Evening Dietary Protein Intake in the Pathogenesis of Nocturnal Polyuria

Alwis U1, Monaghan T2, Delanghe J1, Everaert K1

1. Ghent University, 2. SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University

KEYWORDS: Nocturia, Prevention, Quality of Life (QoL)

Recent research has shown that nocturnal polyuria (NP) is a heterogeneous condition that may be driven by excess nocturnal free water and/or sodium clearance. Consistently, behavioral and pharmacologic interventions targeting both nocturnal free water and sodium production have garnered considerable traction in the management of nocturia owing to NP. Relatively less attention has been afforded to urea—the most abundant urinary solute—despite the fact that urinary urea excretion is known to be highly interrelated with dietary protein intake [1]. Mechanistically, the body maintains a low concentration level of urea in both plasma and extracellular fluid, which lends to a daily urea excretion approximately two times greater the total body urea pool (and thus proportionally far greater than sodium, wherein daily excretion reflects approximately one-fifteenth of the total body sodium pool) [1]. Accordingly, it stands to reason that excretion of a large quantity of urea, as would be expected in patients following significant dietary protein intake, may reflect an additional important mediator in the pathogenesis of NP. This study aims to explore the association between NP and estimated dietary protein intake.

Read the full abstract text here: https://www.ics.org/2020/abstract/498

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