Working with chronic kidney disease sufferers on a daily basis, dietitian Mr Anthony Meade is driven to help his patients have the best treatment experience they can informed by the latest nutritional research.
Now thanks to your support, Mr Meade is pursuing research investigating the gastrointestinal burden patients with chronic kidney disease suffer. This funding marks the first nutrition research project the Central North Adelaide Renal and Transplant Service has conducted.
“As a dietitian, we keep up to date with the latest recommendations of what chronic kidney disease patients should be eating. We kept noticing our patients were suffering a burden of gastrointestinal symptoms from their treatment,” Mr Meade said.
“We know gut symptoms can have a significant impact on quality of life and social life which can have a large psychological effect.”
Mr Meade will be meeting with up to 250 patients to monitor their gut symptoms from an end stage kidney disease diagnosis to when they commence dialysis or have a transplant.
“We want to know what people are eating if they do have gut symptoms or what are those who don’t have any symptoms eating. We’ll see if there are any patterns and if this changes for different demographics like male, female, age or dialysis type.”
Mr Meade will be monitoring a range of gut symptoms including bloating, bowel issues, reflux and nausea.
“Various medications affect a patient’s bowels, and combining this with dialysis and fluid restrictions around this, these can have an effect on gut health.
“If this research identifies gaps where we could intervene to improve patient’s overall gut health through nutrition, this is one less symptom they have to live with.”
Mr Meade is hopeful this research will better equip the renal dietitian team on how best to treat patients with chronic kidney disease to maintain their gut health.
“This will allow us to better educate our patients on what are the right foods to eat during treatment.
“My research wouldn’t be possible without funding from Kidney, Transplant & Diabetes Research Australia (KTDRA).”
With your ongoing support, KTDRA can continue to fund translational research projects like Mr Meade’s which are dedicated to helping patients living with these chronic diseases today. Please donate today.
