Kidney Health

We’ve done the liver in depth and a number of references to healthy heart and brain. Pancreas is a diabetes thing and we’ll have to look at that again in detail.

But today it’s kidneys. Just about the most unsung, unloved, undervalued organs in our bodies. Without your kidneys in good shape you wouldn’t last a week! Yet most people beat up their kidneys, without even appreciating what they do for us and how we should take care of them.

Apart from excreting waste, the kidney is a key player in regulating the body’s acid-alkali balance and, very important, in balancing and retaining fluid levels in the tissues. Kidneys also release hormones that regulate blood pressure, produce an active form of vitamin D that promotes strong, healthy bones and they control the production of red blood cells, through a hormone called erythropoietin, aka. hematopoietin or hemopoietin.

The usual perception of urine is stinky, dirty stuff that repels most people. In fact, I remind you, that urine was blood plasma only minutes before. It’s quite sterile and has simply had its composition tweaked, so that the good substances were re-absorbed and the unwanted waste concentrated, to make it more efficient. You can drink urine if you want; some people do! But it rather defeats Nature’s process of getting rid of toxic waste.

More on that in a later issue.

Statistics

Beware! An estimated 3.83 percent of adults in the US aged 20 or older (7.7 million adults) have physiological moderate or severe evidence of chronic kidney disease [Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. 2005;16:180–188]. That’s approximately 1 in every 25 people.

Kidney failure currently just creeps into the top 10 causes of death in the US. The pattern is the same in other Western countries. Incidentally, it does NOT fall in the top 10 for Eskimos and American Native Indians.

That’s bad enough but it’s getting worse. Researchers predict that in the US the prevalence of kidney failure (“end-stage renal disease” as they call it or ESRD) will rise over 60% from 2005 to 2020. The change will have important ramifications for the delivery of healthcare to this population, according to Dr. David T. Gilbertson, from the US Renal Data System in Minneapolis.

Based on data available through 2005, researchers estimate that the 485,000 figure is predicted to swell to 680,000 in 2015 and to 785,000 in 2020. Dr. Gilbertson presented his team’s findings in November 2007 at the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology in San Francisco.

The baby boomers are the problem. Despite advances in kidney disease management and improved chances for the individual, the population incidence is set to soar over the next 2 decades. You and I will still be alive (if you do what I tell you), so we are especially at risk.

The findings are concerning because they suggest that there may not be enough health care providers to care for this population in the future, according Gilbertson. He talks in terms of more kidney transplants, and more home-based therapy options such as peritoneal dialysis and more home hemodialysis.

Well, you and I know the real answer is to teach people how to take care of their health, so they don’t fall into this or any other disaster scenario but stay well till their last day on Earth.

Famous people with kidney disease

Kidney disease can strike anyone from any walk of life. Here are just a few well-known people who have battled kidney disease.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, probably died of kidney failure.
Chester A. Arthur, 21st US President, suffered from a fatal kidney disease.
Jean Harlow, actress, died of it, age 26.
James Michener, author, died of kidney failure at age 90 after years of dialysis.
Erma Bombeck, columnist, had a long history of kidney disease and died from complications of a kidney transplant in 1996.
Barry White, Grammy award-winning singer, suffered from kidney disease and died of a stroke in July 2003.
Sean Elliott, retired NBA All-Star, underwent kidney transplant August 2000.
Alonzo Mourning, NBA All-Star, underwent kidney transplant December 2003.
Neil Simon, playwright, underwent kidney transplant March 2004.
And last but not least His Holiness Pope John Paul II, died April 2005 of protracted ill-health, including kidney failure, age 84.

What causes it?

I found a list of over 200 causes of kidney failure at www.wrongdiagnosis.com

There is little value in repeating such a list. Basically there is acute (sudden) kidney failure, due to things like toxic shock syndrome, heart attack, hemorrhage and bacterial infection. Then chronic causes, such as chronic nephritis (glomerulonephritis), polycystic kidney disease (PKD), stones and hypertension. Other causes are relatively rare but contributory toxic overload factors are not, as we shall see.

Hypertension is the commonest (25%) and most curable precursor disease to kidney damage. You know, of course, that high blood pressure damages the heart (the pump) but you may not be so aware it puts great pressure elsewhere in the system (the cocks and drains, so to speak).

