The perfect treatment for CKD
Hi everyone, welcome to 00Kidney,
A really great and IMPORTANT topic today, the PERFECT treatment for kidney disease.
The treatment that can ACTUALLY LOWER your creatinine levels.
And I want to explain immediately why I think today’s video will help you achieving the perfect treatment, OK?
My name is Katherine, by the way, and I’ve been working with people suffering from chronic kidney disease for 7 years, now.
I’ve helped many of them GETTING A BETTER TREATMENT for themselves.
And if you are new here on 00kidney, WELCOME to our journey together to a better kidney health!
Don’t forget to subscribe and click the notification bell!
So, what is the PERFECT treatment for chronic kidney disease?
There are at least 1000 different diets you can follow and maybe 10.000 different supplements, home remedies and lifestyle changes you can try.
I’ve talked about them, I’ve studied them, I’ve tested them and I’ve read the papers.
And I’ve made this table here
to show which one is the best for you.
Because there are many things you can do, ok?
but the perfect treatment is the one that works FOR YOU and you only.
Like a dress a tailor would make to fit exactly you, this treatment should be custom made.
And there are JUST two things you need to know to start creating your perfect treatment.
The two first things on the right side of my table.
So, you need to know this part and I’ll fill in the rest of the table for you, ok?
The first thing you need to know is the stage of chronic kidney disease you’re in.
Because, trust me, if you are not 100% sure on what your stage is and what it means exactly, you’re never going to be able to create the perfect treatment for yourself.
And I know it, ok? this could be confusing or even daunting for new patients.
For people that have been just diagnosed with Chronic kidney disease.
Some patients don’t even know their GFR. Maybe their doctors just told them that they have a decreased kidney function and didn’t give any information. Yes, this can happen.
If this is you case, don’t worry, I’ve made a video about this. It can help you.
It’s up here, you can watch it now or save it for later.
Back to our table.
The second thing, the most important thing you absolutely need to know to create the perfect treatment is what is actually damaging your kidneys.
Today, this is going to be our main focus, alright?
Now, for some patients identifying the cause of the kidney damage is easy and fast, but for some others it may be more difficult.
But you need to do this.
You need to work with your doctor and do all the tests you need to be 100% sure that you have identified what’s damaging your kidneys.
If you already know what is it, great, we can move on to the next step.
Just one more thing, this is a two parts video, so there’s going to be a follow up next Friday, ok?
This means that I’m also going to answer your questions about today’s video in the next one.
So write down in comment section if there’s anything you want me to clarify, ok?
So, let’s start filling-in the table here.
We’ll put in this first field up here hypertension, or high blood pressure, as a cause of kidney disease.
High blood pressure is the second leading cause of kidney damage, actually, and, not everyone knows this, but it is also caused by kidney disease.
How does this work?
High blood pressure can damage blood vessels in the kidney, ok?
If the blood vessels in your kidneys are damaged, your kidneys may not work as well to remove wastes and extra fluid from your body.
Extra fluid in the blood vessels may then raise blood pressure even more, creating a dangerous cycle.
And this happens even in people whose kidney disease was caused by diabetes or other problems.
So, we can say that this step can be useful for every kidney patient.
What is the perfect treatment for kidney disease caused by hypertension?
The diet is going to be a low sodium diet, the heart healthy diet.
Some dietitians prefer the DASH diet, some other the MIND diet.
Other some kind of Mediterranean diet…
BUT
I’m not really interested in how you call it, ok?
We’re talking about a diet that’s very, very low in sodium here.
Sodium is a real danger for people with kidney disease, since it raises blood pressure.
Almost every patient needs to step down on sodium.
Having too much sodium will ruin a kidney friendly diet, will make you thirsty and will also cause a spike In blood pressure which is a sure way to cause damage to the kidneys.
Now, let’s talk numbers. The magic number when it comes to sodium is 1500mg per day.
This is a very important number. If you can get your sodium intake to this number
You will get HUGE benefits.
including but not limited to:
- Lowering your blood pressure.
- Reducing your risk of a heart attack
- And even Lowering your LDL cholesterol
And more, as we can see here.
OK, now you may say, but I’ve been avoiding table salt since 2006, what more can I do?
Well, for many people, avoiding adding table salt is not enough.
Why?
Because according to CDC, about 80% of sodium people get from their diets comes for packaged, canned and premade foods, ok?
And, this is very important, because we need to get to just 1500mg of sodium per day and the average American consumes more than 3,400 mg of sodium per day.
More than twice the recommended amount.
