Falling apart badly

[Mimbabe]

Hi I don’t really know how to start other than list my conditions and ask any advice if anyone has any to offer please. Im 53 years old and female and no that’s not one of my conditions I need advice on thank you. Im disabled with long term chronic low back pain and coccyx with major sciatica left sided recently operated on this year. I have asthma but not chronic. I have Chrons. I have kidney disease- stage 3 apparently. And I have lupus. I have arthritis quite major various body parts but I had surgery because of it on my left shoulder on March this year followed by steroid and anaesthesia injection into my bursa last week.

[Skeptix]

That's one heap of burden, my sympathies for the worry you'd suffer, alongside the pain.

I'm primarily on healthunlocked for CKD (stage 3b). Some very good news in that regard in that recently enough (2020), guidelines have been issued by the foremost kidney authority that advocate diet as a promising way to slow or stop the progress of CKD.

Diet, of all things in this pharmacologized world.

This shift is monumental in that, up to now, there has been very little in the way of treatment for CKD at early stage (although CKD 3 is around 50% or more loss of kidney function so how stage 3 can be called 'early stage'??).

You won't have heard about diet from your nephrologist (if you have one) and absolutely not from your GP. This info is straight off the press and is going to take years to affect clinical practice in widespread fashion.

I also get a spot of proctitis, which is why I'm connected to this forum. And diet is important there. And diet is also implicated in inflammation generally.

I don't know what level of diet you're involved in but for kidneys it's low (or very low) protein plant based - part of which aims to lower inflammation (which is kidney damaging).

I gather lupus is a cause of CKD and can't be good for your kidneys. So perhaps head on over to 'kidney disease' forum. There's a lot of folk there on the dietary route booking very good progress. It may be that you can too, with diet - for a number of your ailments..

What about a pain clinic? I gather its part of the palliative care area (unsurprisingly). I've heard good things about it. CBD oil? Heatpads as kite relief?

[Graham49]

Have you considered trying to improve your gut microbiome?

The science of the gut micro biome is fairly new. Professor Tim Spector of Kings College London is one of the leaders in the field. Studies with identical twins have shown that their health can be vastly different and this appears to be associated with differences in their gut microbiome. There are some interesting videos on YouTube about this. Here are some things to help improve the microbiome. 1. Try to eat at least 30 different plant foods a week. 2. Eat fermented foods., avoiding one with high salt content 3. Avoid highly processed foods, that is foods with a lot of additives, not just processed meats.