Men who experience signs and symptoms of a prostate obstruction resulting from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) are three times more likely than other men to develop chronic kidney disease, according to findings of a Mayo Clinic study published in this month’s edition of Kidney International. “This is the first study on the topic to sample the general community,” says Andrew Rule, M.D., the Mayo Clinic kidney specialist who conducted the study with epidemiologist Steven Jacobsen, M.D., Ph.D. “Symptomatic and non-symptomatic men were compared, unlike clinical trials and studies in a urology practice, which tend to represent only symptomatic men.” BPH and chronic kidney disease pose significant health problems in older men. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) occurs when the kidneys cannot rid metabolic wastes from the body or maintain the proper fluid and chemical balances. Eventually, the waste builds up and becomes poisonous to the body. Kidney disease can develop rapidly - in two to three months - or gradually over decades.