In fact this is one of those vicious circles, because kidney damage from almost any cause releases a compound called angiotensin, which raises blood pressure. That causes more kidney damage, higher blood pressure and so the cycle goes on.

Toxins

Ironically, the kidneys exist to excrete toxins; that’s their job. But unlike the liver, the kidneys cannot DE-toxify (or biotransform substances, as it is called). That leaves them liable to be hit. So toxic metals, such as chromium, cadmium, arsenic and mercury passing through the kidneys hurts them. Same with toxic organic chemicals.

Many medicinal drugs are toxic to the kidneys, especially chemo drugs. But even the humble paracetomol tablet is a deadly threat to the kidneys and many people have died of kidney failure through abusing OTC headache pills.

Kidney Failure From Pharmaceutical Counterfeits

There have been thousands of deaths from kidney failure due to diethylene glycol (DEG) poisoning. The story is the usual one of homicidal greed. DEG is cheaper and easier to produce than pharmaceutical-grade glycerine and unscrupulous manufacturers may substitute one for the other. They taste pretty much the same.

Diethylene glycol is chemically related to ethylene glycol, which is commonly used as an antifreeze. It is a highly toxic industrial solvent that has been found in various medications including antibiotics, fever syrups and cough expectorants. It is especially dangerous to children, who may die from severe kidney failure and respiratory paralysis.

After DEG is ingested, it is likely converted by the liver into toxic compounds that lead to a sudden and total shut down of the kidneys, severe acidity in the blood, inflammation of the liver and neurological dysfunction, including paralysis.

There have been a number of mass DEG poisonings around the world but the most famous case in the US involved contamination of an antibiotic elixir (sulfanilamide) in 1937. This led to the deaths of over 100 Americans and ultimately to the creation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The most recent case occurred in Panama in 2006 and involved cough syrup being made from counterfeit glycerine. The source of the counterfeit glycerin was identified and ultimately traced to China.

Because most victims die quickly, treatment regimens for DEG poisoning have not been really developed in humans. However, because of the similarities between it and ethylene glycol poisoning, similar treatment approaches are recommended. This includes hemodialysis (to remove the DEG and toxins), bicarbonate (to treat the low blood acidity), intravenous fluids and diuretics (to support the blood pressure and flush out the kidneys), and drugs to prevent the conversion of DEG to its toxic forms.

Just pray it never happens unknowingly to you or your family and on no account buy or use medications from China!

[Bogdanich, Walt and Hooker, Jake. “From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine.” New York Times, May 6, 2007.]

Treatments

Let’s just reprise some key points in the conventional treatment for kidney disease. There are two basic approaches, neither of which are attractive. The failed kidneys are either replaced by a good kidney from a donor (living or dead). Or an artificial dialysis machine is used as a substitute kidney, which ties the patient to a weekly routine for life.

In ancient times the Romans used to perform a kind of dialysis. People suffering from a build-up of urea in their systems soaked in hot baths to “sweat out” the toxins. [today we often recommend low-heat saunas for the same reason]

In the 1800s, Dr. Richard Bright extensively researched kidney disease, along with diseases of the heart, liver, pancreas and pulmonary system. Bright was a member of the prestigious Royal Society of Medicine in London, as I am today. A variety of kidney disorders having high concentrations of protein in the urine, including polycystic kidney disease (PKD), became known as “Bright’s Disease” or Morbus Brightii in Latin.

1943 Dr. Willem Kolff created a crude kidney machine.
1954 Dr. Joseph E. Murray completed the first successful living-related kidney transplant at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.
1962 Drs. Joseph Murray and David Hume performed the first successful kidney transplant from a cadaver. In 1990 Murray was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this pioneer work.
In 1975 Americans watched a live kidney transplant on TV, thanks to theToday Show. The show prompted 20,000 people to contact NBC and offer their kidneys for transplant.

By 2004 there were over 17,000 kidney transplants annually and over 335,000 dialysis patients in this country alone.

These drastic and invasive techniques can only be described as disaster management and have no curative results, but do extend survival.

How much better to look after your kidneys in the first place!

How good are your kidneys?

