According to a study in the Journal of the American Society and Nephrology, people having low beat-to-beat heart rate variability and high resting heart rate may have an increase risk of developing kidney diseases.

According to the research, the behavior of the autonomic nervous system can be a marker to determine late development of kidney diseases. The autonomic nervous system regulates the body functions like responses to stress, temperature regulation, heart rate, and blood pressure. The dysfunction in the autonomic nervous system is associated with chronic kidney diseases but the relationship is not yet clear. They need to conduct more research regarding this study.

According to Daniel Brotman, MD (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine), the study of the relationship between subsequent development of kidney disease and dysautonomia is very important in the discovering new therapies for kidney diseases. They studied 13,241 people who participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC). To assess dysautonomia, they measure the heart rate variability of the subjects.

According to the researchers, the resting heart rate of young adults accelerates and decelerates as they breathe.  Lower resting heart rates and higher beat-to-beat variability in heart rate indicates a healthy autonomic nervous system and normal cardiovascular health. It only means that higher resting rates and lower beat-to-beat variability indicates dysautonomia.

Dr. Brotman found out that people with higher resting rates have higher risk in developing kidney failures. They concluded that heart rate measurements can be a way to know if a patient can have higher risk of kidney diseases.

According to Dr. Brotman, the study does not show cause and effect. They have no solid proof about the relationship of heart rate and kidney diseases. They are hoping that their study will encourage further research in this study to find new therapeutic approaches for kidney diseases.