Stage 3 Kidney Disease and Diet: What can I eat?

I find very little doctor instituted help when it comes to diet and kidney disease. In fact, I find very little nephrological help as a whole. This is 2021 and physicians still wait and watch. No drug company has come up with any medicines that helps kidney function or any small devices that can be inserted into the kidney to help it do it's job. We have all sorts of weapons of war, weapons of spydom, where are the weapons that help people with a relatively common disease survive. Waiting and watching is sometimes good medicine and sometimes it's not. The practice of nephrology seems extremely passive to me and not very inventive. My father had kidney disease 40 years ago and he was treated the same way we are today. There's something radically wrong with this picture. Perhaps genetics will help. Right now, kidney disease is a self-help situation. I wish us all good luck. Right now,sharing information is the best bet but it's not good enough.

@petuniamom567 Kidney disease and the complications that can sprout from it, is "big business" as they say. It can be the result of hereditary circumstances, high blood pressure, diabetes, medication side effects [Lithium and Bactrim come to mind right off the bat], or lifestyle choices. Or, it can be a combination of these factors.

In my case, I have an ultra-rare autoimmune kidney issue, with less than 50 people ever diagnosed, and no cure. We can do nothing but watch my function decline. Added to this, is a cancerous tumor on my right kidney, and a blood cancer. What to do? I have been followed by nephrologists for over 6 years. But, I advocate for myself, and push for good care. Recently I felt my dr was not doing as much as he could, and switched to a new nephrologist. Her focus is more on acute/complicated cases, and immediately her approach made me feel more comfortable. More able to help handle my disease, I feel more confident going forward.

Our bodies are a miracle, the way so many different systems work together! Sharing information, advocating for ourselves, educating ourselves, and supporting each other like we do here on Mayo clinic Connect, is key.
Ginger

You're right. Kidney disease is big business. Perhaps that's part of the problem. More dialysis patients means more money for doctors and corporations. Let's hope we're wrong. Our bodies are miracles.But medical minds are part of those miracles. It seems to me that sitting and watching and waiting and hoping that kidney function won't fail isn't very creative. It's true, kidneys are delicate systems. Yet, it's hard to believe that no researchers working with industrial, cyber engineers haven't come up with ways to make the kidneys function better.
Fifty years ago, who would have believed there would be pacemakers? Why not create artificial kidney parts that are computerized? Maybe
all of this is wild talk from an impatient patient. But simply doing blood work as kidney function winds down with the stress of aging seems
crazy. Imagination plus knowledge is what I'm looking for. It's important to remember that medicine is both a science and and art. Right now it's becoming more and more of a corporate money maker. I"ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. Let's connect and perhaps, even as patients, let's be creative.

Try the book; The Renal Diet Cookbook by Susan Zogheib. But, I have to tell you, it, too, raises some questions as well. It is informative and lots of recipes. This is a tough disease and requires much vigilance. From my personal experience, for what it's worth, find the time to walk or it's equivalent 4 to 5 miles a day, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Drink water. Not coffee, not tea, no soda, none those designer waters. Avoid the obvious high potassium, high sodium foods. I have been able to keep my GFR between 55 and 59 for nearly 6 years following this plan. My potassium is actually lower now than 5 years ago. Good luck.

Well said I am in stage 3b and my neph. Tells me to watch my salt and potassium but I can eat anything,,,,,,the one before I changed never gave any advice.

Yes, you might eat "anything" but mindfulness about portions and food types is critical.

Agree. Where ARE all those small, cyber parts that could help us function without dialysis? There are creative docs and researchers out there. WHAT are they doing? Processing our CMP's. Also, much X-Ray equipment is outdated. Where are all those wonderful, thoughtful, caring physicians. Let's not wait forever. Let them work together.

My journey is totally different. I started acupuncture from a real Chinese doctor and PHd graduate from a well known and respected college here in the U.S. In 2 1/2 weeks my GFR went from 39 to 45., the highest in a long time. My next lab draw is at the end of February which should give me a good reading on the future of acupuncture and stage 3B. Rather interesting, this forum hardly talks about acupuncture and its use with kidney disease..

Regarding nutrition, I get my best advice from one of several renal dieticians here at Mayo. She even encourages me to message her whenever I have questions. Even better, she responds quickly.

@collegeprof Welcome to Mayo Connect. I see you have been a member here for several months and this is your first post. I sure hope you will share with us, your lab draw results from the end of February! It will be interesting to see what they show. Yes, there hasn't been much mention of acupuncture in relation to kidney disease. I did find a article from 2018 that indicates more research is needed, but it certainly sounds promising in your situation. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30286626/

When you are comfortable to share with us, would you tell us about your kidney disease journey, and what led you to try acupuncture?
Ginger

Interesting but what also should be considered is the possibility that the acupuncture course of treatment positively affected your blood pressure readings which, if they dropped significantly) may have contributed to an improvement in your GFR. Just a thought.