Reversing kidney disease through diet

[Annalisa21]

Has anyone had success with reversing kidney disease by changing their diet? If so, please share your success with me.

Have you seen this? healkidneydisease.com/?hop=...

Can anyone speak to the validity of this?

Thank you.

[kimmie55]

Depending on the cause of your failure you may be able to slow progression through diet, but I'd be suspicious of any claims to reversing through diet alone.

[Dara3351 in reply to kimmie55]

I agree, once kidneys are damaged, it’s just a process of slowing it down through diet. I did go on a plant based diet which slowed my kidneys and I gave up meat, dairy, foods high in purines. I was at GFR of 17 when I found out. When I had my transplant I was at 12% two years later. I ate according to my labs.

[rabbit01]

No but you can normally slow down progression of the decline by following a kidney friendly diet. There's no one size fits all so ideally work with a renal dietician who can look at your blood results and help come up with a diet that works for you.

[GAL14]

There is a Facebook group called Natural Kidney Journey worth checking out. They swear by it and have seen improved results 80% veggie 20%fruit

[Bsasup]

I became a vegan for year, gave an extra year and skipped dialysis. It’s really not so bad once you get the hang of it. I’m 6’7 it helped me loose 40 pounds and I can tell you post transplant has made all the difference. I have lost my taste for red meat and continue a really healthy diet. I would highly recommend finding what gives you more time.

[Jayhawker in reply to Bsasup]

I just saw the renal nurse practitioner at my new nephrologist’s practice last Wednesday. I mentioned in that appointment the possibility of moving to a modified vegetarian diet, ie, I’d still eat some eggs and definitely egg whites. She STRONGLY encouraged me to do this. She said there is quite a lot of newer research suggesting that a vegetarian diet incurs benefit for persons with CKD. She pointed me to the NKF website for additional information. She said that the potassium binders that have been developed in recent years make a vegetarian diet possible for many renal patients now.

I was only eating boneless, skinless chicken breasts before as far as meat goes. I’ve found myself eating more and more liquid egg whites for protein as my renal function has deteriorated. That’s why I mentioned the modified vegetarian diet to her in the appointment.

So I’m now converting to a modified vegetarian diet relying primarily on plant based protein supplemented with egg whites and about 4 whole eggs a week. As I do this I want to be sure I’m getting enough higher quality protein though. Do you have anything you can share that you found to be helpful as you followed a vegetarian diet?

Thanks,

Jayhawker

[horsie63]

I know that many people struggle with weight gain but I have the opposite...I can not gain weight as food tastes pretty awful right now. I'm at 22 GFR but it's been dropping like a rock the last few months. I have my next appt with my kidney doc in June and if it's below 20 he'll refer me to the transplant center. I want to make sure I'm a healthy weight before that but watching potassium, sodium had severely limited what I feel like eating.