Can Non-smokers Have Polycystic Kidney Disease

It has been found that smoking is a great risk factor of renal cystic diseases, weather it is non-inherited simple kidney cyst or hereditary PKD. Hence many people think that smoking can cause polycystic disease and think that non-smokers will not develop PKD.

This is actually not the truth. The causes of polycystic kidney disease are different from those of other kidney disease and even those do not drink, smoke or over-work can have PKD and I will explain this.

PKD is a hereditary renal disorder and it can be sub-divided into 2 types---autosomal recessive PKD and autosomal dominant PKD. PKD is a genetic and inherited disease and it is not definitely related to smoking because most patients inherit the disease from their parents and there are few cases that develop the disease from gene mutation.

As for the causes of PKD, recently some scholars have put forward a new theory called two-hit. It holds that patients will not develop PKD without external inducement even though they carry the pathogenic gene. And these external inducements might be tobacco, alcohol and it can also be upper respiratory tract infection or improper intake of renal toxicity medicines and drugs and it can also due to mood, diets or over-tiredness.

Of cause this new theory has not received consensus in clinic. But one thing can be sure is that it can do a lot of benefits to PKD to try to avoid the above mentioned risk factors and possible inducing elements such as smoking, tobacco, infections, renal toxicity drugs as well as improper diets and unhealthy lifestyles.

If you are a smoker and PKD patient, you are strongly recommended to quit smoking. This can help control high blood pressure and reduce the risk of aneurysms which is one of the major causes of early death for PKD patients.