Nephrology a resource for expertise on lifestyle-monitoring and -management
A longitudinal, lifelong approach, spanning different stages of the lifeline, is at the core of research on progressive renal function loss and its complications. The data, resources, and concepts originating from such a lifelong longitudinal approach will be of great value for healthy ageing research in a broader sense.
Lifestyle monitoring
Lifestyle factors contributing to accelerated ageing, including nutritional factors, weight excess, lack of physical activity and environmental toxins, have enhanced impact in patients with renal impairment, by the poor homeostatic and buffering capacity of the kidney, with often easily apparent adverse clinical consequences. Hence, lifestyle-monitoring and lifestyle management, with emphasis on dietary intervention, has traditionally been a main focus in nephrology, with a strong tradition in secondary and tertiary prevention in patients with advanced renal disease where rigorous lifestyle management is a prerequisite for survival.
Impact outside the domain of advanced renal disease
Over the last years, the value of this expertise for application in larger populations, including earlier stages of renal impairment, patients with heart failure, high risk groups with diabetes and/or primary cardiovascular disease, and hypertension and overweight in the general population has been increasingly recognized. Thus, nephrology serves as a resource for expertise on lifestyle-monitoring and -management, that has immense innovative potential for elaboration outside the domain of advanced renal disease, into the domain of healthy ageing for larger populations.