (JASN).
The study suggests that CKD
should be added to the list of conditions
that are associated with weight gain,
including diabetes and hypertension.
Research has shown that
obesity is linked to an increased risk of
CKD, but no studies have looked at the
effects of weight gain within the “normal”
range of an individual’s body mass index.
o investigate, Drs. Seungho
Ryu and Yoosoo Chang of the Kangbuk Samsung
Hospital in Seoul, Korea, and their
colleagues conducted a prospective study of
individuals who were of a healthy weight and
had no known risk factors for chronic kidney
disease.
In Korea, all workers
participate in either annual or biennial
health exams, as required by Korea’s
Industrial Safety and Health Law.
As a result, the
investigators had access to clinical data
from thousands of individuals. For this
study, they included 8,792 healthy men who
participated in the health exams in 2002.
The researchers discovered a
U-shaped association between weight change
and development of CKD. Men who lost or
gained a lot of weight (more than 0.75 kg
per year) had the highest risk of developing
CKD.
Those whose weight changed
minimally (within a range of -0.25 to <0.25
kg per year) had the lowest risk, even when
factors such as body mass index, age,
exercise, lipids, and blood glucose levels
were taken into account.
The authors note that their
finding of an increased risk associated with
weight loss should be interpreted with
caution.
A number of factors may have
complicated the results. For example, men
with the most weight loss may have been less
healthy at the start of the study.
According to Dr. Ryu, because
the recommended weight for a person of a
given height spans a wide range, individuals
are not likely to be observant of weight
fluctuations as long as they remain within
the healthy range.
But this study shows that
weight gain even within the normal range is
significantly associated with an increased
risk of developing CKD.
“Our findings show that
weight gain within ‘the normal’ weight range
is clearly one of the risk factors in
developing CKD, and initial low body mass
index does not counteract the deleterious
effect of weight gain. Therefore, avoidance
of weight gain, even among lean individuals,
is important to reduce the risk for this
disease,” the authors said.
The article, entitled
“Changes in Body Weight Predict CKD in
Healthy Men,” is currently available online
at
http://jasn.asnjournals.org/ and will
also be available in the September 2008
print issue of JASN.
ASN is a not-for-profit
organization of 11,000 physicians and
scientists dedicated to the study of
nephrology and committed to providing a
forum for the promulgation of information
regarding the latest research and clinical
findings on kidney diseases.
ASN publishes JASN, the
Clinical Journal of the American Society of
Nephrology (CJASN), and the Nephrology
Self-Assessment Program (NephSAP). In
January 2009, ASN will launch a
newsmagazine.
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