Bangalore: In a new study, researchers from George Institute for Global Health and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, found that nutritional vitamin D supplementation improved vascular function and reduced inflammation in patients with early stage of chronic kidney disease.
Vascular system includes blood vessels like arteries, veins and capillaries to carry blood to and from the heart.
The findings were presented at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week 2015 held at San Diego, California this month.
“Vitamin D deficiency is common in patients with chronic kidney disease. Our study shows that simply identifying and correcting this abnormality has the potential to improve the outcomes in these patients,” said Vivek Kumar, nephrologist, PGIMER, and the one of the authors of the study.
“About one in 10 people suffer from chronic kidney disease around the world,” said Vivekanand Jha, the leader of the group that did the study.
“Vitamin D is cheap and widely available, and through its favourable effects on inflammatory and immune functions, has the potential to favourably influence the course of these patients,” Jha said.
The researchers said the findings lay the foundation of doing trials to show whether this short-term benefit leads to improvement in clinically important end-points in long-term studies.
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