It's true: IgA nephropathy can be fully reversed! The body is truly amazing.
To do so, becoming vegan is essential. This is coming from someone who used to live on McDonalds, Wendy's, pizza, and Chinese takeout. It's not an easy journey, but with the will to live and the will to thrive you can rise above it.
Please follow my journey to full recovery! You can find my blood work to prove it at empressnutrition.com. I hope to see you there! Lots of love to you all <3
Written by
veronicakaye
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
16 Replies
•
I'm not sure what exactly it is you are selling but I pulled an article from the Mayo Clinic on this subject and thought I'd post it here. Pay close attention to the first sentence in the paragraph under TREATMENT.
I read the treatment section, but I will say a couple of things. The role of nutrition in the medical community is very limited, and a vegan diet is not mentioned in the treatment section. I’m not claiming her disease had been reversed, I will leave that to her doctors to determine. As someone that went plant-based and kept myself off dialysis for 7 months even after seeing a nutritionist at my nephrologist’s office who said a vegan diet was not necessary. I can attest she was incorrect, as I got worse and felt worse on the diet given to me by her. It wasn’t until I took it upon myself to go vegan, even asking if I should consider going vegan when I met with the nutritionist. After my results kept improving my nephrologist said eliminating all meats help protect your kidneys. Going vegan didn’t and wouldn’t reverse my kidney disease, but it did prevent my from being on dialysis. Secondly, while I know people look to you for information, I think it’s disrespectful by starting your comment with “not sure what exactly it is you are selling...”. We should support each other instead of starting a reply off with that kind of comment. It’s disappointing to see this. This has worked for her, so maybe take a minute to step back and consider sometimes other than popping a pill can help people with their disease. Especially with how the western diet is so poor.
I have no problem with anyone following a Vegan Diet. I offer advice that suggests each individual seek the professional advice from a Renal Dietitian as opposed one from a regular Nutritionist. One diet does not fit all. Based on your individual numbers the diet is developed for you. I know that when and if my numbers take a dive either up or down a phone call or an e-mail to my RD could change my diet for a period of time. Read my post again, it did not criticize her diet. To each his own. What I found irresponsible was saying that IgaN can be reversed. It can't. I offered proof by way of the article. It's a genetic condition, although someone in the family has to be the first to contract it. Offering hope that it can be reversed is offering false hope and that is snake oil. Why hers is better I don't know and I don't know anything about her doctors but it is wrong to offer false hope that IgaN can be reversed. It can't. There is no cure. This community is here to provided help and support but not when someone is giving out false hope. Is the OP lucky and fortunate? ABSOLUTELY! Should she share her good news? ABSOLUTELY! Should she offer false hope to everyone with IgaN that it can be reversed? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!
I wasn’t going to reply at first, but I feel it’s important to do so. I will leave you with this, since you failed to understand what I was saying. I never claimed you where against people following a vegan diet, I suggest you again take a step back and re-read my reply. Secondly the Mayo Clinic site gives no reference to the affects of a plant-based diet, as nutrition is barely part of medical education. Since plant protein does not put kidneys into hyperactive mode like animal protein, it may not be truly “reversed”, but the load is so low the numbers are within normal range. I also stated I would leave her diagnosis to her doctors. I’ll be frank but your opening sentence is disrespectful, discouraging and condescending. If you’re trying to come from a place of helpfulness, that opening sentence does absolutely none of that for her or others that look at you for assistance. You could have used a better choice of words, not only with your opening line, but that whole post in general. Best of luck to you, I hope for you and others that look towards you get better responses and more encouraging responses in the future.
The Mayo Clinic is the reference. Your post spoke of nothing but the Vegan diet for the first part and I was responding to that as well as the OP claim that the Vegan diet helped her reverse that. My reading and comprehension skills are fine.
Since you fail to address my issue with your reply to her, I look forward to your next reply that doesn’t start out with the poor tone you used in your reply to her. Decent thing you could do is apologize to her for starting your reply the way you did. It’s not helpful and it lacked tact, especially for someone chosen to help people.
If you think starting a reply to someone with “I’m not sure what exactly it is you are selling” doesn’t deserve an apology, then you need to re-evaluate your role. It’s not helpful and it’s disrespectful to her. Maybe this role isn’t for you, maybe it’s getting to you, and going forward if you shoot off a reply to anyone else with that tone I will call you to the carpet every single time. Get off your high horse, you’re not special.
