‘Junk food’ causes kidney damage similar to those of type 2 diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is a disease usually associated with obesity and that now suffers more than 350 million people worldwide.

Specifically, type 2 diabetes is characterized by insufficient production or inappropriate use of insulin, that is, the hormone responsible for cells to capture blood glucose to produce energy.The result is an excess of glucose in the circulatory torrent, which ends up causing damage to numerous organs.

This is the case of the kidneys, in which the appearance of diabetic nephropathy, one of the main causes of chronic renal disease and, therefore, of the need for dialysis and even kidney transplantation entails.

However, as a study carried out by researchers from the Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge (United Kingdom), there is a second situation that can cause both kidneys and type 2 diabetes: abuse the so -called 'junk food'.

As Havovi Chichger, director of this research published in the magazine "Experimental Physiology", "The western diet contains more and more junk and fat food, and the association between the excessive consumption of this type of food and therecent increase in the prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

In our work, both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes induced changes in glucose transport in the kidney.And in this context, junk food or fat -rich diet caused changes very similar to those that take place in type 2 diabetes ».

rats with diabetes

To carry out the study, the authors used animal models - straight - of diabetes and obesity and resistance to insulin induced by the diet.The objective was to see how insulin resistance - that is, the inability of the organs to properly capture the hormone - and excess sugars and fats affect glucose transporters - membrane receivers responsible for introducing glucose into cells into the cells- In the kidney.

The animals were well fed with a diet consisting of cheese, chocolate bars, biscuits and masters for eight weeks, either with a fat -rich diet for a period of five weeks.

Junk food causes very similar changes to those that take place in type 2havovi chichger diabetes
After the feeding phase, the researchers analyzed the effects of both types of diet on blood glucose levels and glucose transporters in the kidneys.And also compared these effects with the changes observed in animals with diabetes - both type 1 as type 2.

The results, as indicated by the authors, “showed the presence of two glucose, glut and SGLT transporters, and their regulatory proteins in a large number of animals with type 2 diabetes. And what is more important, both junk food andThe fat -rich diet caused a similar increase in both membrane receptors ».

care with junk food

Consequently, the blockade or inhibition of this reabsorption of glucose in the kidneys could offer, at least from a potential point of view, a new therapeutic route to reduce blood glucose levels.

As Havovi Chichger concludes, «the inhibition of glucose transporter in the kidney to reduce blood glucose levels constitutes a new treatment for diabetes patients.In addition, knowing how the diet can affect the management of glucose in the kidneys and when these inhibitors can reverse these changes could help protect the kidneys from new damage.