Africans
and indeed Nigerians more susceptible to chronic kidney disease (CKD)?
Do soft drinks and sugar in diet have negative effects on the kidneys?
Do kidney disease patients who consume more vegetable protein live
longer? Could lowering salt intake improve heart and kidney health of
chronic kidney disease patients? Do having preeclampsia during pregnancy
increase risk of kidney failure?
A new study released over the weekend in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that genetic factors in African Americans with CKD put them at a greater risk for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) compared to white Americans.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland both in United States contributed data from two separate studies: the African American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension (AASK) and the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study (CRIC).
Both studies identified high-risk genetic variants in the APOL1 gene that speed up kidney disease progression and substantially increase the risk of developing kidney failure, compared to whites and blacks with low risk variants, with or without diabetes. Approximately one in 10 blacks possess the high-risk variants, though it is very uncommon in whites.
Doctors have raised alarm that blood pressure drugs that are taken by millions of Nigerians could raise the risk of potentially deadly kidney problems.
A study published recently in PLOS ONE has linked angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and related pills to sudden renal failure, which is fatal in up to 30 per cent of cases.
Researchers at Cambridge University are the first to assess the scale of the problem after concerns about the effects of the medication. At least five millions patients take the tablets, the most popular for high blood pressure, with the number rising each year.
The academics compared hospital admissions for sudden kidney failure with prescribing rates for ACE inhibitors and related pills.
These showed that between 2007-08 and 2010-11, there was a 52 per cent rise in admissions and a 16 per cent increase in prescriptions for the drugs.
The biggest increases in admissions tended are in patients from GP surgeries, which had the largest rise in prescriptions.
The researchers said there was ‘strong evidence’ of a link but their project did not prove the drugs were to blame.
They stressed that no patients should stop taking their tablets unless advised to do so by their doctor. However, safer prescribing of the drugs could cut kidney disease, and save money and lives, added the study.
The academics calculated that 1,636 hospital admissions in the study period could have been avoided if prescriptions had stayed at 2007-08 levels.
Meanwhile, two new studies highlight the potential negative effects that soft drinks and sugar can have on kidney health. However, increased consumption of vegetable protein was linked with prolonged survival among kidney disease patients in a new a study.
Three new studies suggest that controlling dietary acid intake could help improve kidney health.
A diet rich in wheat flour and animal protein produces an acidic environment in the body that worsens with age as kidney function declines.
This acid load can be detrimental to a variety of tissues and processes. Research suggests that consuming more fruits and vegetables, which are highly alkaline- may help counteract these effects.
Results of these studies were presented at American Association of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2013 November 5 to 10 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Also, reducing salt intake provides clear benefits for the heart and kidney health of patients with chronic kidney disease, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
The findings point to the power of salt restriction in potentially prolonging kidney disease patients’ lives. Excessive salt intake is consistently linked to increased risk of heart disease and worsening kidney function.
People with CKD may be particularly susceptible to salt’s detrimental effects due to the kidney’s important role in controlling salt balance and their increased risk of dying from heart disease. Until now, though, the effect of salt restriction in these patients has not been well explored.
Recent data from registry-based studies suggest that preeclampsia- a condition in pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure, sometimes with fluid retention and protein excretion in the urine- is a risk factor for developing kidney failure later in life, but the magnitude of this link and the contributions of individuals’ other medical conditions remain unknown.
To investigate the issue, researchers led by Andrea Kattah, MD (Mayo Clinic) studied 8362 residents of Olmsted County, MN who gave birth between 1976 and 1982. Kidney failure cases were identified by linkage with the United States Renal Data System; each case was matched to two controls.
A total of 20 cases of kidney failure were identified and available for analysis. The average age at diagnosis of kidney failure was 52.6 years. Per chart review, 8/20 (40 per cent) cases vs 5/40 controls (12.5 per cent) had preeclampsia or eclampsia (which is characterized by convulsions). Diabetes and hypertension were more common in cases than controls (50 per cent vs 15 per cent, 80 per cent vs 45 per cent, respectively).
