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Galactose and Chronic Kidney Disease (FSGS)

A research group in the US has published a first study indicating that galactose might have a benificial effect on patients sufferiing from Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), a chronic affliction of the kidney resulting in often severy damaging of the renal system and even kidney failure. Patients are often dependent on dialysistreatment and even organ transplantation.

The aforementioned research group, based at the Medical College of Wisconsin and headed by Dr. Virginia J. Savin, has now presented data that hints at the possibiliy that galactose might slow down the disease's progress as well as help to protect a transplanted kidney from re-infection with FSGS.

You can find more information about this study at this website of the FSGR Foundation. They also have a link that lets you download the full text of the study.

In a follow-up to this study, researchers from Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur and the Université de Montréal in Canada present a single-case report which concludes that "oral galactose therapy seems to have induced a remission of our patient’s nephrotic syndrome [...]". You can find the abstract to this report at PubMed.