Skip the Salt and Diet Soda to Save Your Kidneys

Individuals who consume a diet high in sodium or artificially sweetened drinks are more likely to experience a decline in kidney function.  Julie Lin, from Brigham and Women's Hospital (Massachusetts, USA), and colleagues studied data collected on more than 3,000 women participating in the Nurses' Health Study, finding that “in women with well-preserved kidney function, higher dietary sodium intake was associated with greater kidney function decline, which is consistent with experimental animal data that high sodium intake promotes progressive kidney decline."  In a second study by the same researchers involving the same study subjects, the team found "a significant two-fold increased odds, between two or more servings per day of artificially sweetened soda and faster kidney function decline; no relation between sugar-sweetened beverages and kidney function decline.”  The team urges that possible mechanisms for kidney decline in the setting of high intake of artificial sweeteners have not been previously studied and deserve further investigation.