What Hurts the Heart Also Hurts the Kidney; Study Finds Same Factors Increase Risk For Both Diseases

The same risk factors that lead to heart attack and stroke -- high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol levels -- can also cause kidney failure, says the latest report from the long-running Framingham Heart Study. "It's not necessarily a surprise," says Dr. Caroline S. Fox, lead author of the research, which appears in the Feb. 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Vascular problems, the kind of damage to blood vessels that result in heart attack, stroke and other cardiovascular conditions, can also damage the kidneys, she says, although that is not a complete explanation of the relationship.