Please kidney patients switch your diet to plant based. I did and it saved me from dialysis. Look up Dadvice on faecbok, Jen Hernandez a dietician who worked in Dialysis patients who now promotes a plant based diet (vegetarian). You can type in Jen Hernandez as a search. Another source has a program on Face book (Dadvice) promoting a plant based diet. He is a survivor of kidney disease and promotes a vegetarian diet as well. His doctor told him he had to go on dialysis. He had blood in his urine plus a very low GFR. A plant based diet saved him from dialysis. My hero is Ken Hull who has 2 books titled STOPPING KIDNEY DISEASE FOOD GUIDE available on Amazon. My GFR has varied from 30 to 60 and I am now 87 years old diagnosed with kidney disease at age 75 and switching to plant based diet has kept me leading a normal life totally. Don't listen to doctors telling you you need this and that without searching for another life as a vegetarian that unloads the kidneys of no no foods filled with 3excess sodium potassium protein etc. I am 87 years old and a kidney doctor told me I will lose my stay on this earth from anything before dying of eating vegetarian fed kidneys. Try vegetarian please -its a life saver.
Switch diet to Vegetarian - save your kidneys - Kidney Disease
Switch diet to Vegetarian - save your kidneys
dear Gee, There is no cure for CKD, not even diet. There is so much more to what people eat as to how they do with CKD. There is no absolute. I was on plant based for over a year and a half. It did slow the progression down. NO doubt about it. But I did still declined to end stage. I basically now eat a flexitarian diet, which is mostly whole food but I do eat eggs, chicken, and sometimes fish. Not every day. Because my potassium really crept up with plant based, it was hard to get any type of variety in my diet. And I was beginning to have muscle wasting.
I am glad you are finding vegetarian helpful. I agree, whole foods, plenty of veggies is the way to go. For best results, see a trained renal dietician who understands plant based diets.
Interesting that you mentioned muscle wasting. I had never heard of that before but have thought all along that if your kidneys are not removing all the waste from your blood (dead tissue cells) then your muscles probably suffer in some way. I have lost a lot of strength in my muscles and at times have tried to blame the statin I'm taking because they are known to cause Myopathy. When I am stooped down or sitting on the floor and try to get up, my legs aren't strong enough so I need to use something nearby to get extra support. If it's not one thing, it's something else.
I actually saw a doctor who did some device on my whole body. I was desperately trying to lose weight. Instead, I was losing muscle. The best way to combat that is to exercise and eat some protein. The exercise did amazing things for me. But I still had to watch protein. I was down to 28 grams a day, which was way too little. So I went up to 45 -52. That seemed to be better.
I am on CKD diet and protein is limited. I find though have to get enough protein as I walk with trekking poles most days. I have increased protein a little by Doctor order and has helped.
I am 70 years old and havae some kidney function, but Nephrologist insist I need dialysis 3 x a week. my creatinine is 2.9. Do you think going vegiterian can help me get off of a dialysis. I know you are not a docotor, but you are more honest and caring then my doctor. I am working my hardest to get transferred out of that place.
Bestmom, Never say never but chances are pretty slim. Going on dialysis is something you should be part of the discussion. Your creatinine is only part of the picture, and yours is not that high. Mine is over 5. There is GFR and other things like anemia, potassium and phosphorous and uremia build up. You also have to consider fluid buildup such as edema in the legs and feet.
I am going on dialysis on Monday. My GFR is around 10-11 average, and I have no uremia. I also have very little if any edema. I could go longer without dialysis, but I do not want to crash into it and end up with a chest catheter. My potassium and phosphorous is getting very high and I do suffer from anemia. I do urinate..... a lot. I talked with my Neph about it and we agreed to start with less time on the machine and see where that goes. I am doing home hemodialysis and I am training to do it myself.
The kidney does not regenerate, not like the liver can. It all depends on the damage or cause but in most cases, it is really hard to get off dialysis unless you get a transplant.
After 30 days in the hospital 3 years ago, I was put on dialysis. My creatine now is 2.9 and eGFR is 18. I have the chest port and wilol never get a fistula or graph. I am afraid to do home hemo because I live alone. So vegeterian is the easy way out for me.
