Pregnancy adds demands to every part of the body, and for women with pre-existing chronic kidney disease, the burden on the kidneys can be severe. A recent feasibility study carried out by a team from King’s College London indicates that a daily intake of beetroot juice could be a safe and cheap method of controlling this pressure. The study was conducted among 108 pregnant women with stage 2 to stage 5 chronic kidney disease (diagnosis made pre-pregnancy).
The participants were recruited between eight hospitals in the UK before the 25th week of pregnancy. The women were randomized to follow usual care or additional of one fresh beetroot drink daily providing by a specified amount of dietary nitrate. Fresh beetroot was selected because the body converts dietary nitrates into nitric oxides.
Initial findings were positive. The women consuming the beetroot juice experienced on average 70% fewer Serious Adverse Events than the women receiving conventional treatment alone. Approximately half of all the Serious Adverse Events throughout the entire trial involved newborns so a saving in this area could have benefitted both mother and baby.
In women who already had more progressed kidney disease before pregnancy there was also a reported trend (although not statistically significant) toward better measured kidney function at 3 months after delivery, less are being admitted to intensive care and less blood-pressure medication being used during pregnancy. A lot, it was not linked to any safety issues. No signs of hyperkalemia, which can sometimes be a concern with beetroot products in kidney patients, and no other signals of harm for the mother or child.
The authors point out that the trial was Mostly designed for an assessment of feasibility and the signals from this pilot are sufficiently persuasive to proceed. Chronic Kidney disease complicates in 1 in 750 pregnancies occurring in the developed world and higher where disease prevalence is higher. At present most traditional or pharmalogical treatments of kidney disease are contraindicated or withdrawn during pregnancy. The idea of an affordable, nutritional-based option that is palatable and may even be preventative Because of this has a great attraction. Supplementation with beetroot juice is available on prescription, is cheap and well known to the general population. The biological basis is simple.
During pregnancy the demands upon the blood volume and filtration by the kidney are increased. Women who already have a kidney compromised, this extra load is a factor which can precipitate failure or other pregnancy complications such as hypertention. Nitric oxide from the dietary nitrate may help to keep the blood flowing more efficiently through the fine vessels of the kidney and placenta This way alleviating these problems.
The researchers are wary of overgeneralising. They emphasize that these are early results and that larger clinical trials must be carried out to ascertain whether beetroot juice actually could Much slow down the progression of kidney deterioration, or benefit maternal and offspring long-term outcomes. Still, the lack of any safety concern and the somewhat promising directional trends of the results represent a key first stage for a group women for whom interventions have been largely omitted.