It’s no news that anyone who has diabetes has an increased chance of developing heart and kidney disease. The risk factors are there and make taking care of your health just that more important.

While there could be a number of reasons for an increased risk of these conditions, recent research is uncovering a potential hormone related issue.

The hormone under investigation is called klotho.

The Klotho Heart & Kidney Disease Link

Klotho is a hormone that may be able to assist in the protection of our arteries, especially in the protection from thickening of the arteries often associated with aging. Therefore, this hormone is thought to help protect us from developing heart disease.

So, where does the issue come in with diabetes?

Researchers have found that those with Type 1 diabetes or diabetic kidney disease had less of this hormone than those without the disease.

Due to this finding, this particular hormone is being associated with both Type 1 diabetes as well as kidney disease.

Next Steps

Now that researchers have this information, they intend to further investigate how klotho protects the body from age-related disease. They are excited in moving forward in finding new markers for these diseases as well as developing strategies to prevent them and how to cut back on this particular hormone which can then help them set forth new treatment options.

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