And all this sodium is usually not coming from the salt shaker.
NO, it’s coming mostly from fast foods, bacon and processed meats, shortenings, but also salad dressings and snacks, ok? And the other foods in this slide.
Some of these foods contain more than 1500mg of sodium per portion.
Now, there’s one thing I should clarify here: the renal diet should be tailor made for every single patient by a health care professional.
When you have kidney disease, your kidneys cannot remove electrolytes like potassium and phosphorus properly, ok?
And you need to limit them in your diet.
This way, you can avoid complications and further damage to your kidneys.
But this makes a lot of healthy foods, unhealthy for you.
And while I will be talking more about this problem in the next part of this video, you may be interested in knowing what healthy foods you can actually eat, right?
This is why I’ve made this video up here.
It’s all about the healthy foods that can repair your kidneys. Watch it now or maybe save it for later.
Back to our table now!
OK, we’re starting to fill up this table for the perfect treatment.
So, if you have hypertension as a cause for kidney disease, this is your perfect diet.
Your heart and your kidneys will be grateful.
Now, let’s fill in the part about home remedies and supplements.
There are some home remedies really effective against hypertension.
First one is a very cheap one you have probably never heard about, because no brand can patent it
Why I think magnesium is so useful?
There’s a meta-analysis, of 34 studies totaling more than 2,000 patients.
All of these studies were randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, ok?
This is the best kind of study.
Because some of the people were given a placebo instead of magnesium, and neither the participants nor the researchers knew who received the placebo or the magnesium. This is really important.
Participants took between 240 and 960 milligrams of magnesium each day during the studies.
The researchers found out that taking 368 mg of magnesium supplements daily was the best dosage, as we can see here.
Because it reduced people’s systolic blood pressure by an average of 2 over 1.8 millimeters of mercury.
These are really great results already, but there’s more.
There’s a study conducted on CKD patients in stage 5.
This study found associations between higher levels of serum magnesium and improved survival among patients suffering from CKD stage 5 and end-stage renal disease
Also, higher levels of serum Magnesium are associated with reduced progression of CKD.
Now, magnesium as a supplement is not something that brands can patent, ok, so you usually find it for very cheap.
And I really think that people with kidney disease should consider a magnesium supplementation, especially if suffering from high blood pressure.
But there’s another home remedy that’s even more powerful.
The second home remedy is garlic.
Why I think it’s interesting.
In double blind studies with garlic, the blood pressure of the participants dropped.
Up to 11 over 5 mmHg, in some participants.
The more the initial blood pressure, the greater the result, according to the study.
So, this means that garlic works great on people suffering from hypertension.
The links to these studies, are in description, as usual.
For comparison, the average anti-hypertension drug will lower your blood pressure by 9 over 5 millimeters of mercury.
Now, if you combine this with the result you may get from a low sodium diet, you can understand how much of a difference you can make for your health.
Especially because anti hypertension drugs come with a heavy price.
Not just for your wallet, but for your renal health too.
Because, remember, every pill you take will take a trip trough your kidneys.
If you want the perfect treatment, you want the treatment that requires the minor number of drugs possible, ok?
I’ve talked about this in my video “kidney killer pills”.
Back to our table now,
Ok, the table for the perfect treatment for kidney disease is starting to take shape.
So we can see that if you have hypertension, focusing on a low sodium diet is your best bet, right?
But there’s also garlic and magnesium in the home remedies section that can help.
The goal is pretty clear here,
you should focus on CONTROLLING HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE.
Checking and managing hypertension. The blood pressure monitor is your best friend here.
Check your pressure daily and make a diary for yourself, write down you blood pressure every day.
This way, you can be the first one to know if any change you may have made to your diet and lifestyle is the right one for you.
Now, Let’s move on to the next cause of kidney disease.
Diabetes.
Diabetes is the most common cause of CKD, actually, but it is also the number 7 cause of death in the world.
So, if you have diabetes, find a way to manage it.
Diabetes can be reversed if treated early, but even if it’s advanced, you CAN force it into remission.
And that’s the perfect treatment for kidney disease, if kidney disease is caused by diabetes.
Let’s see how to fill in the next spot.
What diet would you need to fight diabetes effectively?
My number one pick, here, is the KETO diet.
Let’s see why
Keto diet refers to a ketogenic diet, which is a high-fat, medium-protein, low-carb diet.
The aim is to get the body in a state of ketosis.
It works by depleting your body of its store of sugar, so it will start to break down protein and fat for energy.
