Description
The gut is a ‘good guy’ when it comes to supporting renal function for the majority of us via a balance of bugs, their beneficial by-products and an intact barrier. Additionally, there is direct job-sharing with respect to elimination of wastes. However, if the gut ‘goes down’ due to disease or even, on occasion, just dysfunction, this can then add substantially to the vulnerability, burden and risk of renal decline. The gut-kidney axis offers many advantages including a key point of indirect access for treatment of renal impairment when this bidirectionality goes ‘bad’. In particular we take note of IgA nephropathy – a prevalent and under-recognised cause of intrinsic renal disease that is a potent illustration of this.
