Obesity and Kidney Diseases

Kidney Disease is often thought to be a rare occurrence and one can really not see it coming as in
most of the cases 90% of the kidney function is already lost by the time any significant symptoms
appear. It is also assumed that kidney disease manifests primarily in the old age. It is important to
know that these are serious myths about kidney disease that need to be addressed. Especially when
one has a pre-existing condition that increases the risk of developing kidney disease. Some of the
major risk factor to look out for include:
1. Diabetes
2. Hypertension
3. Obesity and overweight
4. Family history of kidney diseases
5. Habits like cigarette smoking
6. Other kidney problem like recurrent urinary tract infections, stones and tumors, etc.
Overweight/Obesity & Kidney Disease
600 million people worldwide are affected by obesity
Individuals affected by obesity have 83% higher risk of developing kidney disease.
24.9% of CKD in women is associated with obesity and overweight.
13.8% of CKD in men is associated with obesity and overweight.
CLEARLY, obesity contributes to be one of the major risk factors in the occurrence of kidney
disease. Obesity itself can directly lead to CKD because in obese people the BMI being high, the
kidneys have to work harder to meet the higher metabolic demands of the body by filtering beyond
the normal values hyperfilteration. Indirectly obesity contributes to the development of diabetes,
hypertension and dyslipidemia that is altered lipid metabolism which in turn lead to kidney diseases.
Obesity and Overweight
Both Obesity and overweight can be defined as an excessive or abnormal accumulation of fat that
affects the overall health of the body.
Body mass index (BMI) is an index of weight-for-height that is used to classify overweight and
obesity in adults. It is defined as a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of his height in
meters (kg/m2).
In Adults
1. BMI greater than or equal to 25 is categorized as Overweight and
2. BMI greater than or equal to 30 as Obesity
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