When our body breaks down protein, we get a lot of excess nitrogen. The kidneys try to excrete it as urea. If the kidneys are sick and are going to refuse in the near future, then it is better for them not to throw in additional nitrogen. If you save the kidneys from excess protein, then they will last longer and you will not need to go to hemodialysis several times a week.
One could just stop eating protein. But we will not survive without him. If you sharply limit protein, then our body will be sick, and it is not immediately clear what is worse for it - kidney failure itself or such a brutal diet.
And for this business, ketone analogs of amino acids were invented. There is no nitrogen in them. Once in our body, these things are easily converted into valuable amino acids, and excess nitrogen in the blood is not added. On the contrary, part of the nitrogen is used to convert these analogs into full-value amino acids.
Such a focus is turned in the final stages of renal failure, when hemodialysis is already looming on the horizon. Such analogs cannot replace all protein in the diet, so they are only added to a low-protein diet.
The problem is, it's expensive.
The problem is that for some people the price doesn't matter, and they eat these things like candy for the wrong purpose.
The third problem is that these are new tools, and unscrupulous manufacturers sell all sorts of nonsense to inexperienced consumers or slip real analogues to those who don't need them.
Under this case, they are trying to sell ordinary amino acids for athletes, or sets of proteins and amino acids for lovers of a ketogenic diet, or even just fermented protein like in soy sauce. It's not that.
These drugs are called ketone analogs of essential amino acids. They are fed to patients with renal failure to delay the transition to hemodialysis.
