Chronic kidney disease is when a person’s kidneys progressively lose their ability to filter waste from the blood and eliminate fluids.
In a new study from Karolinska Institute, researchers found that people with reduced kidney function may have an increased risk of developing dementia.
Chronic kidney disease affects approximately 15% of adults in the United States and it is more common as people age.
However, since many people don’t experience symptoms until later stages, it is estimated that 90% of people with chronic kidney disease don’t know they have it.
In the study, the team used a database to identify nearly 330,000 people 65 years and older who received health care in the city of Stockholm and were followed for an average of five years.
None of the participants had dementia or had undergone kidney transplants or dialysis at the start of the study. Over the course of the study 18,983 people, or 6% of participants, were diagnosed with dementia.
Creatinine is a waste product from muscles that is removed from the blood by the kidneys and released into the urine.
Using blood tests of plasma creatinine, researchers estimated the glomerular filtration rate for each participant, a measure of how well the blood is filtered by the kidneys and that is commonly used to approximate kidney function.
Using this measure, researchers then determined the rates of dementia in people with different levels of kidney function.
They found as kidney function decreased, the rate of dementia increased.
After adjusting for other factors, they determined that people with moderate chronic kidney disease had a 71% higher risk of developing dementia compared to those with normal kidney function, and people with severe kidney disease had a 162% higher risk.
Researchers also examined data on 205,622 participants who had multiple blood tests over one year. They used those tests to estimate the speed of kidney function decline.
They found that a steeper decline in a person’s filtration rates during this time frame was also associated with a higher risk of a dementia diagnosis later on.
The findings suggest chronic kidney disease is a possible risk factor for dementia.
They raise awareness of the link between these two conditions and may help doctors develop strategies to screen for kidney disease and monitor kidney function in people at risk of dementia. Identifying and treating cases sooner may reduce the risk of dementia.
If you care about kidney health, please read studies about these blood fats could cause inflammation, harm blood vessels and kidneys and findings of this stuff in blood could protect against heart failure, kidney damage.
For more information about kidney disease prevention and treatment, please see recent studies about this kidney problem linked to heart failure and results showing that this FDA-approved drug could protect kidney health in people with diabetes.
The study is published in Neurology. One author of the study is Hong Xu, M.D., Ph.D.
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