Should Patients with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Drink Milk

Milk is rich in nutrients and digestible. It is approximately perfect nutrient for people. However, for the persons with Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) should they drink milk?

Kidneys are important organs responsible for filtering blood and excreting excessive fluid and metabolic products out of body. However, in the cases of PKD, with the enlargement of cysts, they will oppress the surrounding nephrons resulting in renal function decline. As a result, many waste products will accumulate in blood. In order to reduce the burden to kidneys, the patients with PKD should keep strict dietary principles like low-salt, low-protein, low potassium and so on.

As for milk, eight ounces of low-fat milk contains 8 grams of protein, 230 mg of phosphorus, 366 mg of potassium and 290 mg of calcium, the high levels of these minerals can aggravate the renal function.

Moreover, drinking too much mike has adverse effects on the bones. Bones are mainly composed of calcium and phosphorus. The healthy kidneys can keep these two minerals balance in bones and blood. However, once PKD causes kidney dysfunction, kidneys can not reabsorb the calcium from food eaten for poor activation of Vitamin D. Afterwards, low blood calcium levels will cause bones to release more calcium thus weakening them. In addition, much phosphorus builds up in blood for kidney dysfunction. The raised phosphorus will combine with calcium causing calcifications, which also cause the level of calcium in blood to decline. In turn, more calcium will be released by bones.


Therefore, the patients with PKD should limit milk consumption, especially for those with kidney dysfunction. Moreover, there are also other dietary principles for PKD patients. If you want to know what or what not to eat, you can consult us on line directly.