In one study, researchers led by Prof. Ryohei Yamamoto (Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, in Japan) found that consuming at least two soft drinks per day is linked with proteinuria- or increased excretion of protein in the urine, which is a hallmark of kidney dysfunction.
Among 3579, 3055, and 1342 university employees with normal kidney function at the start of the study who reported that they drink zero, one, and two or more soft drinks per day, 301 (8.4 per cent), 272 (8.9 per cent) and 144 (10.7 per cent) employees developed proteinuria during a median of 2.9 years of follow-up, respectively.
Another study led by Agustin Gonzalez-Vicente (Case Western Reserve University) and conducted in rats found that moderate fructose intake increases the kidney’s sensitivity to angiotensin II, a protein that regulates salt balance.
This leads to increased salt reabsorption by cells in the kidneys, a finding that might help explain why consumption of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener may contribute to the epidemic of diabetes, obesity, kidney failure, and hypertension.
Highlights: Consuming at least two soft drinks per day is linked with increased excretion of protein in the urine. Moderate fructose intake increases salt reabsorption by the kidneys.
The study is titled “Soft Drink Intake and Prediction of Proteinuria: A Retrospective Cohort Study.”
Meanwhile, due to poor kidney function, toxins that are normally excreted in the urine can build up in the blood of individuals with CKD.
Research shows that compared with animal protein, vegetable protein intake in patients is linked with lower production of such toxins. It is unclear whether consuming more vegetable protein prolongs CKD patients’ lives, however.
To investigate, a team led by Xiaorui Chen (University of Utah) studied 1,104 CKD patients in the1988-1994 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III and asked them about their animal and vegetable protein intake.
After controlling for various factors such as age, smoking, and Body Mass Index (BMI), the researchers found that for each 10 gram increase in vegetable protein intake per day, participants had a 14 per cent lower risk of dying by the end of 2006. “Interventional trials are needed to establish whether increasing vegetable protein will decrease mortality in the CKD population,” they wrote.
The LowSALT CKD study represents the first blinded randomised controlled trial comparing a high vs low salt intake in people with CKD. During the study, Emma McMahon (PhD candidate, University of Queensland, in Australia) and her colleagues, led by principal investigator Katrina Campbell, PhD (Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Australia) compared the effects of a high salt diet (180 to 200 mmol/day) vs a low salt diet (60 to 80 mmol/day) maintained for two weeks each in a random order in 20 patients with CKD. (Dietary guidelines recommend limiting sodium to less than 100 mmol — which is 2300 mg or one teaspoon — per day.)
The team measured various parameters related to heart and kidney health, including change in extracellular fluid volume, blood pressure, and protein in the urine.
The researchers found that on average, low salt intake reduced excess extracellular fluid volume by one litre, lowered blood pressure by 10 /4 mm Hg, and halved protein excretion in the urine, without causing significant side effects.
“These are clinically significant findings, with this magnitude of blood pressure reduction being comparable to that expected with the addition of an anti-hypertensive medication and larger than effects usually seen with sodium restriction in people without CKD,” said McMahon. She was particularly impressed with the 50 per cent reduction in protein excretion in the urine.
“If maintained long-term, this could reduce risk of progression to end-stage kidney disease — where dialysis or transplant is required to survive — by 30 per cent.”
The findings suggest that salt restriction is an inexpensive, low-risk and effective intervention for reducing cardiovascular risk and risk of worsening kidney function in people with CKD.
“If these findings are transferable to the larger CKD population and shown to be sustainable long-term, this could translate to markedly reduced risk of cardiovascular events and progression to end-stage kidney disease, and it could generate considerable health-care savings,” said Dr. Campbell.
In an accompanying editorial, Cheryl Anderson, PhD, and Jochim Ix, MD (University of California San Diego School of Medicine) commended the researchers for providing important clinical trial data in support of current clinical practice consensus guidelines, noting, “this study makes us cautiously optimistic.” They added that larger studies with longer follow-up specifically designed and carried out in CKD populations are needed to help inform recommendations to both individual patients and policymakers.
