Diet may 'reverse kidney failure' in diabetics

(Source: The Indian Express, 26 April 2011)
A controlled diet high in fat and low in carbohydrate may help repair kidney damage in diabetics, a new study has found. Researchers at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York found a "ketogenic diet" could reverse the damage caused to tubes in the kidneys by too much sugar in the blood. For their study, the researchers used laboratory mice with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

Once kidney damage had developed, half the mice were put onto the ketogenic diet, which is 87 per cent fat and mimics the effect of starvation. After eight weeks, the researchers noted that kidney damage was reversed in those rodents which were on the highly controlled diet, the BBC News reported. Read more