A study conducted by specialists from King's College London (United Kingdom) has observed that the consumption of beetroot juice could contribute to improving kidney function in pregnant women with chronic kidney disease (CKD), a group of patients for whom many standard treatments are unsafe for the fetus during gestation.
"For women living with CKD, pregnancy has always involved a difficult dilemma between preserving their own health and ensuring the safety of their baby, often with few tools to achieve both," said the professor and principal author of the work, Dr. Kate Bramham, who emphasized that the results obtained "constitute an encouraging first step towards a low-cost and low-risk intervention."
The study, published in the specialized journal 'Kidney International Reports' and funded by Kidney Research UK, indicates that a daily supplement of beetroot juice could become a simple and accessible option to support kidney function during pregnancy in women with CKD. According to the nephrologist, this "could make a real difference for this group of women, who have been underserved by research for too long."
As the authors recall, gestation represents a burden for the kidneys and, in patients with moderate to severe kidney disease, nearly half experience a decline in kidney function throughout pregnancy. Despite these risks, the prognosis for pregnant women with CKD has hardly changed in three decades, so many are forced to interrupt their medication for at least nine months.
The role of dietary nitrate from beetroot juice
In this context, the team analyzed whether the dietary nitrate present in beetroot juice could offer a simple and safe way to protect renal health during this period. To do this, 108 pregnant women with CKD stages 2 to 5 were recruited from eight British hospitals, who were randomly assigned to standard care or a daily supplement of beetroot juice before 25 weeks of pregnancy.
Although the main objective was to assess the feasibility of a larger clinical trial, the data also points to possible positive effects on both mothers and newborns. This food naturally contains large amounts of nitrate, which the body transforms into nitric oxide, a molecule that promotes the dilation of blood vessels and improves circulation.
The participants who took the beetroot juice supplement reported, overall, about 70 percent fewer serious adverse events than the women who only received standard care. Furthermore, the researchers have detailed that, among the serious adverse events that did occur, nearly half affected the newborns.
In pregnant women with more advanced kidney disease, signs of better kidney function were observed after childbirth, fewer neonatal admissions to intensive care units, and a lower need for antihypertensive medications during pregnancy. At the same time, no safety issues attributable to supplementation with this juice were detected, including the absence of increases in blood potassium levels (hyperkalemia).
A promising option that requires more trials
"Pregnancy can impose an additional burden on the kidneys and, for women with CKD, there are currently limited options to protect kidney function during this period," recalled the first author of the work and doctoral student at King's College, Dr. Priscilla Smith, who added that the "findings" obtained "suggest that beetroot juice could offer a simple and accessible, safe alternative that deserves further investigation."
Despite the encouraging results, the research team insists that larger clinical trials are needed to clarify whether beetroot juice can significantly reduce the deterioration of kidney function and improve long-term outcomes for both mothers and their children. If confirmed, this strategy would represent a cost-effective and readily available intervention to support women with CKD during pregnancy.
"These initial findings lay an important foundation for future research on the protection of women with CKD during pregnancy and their babies," concluded the clinical professor at King's College and co-author of the study, Dr. Andrew Webb.