Co-lead author W.H. Linda Kao, professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at Johns Hopkins University said: “Even though our studies found that African Americans with two copies of the high-risk APOL1 variants were at higher risk for kidney disease progression, about 40 per cent of the African Americans from the AASK study who also carried the high-risk variants had not progressed at the time of the study.
“This finding highlights the importance of identifying factors that may modify the effect of the APOL1 risk variants.”
Senior author Lawrence J. Appel, professor of medicine, epidemiology, and international health at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, noted the importance of the APOL1 gene and its effect on kidney disease progression in blacks.
“Blacks with chronic kidney disease and the high-risk genetic variants were more likely to have kidney disease that progressed, compared to both blacks without the high-risk genotype and whites,” he said.
Appel also stated that African Americans with low-risk variants still had a higher risk of developing kidney failure than whites.
Co-lead author Afshin Parsa, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine said: “What we found is pretty remarkable- that variations in a single gene account for much of the racial disparity in kidney disease progression and risk for end-stage kidney disease.
“If it were possible to reduce the effect of this gene, there could be a very meaningful decrease in progressive kidney and end-stage kidney disease within blacks.”
According to the investigators, preeclampsia is associated with higher odds of end stage renal disease. However, after adjusting for diabetes and hypertension, the association was attenuated and no longer significant.
“Larger population-based studies that rely on chart review or prospective studies are needed to confirm the association of preeclampsia and end stage renal disease.”
In a new study, a team led by Nimrit Goraya, MD (Texas A&M College of Medicine) investigated whether consuming fruits and vegetables can protect the kidney health of individuals with hypertensive nephropathy, a condition in which damage to the kidneys occurs due to high blood pressure.
In this study, 23 hypertensive patients received extra dietary fruits and vegetables, 23 patients received an oral alkaline medication, and 25 patients received nothing. One year later, kidney injury progressed in patients who received no intervention, but kidney health was preserved in those receiving fruits and vegetables or oral alkaline medication.
In another study, Eiichiro Kanda, MD, PhD (Tokyo Kyosai Hospital) and his colleagues investigated the role of dietary acid levels in CKD progression.
The retrospective study analyzed data from 249 CKD patients in Japan. High acid levels were linked with accelerated kidney function decline, and patients with elevated acid levels had an increased risk of CKD progression compared with patients with low acid levels. The findings suggest that monitoring and control of dietary acid levels are necessary for the prevention of CKD progression.
Another study led by Deidra Crews, MD, FASN (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) looked to see whether the effect of dietary acid on risk of kidney failure differed by race in a group of 159 non-Hispanic black and 760 non-Hispanic white CKD patients who had an annual household income below 300 per cent of the federal poverty guideline.
Participants were taking part in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Overall, 12.4 per cent of participants (38.3 per cent whites and 61.7 per cent blacks) developed kidney failure during an average of 6.4 years of follow up.
Blacks had higher acid levels than whites. They also had a three-fold higher risk of developing kidney failure compared with whites after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, and caloric intake. Increased acid levels were more strongly associated with kidney failure among blacks than among whites.
The findings indicate that among CKD patients with low socioeconomic status, the detrimental effect of high dietary acid levels on progression to kidney failure appears to be greater for blacks than for whites.
Kidney doctor Laurie Tomlinson, who co-wrote the report in the journal PLOS ONE, said some patients were anxious about the drugs.
“I have looked after many with acute kidney injury who were taking these medications prior to becoming unwell and have often worried the drugs were doing more harm than good,” she said.
It is thought that the drugs make it more difficult for the kidneys to cope when a stomach bug causes diarrhoea or vomiting. A urine or chest infection may also cause problems.
Lead author Dr Rupert Payne advised patients who get a bug to see their GP, who may give them blood tests and temporarily stop their tablets. “We are not saying these drugs are dangerous, that would be inappropriate, because there is clearly evidence they are very helpful to patients,” he said.
Dr. Rebecca Sucking, a kidney specialist and adviser to charity Blood Pressure UK, said, “overall the benefits outweigh the risks”. She added that many trials had shown the drugs “increase survival and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.”
