Here's How Obesity Can Damage Your Kidneys

Your kidneys are the third most important organ of your body which is vulnerable to damage due to a number of factors. One such factor is obesity. Actually, obesity is the biggest culprit. Obesity refers to the accumulation of excess fat on your body which can expose you to a number of ailments altogether. Nephrologist Dr. Rajeev Sood says that obesity and kidney diseases are strongly related. He says, "Obesity is related to a number of kidney diseases. It increases the load on kidneys and lowers the capacity of their basic functioning units. This results in early chronic kidney diseases."

How does obesity affect the kidney?

"One is a direct effect of obesity on the kidney. Under this, the kidney weight also increases. The second one is a result of metabolic syndrome. Obesity is a part of the metabolic syndrome and that includes hypertension, diabetes, and insulin resistance. All these factors affect the kidneys. Because of obesity, the person feels lethargic and does not exercise enough which again affects the kidney. Obesity affects people irrespective of their age. At present, 16-17% of the kids above 10 years of age are obese. Overall, obesity is prevalent in all ages," Dr. Sood explained.

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Factors responsible for kidney diseases

Dr. Sood laid focus on the major factors which affected kidney disease risk. These included pollution and diabetes.

"Another factor is the place you are living in. If you are living in a highly polluted city, then the efficiency of your kidneys gets affected. This is about chronic kidney diseases. It affects urinary acidity. It makes your urine acidic and increases sodium load on your kidneys. All these factors affect the stone formation in kidneys. Kidney stone formation increases altogether. This is why obese people develop more kidney stones," he explained.

"If a person is diabetic and obese, the intestine develops bad flora. The toxins and byproducts of this flora can cause kidney diseases. So there are a number of ways by which obesity can affect kidneys," he added.

Also read: Foods To Eat And Avoid In Case Of Kidney Stones

Dr. Sood concluded by saying, "25% of the kidney cancers take place in obese people. This is the third most important organ which suffers from cancer due to obesity. It also increases the speed of kidney failure. Patients who are in the advanced stage of kidney disease will lose their kidney more easily. And once the transplant is done on patients, the transplanted kidneys also get rejected by the body. So obesity can harm the kidneys in a number of ways, it can lead to tumors, stones, cancers, infections and other kidney-related diseases."

(Dr. Rajeev Sood is the Dean and Head of the Department of Urology at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital)

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