Now, this is actually a rather drastic diet, but it is supposed to have a very long list of benefits that may make it worth the effort, including the chance to reverse DIABETIC kidney disease.
Because the keto diet, can potentially change the way your body stores and uses energy, easing diabetes symptoms.
And preventing it from doing more damage to the kidneys.
Now, the main difference between the keto diet and a normal renal diet are carbohydrates.
If you follow a keto diet, you’re going to get very, very little carbs.
So basically no bread, pasta, very little fruit… and also no fruit juices and sugary beverages.
As we can see from my slide, to achieve the results promised by this diet, someone on a keto is supposed to get less than 5 percent of their caloric intake from carbs.
Let’s try to understand this with the good old food pyramid.
Here, on the left side you can see a standard food pyramid for the healthy eating.
At the base of the standard food pyramid there are whole grains, fruit starchy vegetables… all these foods are sources of carbs.
So, in a normal healthy diet, this would be where you’ll get most of the calories.
On the right side you may see the food pyramid for the keto diet.
There’s a big difference here, in the big step.
Whole grains, fruit and starchy vegetables are totally missing here.
They’ve been replaced with more fats and protein, coming from fish and nuts.
But also from eggs and meat.
Now, the keto diet can have huge benefits as we have seen, but it’s not for everyone.
Actually, this diet alone requires a lot of time just to be explained and it deserves a whole video just for it.
You can find this video up here, if you’re interested in knowing more.
For now, I’ve put the keto diet as the best option for people with diabetic kidney disease.
Obviously, it’s up to you to decide, with the help of your dietician, if the keto diet works for you, ok?
Now, let’s see what home remedies work best for people with diabetes and kidney disease.
This one is really interesting, it wont just help your gut regulating the absorption of sugar and lower your blood glucose, it’s also great for lowering cholesterol levels and helping the kidneys in general.
Yes, there’s lot of research showing how fiber, a natural substance in plants, can give the kidneys an extra boost and improve kidney function.
Dietary fiber is ACTUALLY what all the healthy diets in world have in common.
So I’m putting this one in the diabetic kidney disease section, because that’s where it helps the most.
But you can actually consider fiber regardless of your condition.
Because it’s healthy for everyone.
Two studies published in the Kidney International Journal showed that a high dietary fiber intake is associated with lower risk of inflammation and mortality in kidney disease.
Another recent study shows that increasing fiber intake in CKD patients can even reduce serum creatinine levels and improve GFR.
Yes, fiber as a supplement is really, really helpful.
Now, fiber supplements are widely available on amazon.com and any other supplements store, actually.
I’ve explained a lot more in-depth how to use these supplements in this video up here.
But today we are focusing on the big picture, am I right?
So, the main goal of all this is
To control and manage diabetes.
If you have diabetes, having a blood glucose monitoring device at home can be a life saver.
So, set a goal with your doctor for your fasting blood glucose and,
Just like for high blood pressure, test it regularly.
Then write down what your results are on your health diary.
This is the only way to know if what you’re doing, the diet, the lifestyle and so on is helping, ok?
So, another slot is filled.
Now, in the next part of this video we are going to fill the remaining empty boxes of my slide.
We’ll see what’s the perfect treatment for the remaining causes of kidney disease.
We’ll also see how to adapt this treatment to the stage of kidney disease you’re in.
Now, there are people here on 00kidney who were able to reverse kidney disease.
You may have read their comments and maybe want to know more.
I’ve talked a lot about their success stories, because they’re inspiring and because they can show people that there could be a way out of this illness.
What many of them used is this program here I have on my phone.
This is a comprehensive guide to the diet, supplementation and medications created to help people in stage 3, 4 and even 5 of kidney disease to get their kidney function back.
It was made by an Australian doctor that helped thousands of people with kidney disease.
Click here if you want to know more.
Now, as you may see our table is quite not completed yet.
The second part of this video is coming this Friday and you absolutely can’t miss it!
I’m going to show you how to adapt your diet to the stage of kidney disease you’re in and I’m also going to answer all your questions related to this video.
So, for now, thank you for watching, see you next Friday!
About the Author
Michaelw Hi, my name is Michael and in this blog I'm gonna share the story of how I got off kidney dialysis for good. Getting off dialysis isn't easy at all, and that's why I'm trying to help people as much as I can.
Related Posts
5 mineral hacks that can make all the difference with CKD →
Stop Taking These Kidney Damaging Supplements Now! →
This herbal remedy can lower creatinine by 10.3% in stage 5 →
