The danger in Sugar, your Kidney at risk

In most cases, the things that kill, are the sweetest. The below is an outstanding report

Soft drinks, sugar have negative effects on kidney, heart .
If you drink a lot of sweetened or soft drinks, this is something to consider. Emerging research suggests that regular consumption of sugar and sweetened drinks not only predispose to weight gain, heart problems, diabetes and tooth decay, it could also cause kidney damage, reports Sade Oguntola.That cold bottle of common sugar-sweetened beverage or cup of juice may be haven after a long walk in the sun and there is need to quench one’s thirst, but drinking this two to three times daily does not do the body any favour.Scientists looking into how diets high in sugars and sugary-sweetened beverages negatively imparts the body found that aside this contributing to weight gain and increased diabetes risk, daily intake of soft drinks can affect the functioning of important organs of the body such as the heart and the kidney.Researchers in a new study found that employees at a university in Japan who consumed more than two bottles of soft drinks a day were more likely to have protein in their urine when compared to those who had fewer or no soft drink on a daily basis.Protein in the urine is considered an early, but reversible, marker of kidney damage. Now, it is also taken as an early marker for heart disease, stroke and heart failure.This study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, in Atlanta, included more than 12,000 university employees who underwent their annual check-ups at their health centre. As part of the examination, their urine was tested for evidence of protein.Nearly 11 per cent of employees who said they drank two or more soft drinks per day had protein in their urine during three years of follow-up. In contrast, 8.4 per cent of those who did not drink soda and roughly nine per cent of those who drank about one can a day tested positive for protein in their urine.In a second study from Case Western Reserve University, researchers analysed the effects of fructose or fruit sugar consumption on kidney function in rats.  Overall, the rats that consumed fructose had kidneys much more sensitive to a protein that regulates salt.  Researchers believe this sensitivity might help explain why consumption of high-fructose corn syrup, which is now used to sweeten most soft drinks, may contribute to the epidemic of diabetes, tooth decay, bone structures, obesity, kidney failure, and hypertension.Previously, a cross-sectional study documented in the journal, PLoS ONE, that  women who drink two or more cans of regular sugary beverages a day may be increasing their risk of kidney damage by as much as 86 per cent due to the drink’s sugar content.The analysis included 9,358 participants ages 20 and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1999 through 2004.After adjusting for age, race, ethnicity, gender, poverty level, and whether the soft drinks were diet, there was an overall 40 per cent increased risk of albuminuria, a protein and sensitive marker for early kidney disease, among participants who drank at least two regular soft drinks a day.A January 2012 study in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found that people who gulp diet soda daily have a 43 per cent higher risk of vascular events, such as stroke and heart attack, than people who do not drink diet soft drinks. However, light diet soda drinkers, those who take diet soft drinks somewhere between once a month and six a week, were not more likely to suffer vascular events.Drinking one sugar-laden soft drink every day could dramatically increase the chances of having a heart attack.  A study of more than 40,000 men suggested that a daily sugar-sweetened drink raised the chances of having a heart attack by 20 per cent.Tests on blood samples showed those who drank these sugary beverages tended to have higher levels of dangerous blood fats and of proteins linked to heart disease. Levels of ‘good’ cholesterol were lower, the journal Circulation reported.The 2012 study also found that the more sugary drinks someone had, including fruit squashes to which sugar is added during manufacturing, the more the risk rose.Is there a safe amount of soft drink to take daily? There is really no safe amount of beverage to take considering its sugar content and the fact that most exceeds the recommended amount of sugar individuals should take.American Heart Association guidelines recommended daily sugar intake of nine teaspoons for adult men, five teaspoons for adult women and three teaspoons for children.Dr Adebowale Ademola, a consultant paediatric nephrologist, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, however said that if the new findings that overconsumption of soft drinks can affect the functions of the kidney could be proven, it means that people would need to be more careful with intake of sugary drinks.“Many people add sugar to their tea, coffee and other food items that they take and so this might mean that individuals would have to eat less sugar,” he said.Dr Ademola, noting that inadequate intake of water and salt had been established to distort the functions of the kidney, said kidney damage however could occur due to excessive intake of food, especially junks, where this habit results into obesity.He declared: “Things like carbohydrate will not damage the kidneys directly. But if a person is obese, obesity can take its toll on the functions of the kidney. There is a condition that is medically called obesity-associated kidney disease that occurs because someone is obese.”Dr Ademola, however, said in Nigeria that hypertension and diabetes account for the majority of kidney disease cases in adults while congenital problems and infections were commoner causes in children.