Kidney Disease
I have a special interest in chronic kidney disease and renal failure, originating from my own diagnosis with a rare genetic kidney disorder. I bring both personal and clinical experience and expertise into the management of these disorders with dietary, lifestyle, herbal and nutritional strategies and treatments.
If you have chronic kidney disease, you may have wondered whether herbal and/or nutritional medicine could help to support and improve your kidney function. But if you’ve spoken to your nephrologist, they’ve probably communicated major concerns around the safety of natural medicines for people with compromised kidney function. The National Kidney Foundation guidelines communicate safety cautions around herbal and nutritional medicines too.
These concerns are not entirely unfounded; there have been reported cases of kidney damage linked to the intake of herbal supplements, most often due to contamination of raw materials or misidentification of plants. The risk of harm from herbal or nutritional medicines is significantly reduced when using practitioner-only supplements, which are independently tested and verified, prescribed by an experienced naturopath with a solid knowledge of chronic kidney disease.
As someone who lives with chronic kidney disease and consults with many patients with this condition, I have found that the best health outcomes arise from good communication and strong relationships with medical teams. This way, we can create a plan that offers the best that both orthodox medicine and naturopathic medicine have to offer.
In clinical practice, I have found the main ways naturopathic medicine can help patients with chronic kidney disease inluce:
Early-Stage Kidney Disease: improving or maintaining kidney function and protecting the kidneys in the long-term to prevent kidney function decline
Late-Stage Kidney Disease: improving or maintaining kidney function, delaying need for dialysis or transplant, and addressing any symptoms that commonly start to arise at this stage of disease
Dialysis (Haemo & Peritoneal): improving dialysis response through individualised diet and nutrition, resolving commonly occuring symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, low libido, digestive issues, muscle cramps, restless legs, and skin issue, managing fluid balance, maintaining residual renal function, supporting AV fistula health, and reducing risk of complications such as blood clots and high blood pressure
Transplant: optimising health prior to transplant to ensure best outcomes, diet and nutrition for post-transplant recovery, minimising side effects associated with transplant medications through diet and lifestyle approaches, support for live transplant donors - prior to surgery, recovery, and for maintaining function long-term with one kidney
Targeted dietary plans play a huge role in creating and maintaining whole-person health within the context of kidney disease and its orthodox treatment. In supporting chronic kidney disease, an individualised approach diet is essential, as specific dietary requirements will differ between type of kidney disease, stages of kidney disease, and your personal blood results. Typically, the standard “Kidney Diet” recommendations you may find online will not be appropriate for your particularly situation. It is also common for there to be a lack of guidance around diet and nutrition from medical specialists. The benefit of an individualised dietary plan includes improving or slowing the decline of kidney function, plus enhancing general wellbeing and reducing symptoms associated with chronic kidney disease.
The kidney and urinary conditions I have experience in supporting using herbal, nutritional, dietary and lifestyle management include:
Kidney disease associated with hypertension or diabetes
Polycystic kidney disease
IgA nephropathy (Berger disease)
Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)
Minimal change disease
Glomerulonephritis
Recurrent kidney stones
Renal tubular acidosis
Lupus nephritis
Vesicoureteral reflux
Chronic urinary tract infections
Acute kidney injury
End-stage renal failure
Interstitial cystitis
Early-stage kidney disease is generally considered to be any type of kidney disease where the level of function is classed as stage 4-5. This is where you may still have normal kidney function or it may be slightly reduced. This is a particularly good point to start supporting kidney and general health with naturopathic medicine. The focus is on maintaining the level of function by identifying and addressing any underlying drivers of disease (such as inflammation, toxin exposure, poor metabolic or gut health), supporting kidney function, protecting the kidneys through diet and nutritional and herbal medicine, and addressing any co-exisiting health issues that may be impacting on the kidneys. Generally these types of interventions will need to be life-long to ensure kidney health is maintained..
Kidney disease is often undiagnosed until the majority of kidney function is lost. Depending on the cause and extent of renal failure, some function may be recovered, or further deterioration prevented, through the use of herbal and nutritional supplements, diet modification and lifestyle approaches. This may assist in preventing or delaying the need for dialysis and/or transplant and for resolving or reducing the symptoms associated with later-stage renal failure, which can include:
Nausea and vomiting
Loss of appetite
Fatigue and weakness
Insomnia
Brain fog / concentration difficulties
Low mood or depression
Muscle pain and spasms
Itching
Bad breath and mouth symptoms
Digestive issues
Transplant
Dialysis is a life-saving treatment for people with end-stage renal failure, but patients commonly experience a range of persistent symptoms and/or side-effects as a result of the treatment. Complementary medicine offers supportive measure to improve quality of life by reducing associated side-effects and managing other symptoms that dialysis does not address. Residual renal function is the amount of kidney function that remains after commencing dialysis. Research indicates preservation of residual renal functional equates to better health outcomes whilst on dialysis, however, this is commonly overlooked when initiating dialysis (particularly in the case of heamodialysis). There are a number of completmentary medicine approaches to help preserve residual renal function. Natural therapies may also help to reduce the required amount of dialysis treatment or allow more flexible eating by improving potassium and/or fluid balance.
Early Stage Kidney Disease
There are a number of evidence-based natural medicine approaches to support patients undergoing kidney transplant. There are also a large number of supplements (and also foods) that can negatively interact with immunosuppressant medications and cause organ rejection. It is essential to review your supplement strategy with a practitioner who can guide you to the use of safe and evidence-based complementary medicines, and work in close collaboration with your medical team. Diet and nutrition are essential to long-term health after transplant. Ensuring you have an appropriate nutrition plan in place is essential for early post-transplant recovery. This will look different to how you may be currently eating on dialysis, and will also be different to longer-term nutrition recommendations to support the life of your new kidney. Complementary medicine may also be of benefit for live donors to ensure the pre- and post-donation process is optimised including supporting their remaining kidney’s health long-term.