Intermittent fasting can protect kidneys in obesity

Credit: CC0 Public Domain.

Scientists from the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that time-restricted feeding improves markers of kidney and vascular health in obesity.

The research was presented at the American Physiological Society (APS) and American Society for Nephrology Control of Renal Function in Health and Disease conference.

In the study, the team fed mice either a high-fat or normal diet. After the mice developed obesity, the researchers split the high-fat diet animals into two groups.

Half maintained continuous access to food while the other half had access restricted to the 12 hours they were most active—7 p.m. to 7 a.m.

The time-restricted mice showed a number of improvements in their kidney health compared to the other high-fat diet mice. They excreted less of a key marker of kidney damage.

They showed less damage to two different parts of the tissue and reversed damage in the space between cells.

The small blood vessels in their kidneys had increases in the metabolic coenzyme, NAD+, and activation of the key metabolic enzyme, AMPK, which was similar to that of normal-diet mice.

These findings suggest that restricting the timing of high fat intake reduces renal damage and increases renal vascular metabolism, perhaps linked to increased AMPK activation, during diet-induced obesity.

If you care about kidney health, please read studies about kidney cancer: 5 things you need to know, and this drug duo could help treat kidney failure.

For more information about kidney disease, please see recent studies about common eating habits that may harm your kidney health, and results showing why processed foods trigger chronic kidney disease.

Copyright © 2022 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.