Keto diet effective at controlling polycystic kidney disease: Study

New York, Dec 12: Ketogenic diet -- consisting of foods with very low levels of carbs -- is effective at controlling polycystic kidney disease (PKD), according to the first randomised controlled clinical trial.

PKD is an inherited disorder in which clusters of cysts develop primarily within the kidneys, causing the organs to enlarge and lose function over time.

The trial, published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, aimed to investigate the effect of the fasting response known as ketosis on the cysts that are the hallmark of the disease.

"I'm really happy about these clinical trial results," said biologist Thomas Weimbs, at University of California-Santa Barbara.

"We now have the first evidence in humans that the cysts really don’t like to be in ketosis and that they don’t seem to grow," he added.

For PKD patients, these findings represent an opportunity to control a genetic disease that leads to a progressive condition, causing pain and robbing them of their quality of life, and often resulting in the need for dialysis and kidney transplantation as the cysts destroy the kidneys’ ability to effectively filter and remove waste from the body.

"If you have PKD, the dogma is that it’s a genetic disease," Weimbs said.

"And no matter what you do, you progress toward kidney failure and diet doesn’t make any difference, which unfortunately most patients are told to this day."

This prevailing belief was what the Weimbs Lab and colleagues from various research institutions in Germany set out to challenge with their trial. Sixty-six PKD patients were randomly split into three groups: a control group that received routine PKD counselling, another group that underwent a three-day water fast every month, and a third group that observed a low-carbohydrate, high-fat ketogenic diet.