Oh my gosh! Go on a PLant based diet. Your kidneys aren't up to handling an everyday diet. So What!!! reduce the load on your kidneys by switching diet to plant based. Purchase a book on Amazon called "STOPPING KIDNEY DISEASE FOOD GUIDE" By Lee Hull who is a kidney disease survivor. Reduce the load on your kidney so they do not have to work as hard to eliminate excess protein, sodium, potassium etc. Look up Jen Hernandez also who worked in a dialysis facility and now is providing lessons on A plant based diet. Just go to Facebook and type in Jen Hernandez a dietician promoting a plant based diet. DO iT.
Thanks so much for sharing, Gee. unfortunately, there is no cure for CKD, but there is proof that a vegetarian diet does help both CKD and PKD in slowing it down quite a bit. I'm in Stage 5 due to my family doctor giving me a killer cocktail of meds for a UTI. My eGFr is at 13 and goes back and forth between 13 and 16 for over a year. I can only attribute it to the Vegan diet I'm on and drinking chamomile tea and taking Chitosan capsules. All which are proven to delay kidney failure. I believe that the vegan diet has a place in the CKD diet. I'm glad the veggie diet is working for you. Keep at it. If nothing else, the whole food plant based diet is great for our overall being and the heart which also suffers due to CKD. For anyone considering going vegetarian or more severe with Vegan, why not? You'll lose nothing by trying it. Forks Over Knives and books by Dr. Dean Ornish are also good books to help with your veggies way of eating and complement the STOPPING KIDNEY DISEASE FOOD books by Ken Hull.
Can cleaning up your diet help with CKD? Sure, if the cause is diabetes or pre-diabetes, i.e. a secondary diagnosis it will help. Improve your overall health and inflammation and the kidney's health improves with it. But that is not the only cause of CKD, definitely not any of the primary causes - genetics, lupus, Iga etc.
So please don't give a blank statement like that, every case is different. Dadvice channel has a wealth of information but he is not a Neprologist, he had an AKI because of bad habits and recovered from it. That's great - but it's not CKD sorry.
The fact is, you need protein to keep your health, does the source of it make a difference? maybe for some. But it's also a lot harder to keep your protein level adequate on a plant base diet. The science around very low-protein diets for end stage is not clear.
Agree with you.
Bumblebee tuna, thanks for that I always wondered about James from DadviceTV being able to increase his GFR and suspected that he had AKI rather than CKD. He is not open about that neither is Dr Rosansky in his conversations with James. I always get the impression he is talking about CKD and being able to improve GFR. Now of course I would love that to be true but probably need to accept it isn't.
Dadvice occasionally has Jen Hernandez as a guest as well as. a kidney specialist doctor, both promote a plant based diet to reduce the load on your damaged kidneys. Of course your kidneys will remain damaged, but your GFR will improve etc,
One is promoting a business and the other a book (not a bad book). Did Dr. R ever endorse this magical plant based diet? Not that I remember but I haven't watched the channel in a couple of years (not much point once you reached stage 5). Your kidneys filter the Albumin in your blood, not what you eat. Personally, I think it's a bunch of nonsense.
The renal and dialysis diets really shouldn't be prescribed across the board for everyone. It should only be offered under the supervision of a doctor who orders frequent blood draws. Most humans need a "balanced" diet for optimum health. Generally speaking, CKD Stages 1-3 don't need strict diet management unless it's clearly indicated in lab reports. For example, diabetics have to control sugars and carbs immediately. Of course, processed (manufactured) foods are a big problem in western diets for everyone - it's always best to purchase fresh veggies, fresh fruits, etc. Indeed, label reading is a good thing for all to do. Anyway, people simply need to be mindful that that the renal and dialysis diets manipulate very important electrolytes needed for proper (including cardiac) functioning. I speak from experience. I listened to drum roll of how bad "sodium" was for everyone. So I joined my hubby (Stage IV or V) in eating his low sodium, low potassium meals. A few weeks later, I passed out. From what? Low sodium and chloride.
I agree, my CKD prescribed diet is based on blood work for protein, potassium, sodium and phosphorus. It is working for me. My diet has been modified by my Doctor, and did increase protein.
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