Daily HealthBeat Tip

Smoking and your kidneys

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I�m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

We know about smoking and lung cancer, and smoking and heart attacks. How about smoking and kidney disease?

Research now finds a possible reason why smokers with kidney disease get worse faster than nonsmokers do. It�s nicotine, best known for making tobacco addictive.

The study presented at an American Heart Association conference was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

The researchers say cells in parts of the kidneys that filter wastes also are sensitive to nicotine. And when these cells are activated by nicotine, they produce a protein associated with scarring in the kidneys.

Edgar Jaimes of the University of Miami:

"Smoking cessation should be part of the measures recommended to patients who have any kind of kidney disease and who also happen to smoke." (seven seconds)

Jaimes says it�s another reason why no one should smoke.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December 6, 2006

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