Since 2023, Stenvinkel has been a visiting professor at the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM). As a nephrologist, he draws energy and inspiration from working with professors Leon Schurgers and Tilman Hackeng, who focus on cardiovascular health. “Together, we’re exploring how we can use nature to treat disease. We’ve been studying different wild animals: for example, we found that bears don’t urinate during their winter sleep (hibernation), lose very little muscle mass and don’t suffer from osteoporosis. We’re curious about why this is the case – because if we can understand that, we may be able to apply those insights to new treatments for chronic diseases in humans, such as kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. We are also interested to learn from animals that show few signs of ageing, such as bats, naked mole rats and Greenland sharks. They can teach us a lot about healthy ageing.”
Another topic Stenvinkel finds fascinating is food as medicine. “Some vegetables, like broccoli sprouts, contain compounds that can help prevent or treat disease. To make the most of food as medicine, we need more research. For example, around 200 types of fruit grow in the Amazon region, most of which we still don’t know. I want to explore that further, because it could be a goldmine for treating diseases linked to unhealthy lifestyles.”
