And it will.  It knocked again on a practitioner’s door last week.  She in turn knocked on mine. It turned out to be a very familiar story:

Firstly: Patient presents distressed – recently a nurse applied the term ‘Chronic Kidney Disease’ to HER (note no one has ever mentioned this diagnosis)
Secondly: She is in stage 3 of 5
Then: This practitioner is left to have ‘the conversation’ but wants to know where to start, ‘What do I say?’
Next up: And what else can I do for her – are we really able to make a difference?

Familiar to you too? So,1st & 2nd: Yes, this is not uncommon we would have to say and even with age-appropriate reference range adjustment, her GFR consistently in the 50s,  flags premature decline.  Then: What DO you say?  Well this clearly is a delicate area, not only because of the level of patient distress and concern but because, at this stage the practitioner knows nothing more than what the patient tells her and her ELFTs over the last 2 years.  This is not enough information, right? Chronic Kidney Disease is a heterogeneous condition, with many different causes, manifestations, comorbid conditions, and factors affecting prognosis (Levey et al., 2009) So while most individuals certainly progress from stage I to II and II to III the rate at which they do this differs dramatically.

Two years of data is not long enough for us to appreciate the trajectory of her CKD & means we are unable to provide the patient with any kind of perspective:
‘With no further decline in GFR or progression in stages over 5 years, you’re doing well, so keep doing what you’re doing!’
Vs
‘Ok, I can see what looks like a little period of accelerated decline – let’s review what’s been happening and how we can turn this around”

“Please sir can I have some more?’ Yes, back to her primary carers to request more information to fill in the gaps, and ideally more labs to calculate & observe the trajectory for yourself.  Next Up: What do we have to offer the patient with CKD stage III? Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!! When is adequate hydration helpful?  Always, except Stage V! (and these patients are not coming to see us) What are our treatment objectives & our evidence backed medicines to meet these? Hcy lowering (note often referred to as ‘folate refractory’ in renal dx), vitamin D adequacy, lowering the acid load, supporting the microbiome & in turn the Renal-GIT axis…hang on, got to go…someone’s knocking 😅 but hopefully we all can see, when they present to us, they are indeed knocking on the right door ✊

Nutritional Interventions in Renal Impairment – Place & Potency

Nutritional or naturopathic support for the kidneys tends to have been over-looked in our training and yet research suggests there is much in our tool kit that can make an enormous difference to this system, in particular, slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease in patients.  Rachel talks about what these key evidence based interventions are and also gives you the tools to identify the early pathology markers of renal impairment – the earlier the recognition, the earlier we can make a start on the remedy.

Water & Our Kidneys – Helping or Harassing?

It seems almost farcical to question the merits of hydration for our renal health but is this actually the truism we have been lead to believe?  Where does the recommendation of ‘8 glasses a day’ come from and what is the level of evidence to support it and in whom?  Or should we in fact be setting our sights on output ie. 24 hr urinary volume, over input. Do all kidneys love water – or does this relationship change with the progressive impairment seen in CKD which affects up to 30% of our middle-aged population?  When does hydration become harassment?

Renal Markers – Explained, Expanded and Exploded 

Most practitioners graduated with not much more than a few ‘kidney’ herbs and an under-appreciation of the contribution renal health makes to wellbeing. It’s not just about waste and water.  In reality, the kidneys are pivotal in just about every major element: blood, bones, pH balance, methylation, control of oxidative stress, the GIT microbiome and more!  And we are seeing the impact of this in our patients in all sorts of subtle and not so subtle presentations.  This new instalment in diagnostics, brings the renal system into the spotlight so we can confidently identify and better manage its critical contribution.  In addition to this, just like with other routine labs such as LFTs, we unpack how these so-called ‘renal markers’ can flag a plethora of other insights into your patients, from reflecting (un)healthy muscle mass, to calculating  individual dietary protein adequacy, from key ‘danger and distress’ signals in response to disturbed metabolism, oxidative stress to certain types of GIT dysbiosis!  We call this Explained, Expanded and Exploded because these routine labs can deliver XXX sized insights into your patients.