20/09/2026
A daily beetroot (beets) juice supplement could offer a simple and accessible approach to supporting kidney function during pregnancy for women living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to new research led by King's College London.
Pregnancy places extra strain on the kidneys, and for women with moderate to severe CKD around half will experience a decline in kidney function during pregnancy. Despite these risks, outcomes for pregnant women with CKD have changed little over the past 30 years, and many of the treatments used to manage kidney disease are not safe during pregnancy, meaning women often need to stop their medication for at least nine months.
In the new study, researchers investigated whether supplemented dietary nitrate from beetroot juice could offer a simple, safe way to support kidney health during pregnancy.
Beetroot juice is naturally rich in nitrate, which the body converts into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide helps widen blood vessels and improve blood flow, leading researchers to investigate whether it could help reduce the strain placed on the kidneys during pregnancy.
The team recruited 108 pregnant women with stage 2 to 5 CKD from eight hospitals across the UK. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either standard care or a daily beetroot juice supplement (providing 400 mg of dietary nitrate) before 25 weeks of pregnancy.
Although designed primarily as a feasibility study rather than a definitive efficacy trial, the signals were striking. Among women with more advanced CKD (pre-pregnancy eGFR
