Long-term negative effects of high-protein diets

People suffering from chronic kidney disease should opt for a low protein, low salt diet as compared to high-protein diets, suggests a study.

The research was led by nephrologist Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, MD, MPH, PhD, of the University of California, Irvine.

It was aimed to examine the role nutrition plays in managing chronic kidney disease, a condition that affects approximately 10 percent of the world's adult population.

"The high protein diet that has been used increasingly in recent years to control weight gain and obesity may have deleterious impacts on kidney health in the long term," said researcher Kalantar-Zadeh.

Chronic kidney disease is defined as evidence of structural or functional renal impairment for three or more months and is generally progressive and irreversible.

Applying the potential benefits of nutritional management of the condition have remained underutilized in the U.S. and many other countries, said Kalantar-Zadeh.

"There is an exceptionally high cost and burden of maintenance dialysis therapy and kidney transplantation," he said.

"Thus, dietary interventions and nutritional therapy may be increasingly chosen as a management strategy for CKD, helping to increase longevity and delaying the need for the onset of dialysis for millions of people worldwide."

The research also indicates that a low protein, low salt diet may not only slow the progression of CKD as an effective adjunct therapy, but it can also be used for the management of uremia, or high levels of urea and other uremic toxins in the blood, in late-stage or advanced CKD and help patients defer the need to initiate dialysis.

The article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.