The ACE inhibitors and related pills are given to heart attack patients, diabetics and otherwise healthy people whose high blood pressure puts them at risk of cardiac attacks and strokes.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said the drugs are highly effective and kidney problems are a recognised side effect.
A new study released over the weekend in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that genetic factors in African Americans with CKD put them at a greater risk for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) compared to white Americans.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland both in United States contributed data from two separate studies: the African American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension (AASK) and the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort Study (CRIC).
Both studies identified high-risk genetic variants in the APOL1 gene that speed up kidney disease progression and substantially increase the risk of developing kidney failure, compared to whites and blacks with low risk variants, with or without diabetes. Approximately one in 10 blacks possess the high-risk variants, though it is very uncommon in whites.
Doctors have raised alarm that blood pressure drugs that are taken by millions of Nigerians could raise the risk of potentially deadly kidney problems.
A study published recently in PLOS ONE has linked angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and related pills to sudden renal failure, which is fatal in up to 30 per cent of cases.
Researchers at Cambridge University are the first to assess the scale of the problem after concerns about the effects of the medication. At least five millions patients take the tablets, the most popular for high blood pressure, with the number rising each year.
The academics compared hospital admissions for sudden kidney failure with prescribing rates for ACE inhibitors and related pills.
These showed that between 2007-08 and 2010-11, there was a 52 per cent rise in admissions and a 16 per cent increase in prescriptions for the drugs.
The biggest increases in admissions tended are in patients from GP surgeries, which had the largest rise in prescriptions.
The researchers said there was ‘strong evidence’ of a link but their project did not prove the drugs were to blame.
They stressed that no patients should stop taking their tablets unless advised to do so by their doctor. However, safer prescribing of the drugs could cut kidney disease, and save money and lives, added the study.
The academics calculated that 1,636 hospital admissions in the study period could have been avoided if prescriptions had stayed at 2007-08 levels.
Meanwhile, two new studies highlight the potential negative effects that soft drinks and sugar can have on kidney health. However, increased consumption of vegetable protein was linked with prolonged survival among kidney disease patients in a new a study.
Three new studies suggest that controlling dietary acid intake could help improve kidney health.
A diet rich in wheat flour and animal protein produces an acidic environment in the body that worsens with age as kidney function declines.
This acid load can be detrimental to a variety of tissues and processes. Research suggests that consuming more fruits and vegetables, which are highly alkaline- may help counteract these effects.
Results of these studies were presented at American Association of Nephrology (ASN) Kidney Week 2013 November 5 to 10 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Also, reducing salt intake provides clear benefits for the heart and kidney health of patients with chronic kidney disease, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN).
The findings point to the power of salt restriction in potentially prolonging kidney disease patients’ lives. Excessive salt intake is consistently linked to increased risk of heart disease and worsening kidney function.
People with CKD may be particularly susceptible to salt’s detrimental effects due to the kidney’s important role in controlling salt balance and their increased risk of dying from heart disease. Until now, though, the effect of salt restriction in these patients has not been well explored.
Recent data from registry-based studies suggest that preeclampsia- a condition in pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure, sometimes with fluid retention and protein excretion in the urine- is a risk factor for developing kidney failure later in life, but the magnitude of this link and the contributions of individuals’ other medical conditions remain unknown.
To investigate the issue, researchers led by Andrea Kattah, MD (Mayo Clinic) studied 8362 residents of Olmsted County, MN who gave birth between 1976 and 1982. Kidney failure cases were identified by linkage with the United States Renal Data System; each case was matched to two controls.
A total of 20 cases of kidney failure were identified and available for analysis. The average age at diagnosis of kidney failure was 52.6 years. Per chart review, 8/20 (40 per cent) cases vs 5/40 controls (12.5 per cent) had preeclampsia or eclampsia (which is characterized by convulsions). Diabetes and hypertension were more common in cases than controls (50 per cent vs 15 per cent, 80 per cent vs 45 per cent, respectively).
In one study, researchers led by Prof. Ryohei Yamamoto (Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, in Japan) found that consuming at least two soft drinks per day is linked with proteinuria- or increased excretion of protein in the urine, which is a hallmark of kidney dysfunction.
