My 21 year old son, who has had type 1 diabetes since age 12, wants to go back to weight lifting and wants to start taking protein supplements to improve muscle building. Are they safe? I’m afraid he will do kidney damage.

There are several issues here. The first is whether it is safe to lift weights. It is important that he see his eye physician and have a complete eye exam. Eye disease can be worsened by the increased pressure the eyes are subjected to with weight lifting. Second, protein supplements may have a negative impact on patients with diabetes because the amount of protein the kidney is exposed to is increased. It has been suggested that a low protein diet will help prevent progression of kidney disease. This is especially true with established and advanced kidney disease. Loading the kidney with additional protein may not be a good thing. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of medical literature to clearly support that effect.

I would not recommend a high protein diet. This would be especially true if there was any microalbumin in the urine.

JTL