MedDiet May Improve Kidney Function of Transplant Recipients

Kidney trans­plant recip­i­ents fol­low­ing the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) were found to have a lower risk of renal func­tion decline and fail­ure, accord­ing to a study con­ducted by researchers at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands.

The study fol­lowed 632 Dutch kid­ney trans­plant patients whose donor kid­neys worked for at least a year.

The patients were fol­lowed for five years and asked to self-report their diet. Based on the given answers, the patients were rated on their con­for­mity to the Mediterranean diet from one to nine, with high scores mean­ing greater adher­ence.

While 19 per­cent of the par­tic­i­pants expe­ri­enced kid­ney func­tion decline (instead of the 33 per­cent of recip­i­ents who nor­mally expe­ri­ence kid­ney decline within 10 years of the trans­plant), higher adher­ence to the Mediterranean diet was inversely asso­ci­ated with renal func­tion decline.

Each score increase of two points was asso­ci­ated with a 29 per­cent decrease in wors­en­ing kid­ney func­tion and a 32 per­cent decline in the risk of renal fail­ure.

“Our results show that adher­ence to the Mediterranean diet was asso­ci­ated with kid­ney func­tion preser­va­tion in kid­ney trans­plant recip­i­ents, in par­tic­u­lar in patients with higher pro­tein­uria and those trans­planted more recently,” Antonio W. Gomes-Neto, the lead author of the study, said.

“Studies in the gen­eral pop­u­la­tion indi­cate that adher­ence to a Mediterranean-style diet might help kid­ney func­tion preser­va­tion,” he added. ​“Considering long-term graft fail­ure still occurs in a con­sid­er­able amount of kid­ney trans­plant recip­i­ents, we aimed to inves­ti­gate whether adher­ence to a Mediterranean-style diet might also ben­e­fit kid­ney func­tion preser­va­tion in kid­ney trans­plant recip­i­ents.”

Michelle Routhenstein, a clin­i­cal nutri­tion­ist who was not involved with the study, told Olive Oil Times that the anti-inflam­ma­tory prop­er­ties asso­ci­ated with the Mediterranean diet may be among the rea­sons why adher­ing to it is ben­e­fi­cial for kid­ney trans­plant patients.

“Due to its core prin­ci­ples of eat­ing more plant-based meals – rich in fruits, veg­eta­bles, nuts, seeds, healthy fats and spices, which impart a plethora of anti-inflam­ma­tory and antiox­i­dant prop­er­ties – the Mediterranean diet can be a good choice for a post-kid­ney trans­plant recip­i­ent because of its ben­e­fi­cial prop­er­ties that can reduce oxida­tive stress and inflam­ma­tion,” she said.

However, Routhenstein cau­tioned that when it comes to organ trans­plants there is no one-size-fits-all solu­tion and patients should always con­sult their doc­tors before choos­ing a diet.

“Each per­son needs to be eval­u­ated inde­pen­dently and quan­ti­ties of cer­tain nutri­ents and foods may vary based on the per­son’s lab­o­ra­tory find­ings, med­ica­tion pre­scrip­tion and food pref­er­ences,” she said. ​“Many indi­vid­u­als may still have impaired kid­ney func­tion and can­not eat high vol­umes of cer­tain nutri­ents preva­lent on the Mediterranean diet.”

The study was pub­lished in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

• Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology


• Medical Xpress