New York: Adults with type 1 diabetes who are obese, especially those who carry excess weight around the middle, are at increased risk for developing kidney disease, a study shows.
"These results suggest that weight control is important in type 1 diabetes...and that lifestyle interventions, such as exercise and diet, may be useful in preventing kidney and heart disease in this group of people,” Dr Ian H de Boer said
Among 1,105 type 1, or "insulin-dependent," diabetes patients followed for an average of six years, 93 (8.4 per cent) developed microalbuminuria- small amounts of the protein albumin in urine, the first sign of diabetic kidney disease and a marker of increased risk for heart disease.
According to de Boer of University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues, the risk of microalbuminuria was significantly higher for patients who were particularly thick around the middle, what doctor's call "central obesity."
For each four-inch increase in waist circumference, the risk of microalbuminuria increased by 34 per cent, the team reports in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
The subjects in the study were part of the landmark Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), which showed that intensive insulin therapy or keeping blood sugar as close to normal as possible substantially lowers the risk of kidney disease and other complications of diabetes.
"The current study showed again that, overall, intensive insulin therapy is protective against kidney disease in type 1 diabetes," de Boer said.
Risk of kidney disease was 4.5 per cent for patients receiving intensive insulin therapy, compared with 12.8 per cent for patients receiving conventional insulin treatment.
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