Kidney Health

Obesity and Type 1 Diabetes Linked to Kidney Disease

Children with type 1 diabetes face a lifetime of treatment and concerns over side effects. One step in preventing many of these side effects, such as uncontrolled blood sugar, heart disease and nerve damage, is maintaining a healthy weight.

New research further stresses the importance of avoiding obesity for people with type 1 diabetes. Having a high weight, it seems, increases the risk of developing diabetic kidney disease, say researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle.

“Obesity is a growing problem for people with type 1 diabetes,” said Dr. Ian H. de Boer, study author, in a press release. “But little was previously known about whether it affects risk for kidney disease in this group.”

Diabetic kidney disease occurs when diabetes causes damage to the kidneys. It is most pronounced when diabetes is not properly controlled and high levels of blood sugar need to be filtered out by the kidneys. This causes excess strain on the kidneys and they begin to leak, making it difficult for the kidneys to properly filter waste from the blood stream, leading to kidney disease.

It has long been understood that obesity can play a role in how a person with type 1 diabetes can control their blood sugar levels. But no research looked at the connection between obesity and diabetic kidney disease.

Therefore, de Boer and colleagues looked at data on almost 1,300 patients with type 1 diabetes from the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT). Over the course of six years, 8.4 percent of patients developed an early sign of diabetic kidney disease, small amounts of a particular protein in the urine.

It was determined that the larger the patient’s waist—a typical measure of obesity—the higher the risk for developing this early sign of kidney failure: for every four inch increase in waist circumference, the risk of having this condition increased by 34 percent. However, the rate of kidney failure could not be linked to obesity.

“Our results suggests that weight control is important in type 1 diabetes and that overweight patients with type 1 diabetes may need further evaluation and treatment,” said de Boer.

Experts recommend that patients with diabetes be extra vigilant about eating well and exercising to maintain a healthy weight. “For these patients, lifestyle interventions such as exercise and diet may be useful in preventing kidney and heart disease,” said de Boer.