Among 3579, 3055, and 1342 university employees with normal kidney function at the start of the study who reported that they drink zero, one, and two or more soft drinks per day, 301 (8.4 per cent), 272 (8.9 per cent) and 144 (10.7 per cent) employees developed proteinuria during a median of 2.9 years of follow-up, respectively.
Another study led by Agustin Gonzalez-Vicente (Case Western Reserve University) and conducted in rats found that moderate fructose intake increases the kidney’s sensitivity to angiotensin II, a protein that regulates salt balance.
This leads to increased salt reabsorption by cells in the kidneys, a finding that might help explain why consumption of high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener may contribute to the epidemic of diabetes, obesity, kidney failure, and hypertension.
Highlights: Consuming at least two soft drinks per day is linked with increased excretion of protein in the urine. Moderate fructose intake increases salt reabsorption by the kidneys.
The study is titled “Soft Drink Intake and Prediction of Proteinuria: A Retrospective Cohort Study.”
Meanwhile, due to poor kidney function, toxins that are normally excreted in the urine can build up in the blood of individuals with CKD.
Research shows that compared with animal protein, vegetable protein intake in patients is linked with lower production of such toxins. It is unclear whether consuming more vegetable protein prolongs CKD patients’ lives, however.
To investigate, a team led by Xiaorui Chen (University of Utah) studied 1,104 CKD patients in the1988-1994 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III and asked them about their animal and vegetable protein intake.
After controlling for various factors such as age, smoking, and Body Mass Index (BMI), the researchers found that for each 10 gram increase in vegetable protein intake per day, participants had a 14 per cent lower risk of dying by the end of 2006. “Interventional trials are needed to establish whether increasing vegetable protein will decrease mortality in the CKD population,” they wrote.
The LowSALT CKD study represents the first blinded randomised controlled trial comparing a high vs low salt intake in people with CKD. During the study, Emma McMahon (PhD candidate, University of Queensland, in Australia) and her colleagues, led by principal investigator Katrina Campbell, PhD (Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Australia) compared the effects of a high salt diet (180 to 200 mmol/day) vs a low salt diet (60 to 80 mmol/day) maintained for two weeks each in a random order in 20 patients with CKD. (Dietary guidelines recommend limiting sodium to less than 100 mmol — which is 2300 mg or one teaspoon — per day.)
The team measured various parameters related to heart and kidney health, including change in extracellular fluid volume, blood pressure, and protein in the urine.
The researchers found that on average, low salt intake reduced excess extracellular fluid volume by one litre, lowered blood pressure by 10 /4 mm Hg, and halved protein excretion in the urine, without causing significant side effects.
“These are clinically significant findings, with this magnitude of blood pressure reduction being comparable to that expected with the addition of an anti-hypertensive medication and larger than effects usually seen with sodium restriction in people without CKD,” said McMahon. She was particularly impressed with the 50 per cent reduction in protein excretion in the urine.
“If maintained long-term, this could reduce risk of progression to end-stage kidney disease — where dialysis or transplant is required to survive — by 30 per cent.”
The findings suggest that salt restriction is an inexpensive, low-risk and effective intervention for reducing cardiovascular risk and risk of worsening kidney function in people with CKD.
“If these findings are transferable to the larger CKD population and shown to be sustainable long-term, this could translate to markedly reduced risk of cardiovascular events and progression to end-stage kidney disease, and it could generate considerable health-care savings,” said Dr. Campbell.
In an accompanying editorial, Cheryl Anderson, PhD, and Jochim Ix, MD (University of California San Diego School of Medicine) commended the researchers for providing important clinical trial data in support of current clinical practice consensus guidelines, noting, “this study makes us cautiously optimistic.” They added that larger studies with longer follow-up specifically designed and carried out in CKD populations are needed to help inform recommendations to both individual patients and policymakers.
Co-lead author W.H. Linda Kao, professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at Johns Hopkins University said: “Even though our studies found that African Americans with two copies of the high-risk APOL1 variants were at higher risk for kidney disease progression, about 40 per cent of the African Americans from the AASK study who also carried the high-risk variants had not progressed at the time of the study.
