Kidney Dialysis - New Study Reveals Surprising Benefits From Drinking Pomegranate Juice

Preliminary results from a scientific paper to be presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s 43rd Annual Meeting and scientific Exposition in Denver, CO., seem to suggest that drinking pomegranate juice can nullify health complications in people suffering from kidney disease, even affecting the high morbidity rate caused by infections and cardiovascular problems.

Batya Kristal, MD, FASN (Western Galilee Hospital, in Nahariya, Ruth & Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel), PhD candidate, Lilach Shema, and their research team examined 101 patients on dialysis who either drank pomegranate juice or consumed a placebo at the commencement of each dialysis session, 3 times per week over the course of a year. Results showed that pomegranate juice drinkers had a marked reduction in inflammation and free radical damage was significantly less. Also, pomegranate drinkers did not get as many infections and thus were not hospitalized as much.

Other pomegranate juice studies have shown that people consuming this drink experience reduced blood pressure, have improvements in their lipid profile, and have less cardiovascular issues overall.

The authors of the study do provide a caveat. With high levels of pomegranate juice certain people such as chronic kidney disease patients risk a potassium overdose. Any prescription of pomegranate juice for dialysis patients must be strictly monitored by medical professionals.

“Considering the expected epidemic of CKD in the next decade, further clinical trials using pomegranate juice aimed at reducing the high cardiovascular morbidity of CKD patients and their deterioration to end-stage renal disease should be conducted,” said Dr. Kristal.