Kidney function helps to detox your body, as well as maintain a moderate level of beneficial compounds in your bloodstream. Your kidneys contain specialized structures called glomeruli, which serve as molecular filters, helping to maintain the balance of nutrients in your bloodstream while allowing toxins or excess nutrients to enter your urine to be discharged. Beneficial compounds called antioxidants play a role in maintaining health kidneys, maintaining kidney function and preventing kidney disease.
Free Radicals and Antoxidants
Antioxidants' main function is to protect your cells from oxidative damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive compounds, capable of oxidizing the lipids in your cell membranes, proteins found throughout your cells, as well as your DNA. This oxidation proves destructive to your cells, damaging your cell membranes, disrupting cellular communication and leading to genetic mutations. Collectively, oxidative damage promotes cellular aging, as well as contributes to the progression of cancer, cardiovascular disease and several other disorders. Antioxidants help neutralize free radicals to prevent these chemicals from oxidizing molecules within your cells, and therefore help guard against cellular aging and disease.
Implications in Kidney Disease
Free radicals play a role in the development of kidney disease. Over time, sustained oxidative damage within your kidneys can damage the tissues within your kidneys. Since your body has a limited ability to heal all the tissues that make up your kidneys, so this oxidative damage eventually diminishes kidney function. Consuming antioxidants can help prevent further oxidative damage, and consuming antioxidants might slow or halt the progression of kidney disease, according to a study published in "Mechanisms of Aging and Development" in 2002.
Natural Sources of Antioxidants
A healthy and balanced diet provides your body with a range of antioxidants that can help prevent damage to your kidneys and other tissues, or help to slow the progression of kidney disease. Vitamins A, E and C, as well as the essential mineral selenium, serve as antioxidants in your body. In addition, plants also contain a range of other phytonutrients that function as antioxidants. Consume a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and lean proteins, and incorporate other antioxidant-rich foods like red wine, tea and dark chocolate into your diet to increase your antioxidant intake.
Synthetic Antoxidants and Kidneys
In addition to the naturally-occurring antioxidants from your diet that can benefit your kidneys, synthetic antioxidants produced in a laboratory might also prove beneficial. A study published in the "New England Journal of Medicine" in 2011 found that treating chronic kidney disease patients with the synthetic antioxidant bardoxolone methyl helped to improve kidney function. Although the use of bardoxolone methyl to treat kidney disease requires more investigation, it might provide a promising treatment for individuals suffering from the disease.
References
- Penn State University; How Do Antioxidants Work?; K. Sandeep Prabhu, Ph.D.
- "Mechanisms of Aging and Development"; Effects of Antioxidants on Kidney Disease; M. Mune, et al.; April 2002
- "New England Journal of Medicine"; Bardoxolone Methyl and Kidney Function in CKD with Type 2 Diabetes; P. Pergola, et al.; 2011
