You want your GFR numbers to go up, not down. They indicate kidney function.

When I got my diagnosis - by accident - I began to read everything I could find on CKD. I still read, and try to stay informed about anything new. The first thing the doctors told me, and others report the same thing - was that in Stage 3 a or b CKD, you do not have to do anything. I see this all the time on blogs. That is terrible advice and should be ignored as you look for a different nephrologist. I raised my GFR over a period of several months from 50+ to between 64-and 69. This meant I have improved my kidney function and have gone from State 3 a or b, to Stage 2. As The Kidney Doc says, (see his cookbook and any other advice you can investigate) diet is more important than any medicine the doctor gives you. The insanity of telling patients that in Stage 3 they do not have to change anything is mind-numbing. While slow-moving, with CKD Stage 3 a or b you are tracking toward Stage 4, and then after that, dialysis. You need to change your diet immediately, starting with giving up meat, sugar, salt, and dairy. I have been a vegetarian for 20 years so the meat thing was not an issue for me. The trauma was over giving up chocolate. You will find lots of diets and food advice online. Your doctor should be able to refer you to a nutritionist, but what you specifically need is a kidney nutritionist. If the kidney physician you see tells you to do nothing in Stage 3, change doctors.

People do not die of Kidney Disease or for instance, diabetes. They die of cardiovascular disease, especially cardiac arrest. This means you have to begin an exercise regime of at least 30 minutes of exercise a day.

The big thing to me of all of it is slowing down, stopping, or reversing kidney disease. It is all about diet.

I went to a plant-based diet. I had been a vegetarian for years - kidneys don't do well with meat - so that part was not hard and probably had protected me from more kidney damage over time. . However, I changed my diet to what I learned as I consumed information from every kidney publication, or website I could find. The nutritionist at my local hospital is not a kidney nutritionist, but I continued obsessive reading and augmented what she gave me to what I learned. I limit protein to 50 grams, or fewer, a day, cut out food that is listed as being hard on kidneys, (dairy, meat, salt, sugar,) haunted the web, and compared information and sources to be sure there was agreement. I have read government and hospital scientific papers on CKD, and results of studies and tests - the whole kidney thing is about food.

Look at the government websites and the National Kidney Foundation. Also, check out websites from kidney survivors who maintain websites: they want you to buy their products, but they have had personal experience with the disease and include a lot of information. As you become more familiar with the topic and the disease you will recognize the quality of the advice - or lack there of.

I also stepped up my exercise. We do not die from kidney failure, we die from coronary heart disease, do 30 minutes of exercise a day.

The first nephologist I went to was not interested, since I was in Stage 3, and gave me ten minutes of his time. I switched doctors. You will read in many comments and publications that at Stage 3, you do not need to do anything – I assume this is because kidney disease is slow moving – however, that is shocking, horrible advice. Start now so you can avoid, slow down, or reverse your progress to Stage 4.