The medical records kindly provided by Veronica Kaye indicate full kidney function from the start of her proteinuria, and just as well because the diet she recommends is not suitable for patients with impaired kidney function due to the high potassium levels. Her blood tests during the diet show excessive potassium, and insufficient iron despite her claims that she has enough iron. Both problems could be expected from her diet and both are of particular concern to kidney patients. In fact her final eGFR shows a slight decline so the claim that she has reversed her IgAN is certainly not supported by the records. The herbal supplements/teas she recommends are known to damage the kidneys, and "eating a lot" or vegetable juices are unsuitable for kidney patients who are monitoring potassium.
It's not entirely true that nutrition is barely part of medical education: nephrologists know that potassium has to be limited at later stages of kidney disease - and the diet recommended by Veronica Kaye is high in potassium. Her vegan diet is probably an improvement on her previous unhealthy diet but nephrologists warn that vegan diets are difficult for patients reducing their potassium. A kidney diet is already very restrictive, especially for dialysis patients, and a vegan diet would make it even more difficult to obtain the necessary nutrients because it would further limit foods.
For all the diets supported by studies cited on Veronica Kaye's site, there are more recent studies claiming the opposite. In fact the role of diet in IgAN is currently being studied by my UK University (Leicester), because they have finally received the funds for the first thorough investigation of all the factors in IgAN. Yes, cutting out gluten has been shown to reduce proteinuria, but the underlying IgAN progresses at the same rate regardless. Proteinuria is only a marker. Veronica Kaye has improved one marker but she hasn't reversed kidney failure because luckily for her, she didn't have kidney failure to start with. My IgAN has been stable for decades but I would never claim it's because I know better than my nephrologists how to treat IgAN. In fact my success is from simply "popping a pill" and not taking harmful medicines/herbs. As soon as the dosage of the "pill" is too low, my eGFR declines rapidly so I would urge IgAN patients to concentrate on the medicines and diets prescribed by their nephrologists, rather than searching for miracle cures offered on the basis of anecdotes by someone not trained in nephrology. Sometimes the nephrologist has to be changed but the right nephrologist really is the key to survival with IgAN. And less is definitely more i.e. don't add extras to the treatment prescribed by the nephrologist who will always have more experience in treating IgAN than a single patient could have.
I looked at your site. I am delighted to see that your numbers have improved and your health as well- any kidney issue is a process with the key to eat well and exercise to stay as healthy as possible.
As you discussed, diet is vital- leaning more on plant based foods. Most importantly,
a diet low in sodium, protein and dairy with emphasis on vegetables are universally recommended, as well as apples, blueberries and strawberries. Gluten free helps some folks as well.
Best bet for many folks is to work with your medical team, renal dietician and homeopathic physician as to the best food choices to try and supplements, if any, to use to keep kidney disorders from progressing as everyone is different.
Delighted this has worked for you !
The Mayo Clinic site is highly reputable as to explain this disorder.
Kidney disorders can't be cured, but they can be slowed down, and numbers can improve.Again, it is all a process and we are all in this together.
Thanks for sharing what has worked for you.
Sending you good thoughts for continued improvement.
As someone who has IgAN myself (for the past 15 years), I feel it's important to address the claim that "IgA nephropathy can be fully reversed". It is a bit misleading. Once your kidneys are damaged, they cannot be repaired. I will agree that there are steps that can be taken to help slow the progression of the disease, or you may even find yourself in remission, but to use the words "fully reversed" may give people false hope. From everything I've learned, IgAN causes kidney function loss, and once that function has been lost, it cannot be regained. Also, I read on your site, "Even if you are on dialysis, your body WANTS to heal itself." I'm not sure what you mean by this. A person on dialysis no longer has kidneys that are functioning. Are you saying their body has the ability to regain kidney function on its own?
Perhaps I am incorrect, so I am open and receptive to hearing your thoughts.
Discussion aside, I am happy to know that you are doing well since your diagnosis. Keep up the hard work.
Hi, I deleted my site; i was costing me over $100 at my own expense. Sorry! All I can do is tell you that I went from 600 mg of protein loss down to 15 mg at my last blood test; normal is 3 mg. Just go gluten free and vegan; eat 80% raw and do fresh juice.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.