A new UCSF-led study of nearly 3,000 individuals links obesity to the development of kidney disease. The work also shows that, when properly measured, declines in kidney function are detectable long before the emergence of other obesity-related diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Healthy kidneys are vital to the proper functioning of the heart and brain, as well as the skeletal and immune systems, and the research adds additional urgency to the call for doctors to intervene early in life with obese patients, the researchers said. “We’re getting larger and larger at younger and younger ages, so the problems we will see that are directly related to obesity are going to become more common and they’re going to start earlier in life,” said Vanessa Grubbs, MD, UCSF assistant adjunct professor of medicine and first author of the new study. “Even before the level at which we can diagnose illnesses, decline in kidney function is happening. Is it reversible? We’re not sure. Preventable? It stands to reason that it would be.”