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Kidney Disease and Therapeutic Nutrition |
Kidney Diseases |
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Kidney
diseases kill 60,000 Americans a year and afflict at least 8 million
more. Dialysis and transplants are expensive, costing taxpayers over 2
billion dollars annually. To that, add the emotional and physical costs in
pain. How Do Your Kidneys
Work? Kidney Diseases and
Problems: Degeneration (resulting from inflammation,
etc.) Increasing carbohydrates
is recommended. “Carbohydrates should be given liberally. This
will also reduce the catabolism of proteins and prevent ... ketosis."
(Williams) Again, a regular vegetarian diet, which is high in complex
carbohydrates, will assure just this. Nephrotic Syndrome (swelling and protein in the
urine) Acute Renal (Kidney)
Failure In early renal failure,
no protein should be given. Vegetable juice fasting may work well
here. If liquids are restricted, put the vegetables through a blender
and eat as a salad puree. It tastes better than it sounds. HOW TO MAKE A BLENDED SALAD according to Dr. Christopher Gian-Cursio, who was a New York City-based, circut-riding naturopath for over 50 years. I met Dr. Gian-Cursio some twenty years ago. Here’s his
recipe: 1 each small tomato, red or green pepper Place cut up pieces of tomato, pepper and cucumber along
with lemon juice into blender. Blend until smooth and liquid. Add
romaine leaves one at a time. Add celery or fennel; blend additional 2-3
minutes. (The consistency depends upon personal taste; some like it smooth
and watery, others thick and crunchy.) I will add that you
should eat your blended immediately. Fresh, wholesome food does not “keep,”
and crushed raw food does not keep at all.
Amino acid supplements
have shown promise in treating chronic renal failure, when coupled with a
greatly curtailed amount of dietary protein of only 20 to 25 grams/day. As
an advocate of vegetable juice fasting, I personally think the protein
restriction may have done as much as the amino acid supplementation.
Why? Because typical hospital “protein restricted diets”
provide 40g/day of protein! Consider this: the
typical American eats over 100g, and frequently exceeds 120g of protein
daily, which is WAY too much. So a so-called “restriction” to 40 g/day is
simply a correction. Most of the world’s peoples would be pleased
as punch to be able to eat 40g/day of protein. But we happily chow down three
times that, call it normal . . . and then line up for dialysis. Dialysis During dialysis, the
water soluble vitamins (B-complex and C) are lost from the blood. Supplementation
is essential, and must be both
high-potency and FREQUENT. Obstruction: Renal
Calculi (stones) 1. Calcium phosphate
stones are common and easily dissolve in urine acidified by vitamin
C. 2. Calcium
oxalate stones are also common but they do not dissolve in acid
urine. 3. Magnesium
ammonium phosphate (struvite stones) are much less common, often appearing after an
infection. They dissolve in vitamin C acidified urine. 4. Uric acid stones
result from a problem metabolizing purines (the
chemical base of adenine, xanthine, theobromine [in chocolate] and uric acid). They may form
in a condition such as gout.
5. Cystine stones result from a hereditary
inability to reabsorb cystine. Most
children's stones are this type, and these are rare. The Role of Vitamin C
in Preventing and Dissolving Kidney Stones: Acidic urine will also
dissolve magnesium ammonium phosphate stones, which would otherwise require
surgical removal. These are the same struvite
stones associated with urinary tract infections. Both the infection and
the stone are easily cured with vitamin C in large doses. BOTH are
virtually 100% preventable with daily consumption of much-greater-than-RDA
amounts of ascorbic acid. Think grams, not milligrams! A gorilla
gets about 4,000 mg of vitamin C a day in its natural diet. The US RDA
for humans is only 60 mg. Someone is wrong, and I don't think it's the
gorillas. The common calcium
oxalate stone can form in an acidic urine whether
one takes vitamin C or not. However, if a person gets adequate
quantities of B-complex vitamins and magnesium, this type of stone does not
form. Any common B-complex supplement twice daily, plus about 400
milligrams of magnesium, is usually adequate. Ascorbate (the active ion
in vitamin C) does increase the body's production of oxalate. Yet, in
practice, vitamin C does not increase oxalate stone formation. Drs.
Emanuel Cheraskin, Marshall Ringsdorf, Jr. and
Emily Sisley explain in The Vitamin C Connection
(1983) that acidic urine or slightly acidic urine reduces the Furthermore, you can
avoid excessive oxalates by not eating (much) rhubarb, spinach, or
chocolate. If a doctor thinks that a person is especially prone to
forming oxalate stones, that person should read the suggestions below before
abandoning the benefits of vitamin C. Ways for ANYONE to
reduce the risk of kidney stones: 2. Control
urine pH: acidic urine helps prevent urinary tract infections, dissolves
both phosphate and struvite stones, and
will not cause oxalate stones.
3. Eat your
veggies: studies have shown that dietary oxalate is generally not a
significant factor in stone formation. I would go easy on rhubarb
and spinach, however. 4. Most
kidney stones are compounds of calcium and most Americans are calcium
deficient. Instead of lowering calcium intake, reduce excess dietary
phosphorous by avoiding carbonated soft drinks, especially colas. Soft
drinks contain excessive quantities of phosphorous as phosphoric acid.
This is the same acid that has been used by dentists to etch tooth enamel
before applying sealant. Remember that
Americans get only about 500 mg of dietary calcium daily, and the RDA is 800
to 1200 mg/day. Any nutritionist, doctor or text suggesting calcium reduction
is in serious error. 5. Take a magnesium
supplement of at least the US RDA
of 300-400 mg/day (more may be desirable in order to maintain an ideal
1:2 balance of magnesium to calcium) 6. Be certain
to take a good B-complex vitamin supplement daily, which contains pyridoxine
(Vitamin B-6). B-6 deficiency produces kidney stones in
experimental animals. Remember: * B-6 deficiency
is very common in humans * B-1 (thiamine)
deficiency also is associated with stones (Hagler
and Herman, "Oxalate Metabolism, II" American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, 26:8, 882-889, August, 1973) 7.
Additionally, low calcium may itself CAUSE calcium stones (L. H. Smith, et
al, "Medical Evaluation of Urolithiasis" Urological
Clinics of North America 1:2, 241-260, June 1974) 8. For uric
acid/purine stones (gout), STOP EATING MEAT!
Nutrition tables and textbooks indicate meats as the major dietary purine source. Naturopathic treatment adds juice
fasts and eating sour cherries. Increased vitamin C consumption helps
by improving the urinary excretion of uric acid. (Cheraskin, et al,
1983). Use buffered ascorbate "C". 9. Persons
with cystine stones (only 1% of all kidney stones)
should follow a low methionine diet and use
buffered C. 10. Kidney
stones are associated with high sugar intake, so eat less (or no) added
sugar (J. A. Thom, et al "The Influence of Refined Carbohydrate on
Urinary Calcium Excretion," British Journal of Urology, 50:7,
459-464, December, 1978) 11.
Infections can cause conditions that favor stone formation, such as overly
concentrated urine (from fever sweating, vomiting or diarrhea).
Practice good preventive health care, and it will pay you back with
interest. Pauling, Linus "Are Kidney Stones Associated with Vitamin C
Intake?" Today's Living, September, 1981. Pauling, Linus " Pauling, Linus How to Live Longer and Feel Better,
Freeman, 1986. Copyright C 2005 and
prior years Andrew W. Saul. Andrew Saul is the author
of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to be
Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html
) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html
) For ordering information, Click Here . |
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