“This finding highlights the importance of identifying factors that may modify the effect of the APOL1 risk variants.”
Senior author Lawrence J. Appel, professor of medicine, epidemiology, and international health at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, noted the importance of the APOL1 gene and its effect on kidney disease progression in blacks.
“Blacks with chronic kidney disease and the high-risk genetic variants were more likely to have kidney disease that progressed, compared to both blacks without the high-risk genotype and whites,” he said.
Appel also stated that African Americans with low-risk variants still had a higher risk of developing kidney failure than whites.
Co-lead author Afshin Parsa, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine said: “What we found is pretty remarkable- that variations in a single gene account for much of the racial disparity in kidney disease progression and risk for end-stage kidney disease.
“If it were possible to reduce the effect of this gene, there could be a very meaningful decrease in progressive kidney and end-stage kidney disease within blacks.”
According to the investigators, preeclampsia is associated with higher odds of end stage renal disease. However, after adjusting for diabetes and hypertension, the association was attenuated and no longer significant.
“Larger population-based studies that rely on chart review or prospective studies are needed to confirm the association of preeclampsia and end stage renal disease.”
In a new study, a team led by Nimrit Goraya, MD (Texas A&M College of Medicine) investigated whether consuming fruits and vegetables can protect the kidney health of individuals with hypertensive nephropathy, a condition in which damage to the kidneys occurs due to high blood pressure.
In this study, 23 hypertensive patients received extra dietary fruits and vegetables, 23 patients received an oral alkaline medication, and 25 patients received nothing. One year later, kidney injury progressed in patients who received no intervention, but kidney health was preserved in those receiving fruits and vegetables or oral alkaline medication.
In another study, Eiichiro Kanda, MD, PhD (Tokyo Kyosai Hospital) and his colleagues investigated the role of dietary acid levels in CKD progression.
The retrospective study analyzed data from 249 CKD patients in Japan. High acid levels were linked with accelerated kidney function decline, and patients with elevated acid levels had an increased risk of CKD progression compared with patients with low acid levels. The findings suggest that monitoring and control of dietary acid levels are necessary for the prevention of CKD progression.
Another study led by Deidra Crews, MD, FASN (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) looked to see whether the effect of dietary acid on risk of kidney failure differed by race in a group of 159 non-Hispanic black and 760 non-Hispanic white CKD patients who had an annual household income below 300 per cent of the federal poverty guideline.
Participants were taking part in the 1999-2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Overall, 12.4 per cent of participants (38.3 per cent whites and 61.7 per cent blacks) developed kidney failure during an average of 6.4 years of follow up.
Blacks had higher acid levels than whites. They also had a three-fold higher risk of developing kidney failure compared with whites after adjusting for factors such as age, sex, and caloric intake. Increased acid levels were more strongly associated with kidney failure among blacks than among whites.
The findings indicate that among CKD patients with low socioeconomic status, the detrimental effect of high dietary acid levels on progression to kidney failure appears to be greater for blacks than for whites.
Kidney doctor Laurie Tomlinson, who co-wrote the report in the journal PLOS ONE, said some patients were anxious about the drugs.
“I have looked after many with acute kidney injury who were taking these medications prior to becoming unwell and have often worried the drugs were doing more harm than good,” she said.
It is thought that the drugs make it more difficult for the kidneys to cope when a stomach bug causes diarrhoea or vomiting. A urine or chest infection may also cause problems.
Lead author Dr Rupert Payne advised patients who get a bug to see their GP, who may give them blood tests and temporarily stop their tablets. “We are not saying these drugs are dangerous, that would be inappropriate, because there is clearly evidence they are very helpful to patients,” he said.
Dr. Rebecca Sucking, a kidney specialist and adviser to charity Blood Pressure UK, said, “overall the benefits outweigh the risks”. She added that many trials had shown the drugs “increase survival and reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.”
The ACE inhibitors and related pills are given to heart attack patients, diabetics and otherwise healthy people whose high blood pressure puts them at risk of cardiac attacks and strokes.
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said the drugs are highly effective and kidney problems are a recognised side effect.
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