Washington, Sep 18 (Inditop.com) Shedding pounds can help patients of kidney diseases protect their health, says a new study led by an Indian American.
More than a third of US adults are either obese or overweight. Weight loss can improve a number of health problems. For example, it can improve control of diabetes, lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and reduce the effects of heart disease.
Sankar Navaneethan of the Cleveland Clinic, who did his MBBS from Madras Medical College, and his colleagues analysed data from 13 studies that assessed the impact of diet, exercise, and surgical procedures on kidney function.
The analysis revealed that weight loss attained through diet and exercise reduces proteinuria (excess excretion of protein in the urine, a hallmark of kidney damage) and may prevent additional decline in kidney function in obese patients with kidney disease.
Studies also showed that surgical interventions normalise the filtration rate of the kidneys in obese patients with high filtration rates (a risk factor for the development of kidney disease).
While the findings imply that weight reduction may prevent the progression of kidney disease in obese patients, the authors noted that there were only a small number of studies available for analysis.
Additional high-quality long-term studies on this topic are needed, they said.
These findings will appear in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).
