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
Let us talk about the benefits of tracking food & the nutritional OCD pitfalls.
Strength By Fitness Brand New Article: Food tracking benefits & nutritional OCD pitfalls. Now, in a recent podcast version of my article “Protein Et Al” ( read this Protein Et Al on Medium by clicking here, or head on over to our article library to read it right...
Welcome to our YouTube Podcast, Episode No.2
You are welcome to tune in to episode 2 of our YouTube podcast as we discuss Protein Et Al. Namely the Fact-based importance of high-protein foods for your health, body composition, and fitness across your entire health span.
Let Us Talk About Protein.
High-protein plans provide vastly better health outcomes and biological aging. Recovery & fitness progression also improves drastically. This brand new Strength By Fitness article takes a look at the important protein studies from 2023 and 2024.
Let us talk about Creatine.
The fact-based impact of Creatine Monohydrate on our health, fitness, well-being, and aging process. From strength, and intense gym, and sports capacity to cognitive function, the impact of Creatine supplementation is well-researched and understood and the case for daily, lifelong Creatine supplementation continues to increase.
Let us talk about hypertrophy & physical capacity, and your fitness focus.
Welcome back dear readers to another fact-based article from the STYRKA team at Strength By Fitness. Today I´ll be a little philosophically provocative with many of you, after all in today’s aesthetically focused world increased hypertrophy is for many the main pillar in their fitness plans, and the oft unspoken reason they go to the gym at all. But is that really the best big pillar focus for your gym visits?
Welcome To Our Podcast, Episode One.
The STYRKA Podcast from Strength By Fitness, your fact-based coaching in-person & online for a healthier life and better fitness progression, nutritional choices, and habits.
In Episode 1 we talk about the many ways that Mike Mentzer was wrong about exercise volume, frequency, protein intake, and recovery.
Also available on Spotify, https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/styrkapodcast .
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.