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Exercise helps kidney patients live longer
Exercise, especially strength training, may help kidney disease patients survive longer with healthier lives.


Dialysis is used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure. Researchers studied the effect that lean and fat body mass had on the health and survival of 792 dialysis patients. Over five years, the researchers measured the participants' mid-arm muscle circumference (a measure of lean mass) and their triceps' skin fold (a measure of fat mass), and found that patients with the largest mid-arm muscles scored higher on a mental health test and lived longer than those with the smallest mid-arm muscles.


It was found that participants with the highest mid-arm muscle circumference were 37 percent less likely to die than those with the lowest circumference. The link between triceps' skin-fold measurements and patients' health and survival wasn't as strong.


The results suggest that dialysis patients may benefit from body building or taking other steps to increase their lean body mass.


However, more studies are needed but it is possible that interventions that can improve muscle mass or increase lean body mass can lead to better clinical outcomes and greater survival in tens of thousands of dialysis patients and probably millions of individuals with other stages of chronic kidney disease or other chronic disease states.


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