Cutting Dietary Phosphate Doesn't Save Dialysis Patients' Lives, Studies Suggests

American Society of Nephrology. "Cutting dietary phosphate doesn't save dialysis patients' lives, study suggests." ScienceDaily, 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 5 Aug. 2011.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2010) — Doctors often ask kidney disease patients on dialysis to limit the amount of phosphate they consume in their diets, but this does not help prolong their lives, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of theClinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The results even suggest that prescribing low phosphate diets may increase dialysis patients' risk of premature death

Blood phosphate levels are often high in patients with kidney disease, and dialysis treatments cannot effectively remove all of the dietary phosphate that a person normally consumes. Because elevated phosphate can lead to serious complications and premature death, dialysis patients are advised to restrict their phosphate intake and/or take phosphate binder medications. Kidney specialists and dietitians have long espoused dietary phosphate restriction; however, there have been few studies of its long-term effects on patient survival and health.

To investigate the issue, Steven Brunelli, MD, MSCE (Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School), Katherine Lynch, MD (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center), and their colleagues analyzed data from 1751 patients on dialysis who were followed for an average of 2.3 years. Prescribed daily dietary phosphate was restricted to levels < 870 mg, 871-999 mg, 1000 mg, 1001-2000 mg, and not restricted in 300, 314, 307, 297 and 533 participants, respectively.

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