Strength By Fitness
The Health & Mortality Outcome From Kidney Disease With A High-protein Intake. Welcome to another fact-based article from Strength by Fitness.
I have lately seen some health, nutrition & fitness conversations about protein intake and kidney disease. Expressing the good old fable that a healthy high-protein intake will be a bad thing for people with kidney issues.
And especially so the elderly.
But this is a fable for most people, based on a small grain of truth. So let me make two simple but fact-based statements.
A.
The older you are the more protein you need to remain healthy, mobile, cognitively capable, strong, and durable with a good amount of daily energy.
So, the question becomes, could this well-established, basic fact be upturned if you are unfortunate enough to have some level of compromised kidney health?
“The older you are the more protein you need to remain healthy, mobile, cognitively capable, strong, and durable with a good amount of daily energy.
could this well-established, basic fact be upturned if you are unfortunate enough to have some level of compromised kidney health?”
Coach Mike, Strength By Fitness
After all, we do know that the ongoing progression of a person’s kidney health itself can progress worse in people with CKD when they consume a lot of protein. So it makes sense that it has long been the standard advice to avoid eating above RDA for anyone with any level of chronic kidney disease. But is this the right advice when we look at the most up to date data and scientific knowledge across health, food, aging, and fitness?
B.
Well, to answer this in a short and clear way. Let us look at this fresh 2024 all-cause-mortality study that included 8543 adults whom all were 60 years and older.
The average age of participants was 78 years of age, and I wont you to let me be frank because the fact-based, real-life outcome is dead easy.
Do you need help succesfully changing your lifestyle habits?
We provide coaching, online, and on-location, in-person.
TLDR:
The higher the participants intake of total protein the better their mortality risk and outcomes.
Yes, this held true for mixed protein, animal, and plant protein since it was all associated with lower mortality in all participants with mild or moderate CKD.
Read that again, mortality risk and health outcomes improved the more protein they consumed.
In plain numbers.
Mortality risk with CKD ( chronic kidney disease ). Numbers represent grams of protein per kilo of body weight and day.
1.00 vs 0.80 g/kg/d dropped to 0.88 (95% CI, 0.79–0.98)
1.20 vs 0.80 g/kg/d, improved to 0.79 (95% CI, 0.66–0.95)
1.40 vs 0.80 g/kg/d, this pushed the reduction of mortality risk further down to 0.73 (95% CI, 0.57–0.92).
So as you can see, the more total protein per day they consumed, the better the mortality outcome, this is despite the fact that all participants had CKD.
Is there any negative feedback at all?
Well, that would be that the outcomes were even better among high-protein participants without chronic kidney disease.
But just because healthy elderly people benefit even more from a high-protein intake, that doesn’t in any way change that people with mild to moderate kidney disease also benefit from a high-protein intake.
This tells me that a higher protein intake with its many, many positive health outcomes outweighs the negative impact of CKD, stages 1 to 3, to such a degree that it just doesn’t matter if chronic kidney disease and a higher protein intake isn’t the best of friends.
That sum of it all health and mortality outcome that you can see so clearly in this study is ultimately what matters for all humans.
In other words, unless you have such a severe health issue that it makes a low protein intake a necessity every single human being should be on a high-protein food plan ( and particpate in weekly strength training and aerobic exercise ), this fact-based recommendation includes people with mild to moderate chronic kidney disease ( stage 1 to 3 ).
In my opinion, that is, but this is what the most current health, food and fitness science also tells us.
What I can’t say based on this study is where the benefit of more protein will cease to outdo the negative impact of a higher stage CKD anymore.
But for stage 1 to 3 high-protein is the way to go.
Cited study.
1. Anabolic sensitivity in older fit people vs young and fit people.
Anabolic Sensitivity in Healthy, Lean, Older Men Is Associated With Higher Expression of Amino Acid Sensors and mTORC1 Activators Compared to Young — Horwath — Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle — Wiley Online Library
2. Age-related decline in type II skeletal muscle fiber unless you strength train good enough.
Aging leads to selective type II myofibre deterioration and denervation independent of reinnervative capacity in human skeletal muscle — Horwath — Experimental Physiology — Wiley Online Library
3. Fat loss with or without exercise and outcomes in muscle mass.
Effect of exercise modality and weight loss on changes in muscle and bone quality in older adults with obesity – ScienceDirect
4. Jama Network, Chronic Kidney Disease and mortality outcomes relative to a person’s protein intake.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2822055?s=09
Do you need help with your fitness, health, habits, and nutrition? Strength By Fitness doesn’t just produce fact-based content across all these domains, we also coach and train people in-person and online.
Click coaching in the menu on top and get in touch.
You can also read this article over at Medium if you are a paying Medium Member.
strength by fitness
podcasts
recent articles
High-protein, home made ice cream, V02 / lower carb.
Welcome back to another, tasty high-protein ice cream recipe from Strength By Fitness coach team, Mike and Mida. Today we present version two, which pulls of almost the same high-protein content but with substantially fewer whole plant-based carbs for those of you thats leaning more into a lower carb approach.
This version delivers roughly 70 grams of protein and roughly 530 calories. Making it a slightly better high-protein, high-satiety meal.
High-protein Oat Meal. V02 ( Home made Ice Cream ). Berries, fiber, protein and nutritional completeness.
All Strength By Fitness meals provide a good protein and fiber-to-energy ratio together with a wide spectrum of protein sources and micronutrients. Due to the immense amount of protein ( 85g & 766 calories ), we believe that this luxurious homemade ice cream oatmeal is best enjoyed post-gym, or as a healthy evening dinner with your significant other.
Plant-Based High-Protein Oat Bowl. Breakfast or post-gym?
Welcome to a tasty high-protein oat bowl from Strength By Fitness coach team, Mike and Mida.
This fabulous high-protein oat bowl delivers roughly 56 grams of protein from 3 main sources of protein, all while delivering around 615 calories, making it a genuine high-protein, high-satiety meal, loaded with micronutrients, fiber, and satiety to boot.
As with all Strength By Fitness meals, you will find a good protein and fiber-to-energy ratio together with a wide spectrum of protein sources and micronutrients.
Vegan Mince and Pepper Salad V02, High-protein and Moderate Fat.
This is version 2 of our popular vegan mince and green pepper salad. With around 66 grams of protein, more healthy fats, almost 50% less whole plant-based carbs, and more leafy greens this is a tasty variant of the same high-protein meal with a nutritional difference. Enjoy.
Plant-Based High-Protein Recipe: Pepper, Mince Salad.
This is one of Strength By Fitness plant-based high-protein meals. A tasty high-protein salad with peppers and vegan mince. 70 grams of protein, from 3 different protein sources, nutritiously rich and satiating.
Recipe Strength By Fitness.
Our mountainous hike on our gym-free Saturday.
Saturday is one of our weekly gym-free recovery days. This means that we prioritize ‘us’ time, chilling, relaxing, recovering, eating healthy high-protein foods supplanted with plenty of whole plant-based foods, and doing nonexhaustive activities that are done for adventure, fun, family, relationship, calm, rejuvenating and quality of life time.
We appreciate you
so stay healthy & never stop training
Contact
Private In-App Messaging is Available For All App + Coaching Clients
Adress
Coaching Is Available Online Via App on IOS & Google Play, and In-person, On-location.