PKD Life - Summer 2022 - 20

F
or people with
ADPKD, carrying
excess pounds can
increase blood pressure
and force the kidneys to
work harder.
That can lead to worrisome
consequences, including a
faster progression of the disease,
says Kristen L. Nowak,
Ph.D., associate professor
of renal diseases and hypertension
at the University of
Colorado in Aurora and lead
author of a first-of-its-kind
study exploring the link
between weight and ADPKD.
" In our research, people
Losing excess pounds
can improve your
ADPKD. Here's why it
helps, and how you can
shed the weight.
By Beth Howard
who were overweight, and
particularly those who were
obese, had a faster rate of
growth of their kidneys, "
Nowak says. " There was also
an association of greater
weight with a decline in kidney
function. "
The good news is that these
trends can be reversed. In
Nowak's latest study, published
in January, researchers
put overweight and obese
people with ADPKD on different
weight-loss diets and
followed them for a year.
The result: " People who
lost the most weight had
the slowest growth of their
kidneys, whereas the people
who weren't successful with
weight loss had the most
rapid growth of their kidneys, "
Nowak says. " We can't
say for sure that weight loss
slows kidney growth, because
the study wasn't looking for
that, but we're now doing a
larger two-year trial that will
enable us to directly answer
this question. "
20 PKD LIFE * SUMMER 2022
PKD Life - Summer 2022

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