Low-Protein Diet Delays Dialysis, Study Finds
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A strict low-protein diet can keep kidney failure patients off dialysis for as long as a year, researchers said.
Doctors usually try to put patients on dialysis as early as possible, but the study, published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, found the special diet worked just as well or even better.
``Our study clearly shows that many of these end-stage patients can be safely managed with diet for substantial intervals after they have reached or passed the usual point for beginning dialysis,'' Dr. Mackenzie Walser of Johns Hopkins University, who led the study, said in a statement.
``In our diet study, predialysis mortality was only 2.5 percent per year -- much lower than the 24 percent annual mortality from dialysis reported nationwide. Furthermore, nutrition and blood chemical values were well maintained.''
The researchers put 76 patients who were dying of kidney disease onto very low protein diets with amino acid supplements. The supplements allowed their bodies to build the protein needed, without burdening their kidneys with extra protein, which is usually excreted in urine.
The patients ate plenty of fruits and vegetables and left out meat, fish and dairy products.
``It seems surprising at first that restricting protein intake in patients does not lead to malnutrition,'' Walser said. But the patients did fine.
``By contrast, predialysis patients who eat too much protein can develop loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, which reduce the intake of all nutrients and lead to a decline in nutritional status.''
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