What we want to know is how efficiently your kidneys are filtering. The benchmark test is crude, cheap and easy. It’s called creatinine clearance. Typical creatinine clearance for healthy adults is 80 – 120 ml / min.

The traditional way of measuring it was taking a blood sample and 24 hours of urine collection. But since its publication in 1976 we use a simple formula called the Cockroft-Gault equation. Basically, it’s 140 minus your age, multiplied by your weight in kilograms; then take the serum creatinine level, multiply it by 72 and divide that into the first answer. For those of you who like it algebraically, it’s: 140 – age x weight/serum creatinine x 72.

That’s for males. Women are supposed to multiply the final result by 0.85. I have never understood why this arbitrary adjustment needs to be applied; it implies womens’ kidneys are somehow inferior. That reminds me of the “adjustment” downwards of all womens’ IQ which was fashionable years ago.

The C-G equation is a rough and ready test and becomes unreliable in children.

You can Google for on-line CCl calculators. I found over 6,000. Here’s one with nice graphics.http://www.clinicalculator.com/english/nephrology/cockroft/cc.htm

What should you do to look after your kidneys?

First, a caution with the usual advice, which is to drink lots of water. This is a myth. Whereas you can drink too little water, you can also drink too much. Some individuals retain water and it drives up their blood pressure if they imbibe too much. Raised blood pressure is the last thing your kidneys need!

Quality of water is more important than quantity. Drink pure or filtered water, not distilled. A process called depuration gradually leeches out the toxins, through time.

Don’t smoke (yet another reason). Cadmium in tobacco is very toxic to the kidneys.

Do not go in for massive “detox” programs if you are loaded. This includes sweeping mercury extractions. The trouble with misguided detoxes is that the process mobilizes toxins which had been static. The sudden burden on the liver and kidneys can have disastrous effects.

You must deal with someone knowledgeable to do it properly and safely. Stay way from enthusiastic and untrained amateurs, who seem to go in for the stupid reasoning that “I did it and it worked, therefore it’s right for everybody else around (or everybody silly enough to pay dollars).”

So-called kidney diets

The trouble with published research on kidney-friendly diets is that it all relates to damaged kidneys. Once the kidney malfunctions, there are certain foods that cannot be processed efficiently, notably protein, which breaks down to urea.

But I cannot see that implies in any way that such foods are bad for healthy kidneys. Repeatedly I see howling articles, claiming that high protein diets are bad for the kidneys.

Well, remember that Eskimos and native Indians have far less kidney disease than us, yet traditionally eat a very high fat, high protein diet. The fact is there is no scientific evidence whatever that high protein diets are bad for you, if your kidneys are undamaged and perform properly.

Once kidney disease is established, the rules change.

You may need to limit the amount of sodium in your diet. This is because high blood pressure, kidney disease and sodium are often related. Learning to read labels can help you make lower sodium choices. Sodium is found in many foods, but is especially high in the following:

• table salt and foods with added salt such as snack foods, soups and processed cheese
• some canned foods, prepared foods and “fast foods”
• foods pickled in brine such as pickles, olives and sauerkraut
• smoked and cured foods such as ham, bacon and luncheon meats

Your kidneys may not remove phosphorus efficiently. Excess in the blood may cause you to lose calcium and leech is from bones. Phosphorus is found in many foods but is especially high in the following foods:

• dairy products such as milk, cheese, pudding, yogurt and ice cream
• dried beans and peas such as kidney beans, split peas and lentils
• nuts and peanut butter
• beverages such as cocoa, beer and cola soft drinks

To limit the amount of protein (you need some for tissue building and repairs remember), reduce foods from animal sources such as poultry, meat, seafood, eggs, milk, cheese and other dairy products. To a lesser extent, beware of sources such as breads, cereals, other starches and grains.

Remember your omega-3s, to reduce inflammation.

Herbs

If milk thistle is the number one herb for livers, then horsetail is the number one for kidneys.

There are over 20 species of horsetail. The species most commonly used medicinally is field horsetail (Equisetum arvense). E. arvense grows up to 1.5 ft (0.5 m) in corn fields and wet meadows. Wood horsetail (E. sylvaticum) grows in copses and on hedgebanks, usually to a height of 1-2 ft (0.3-0.6 m). This species is used as food for horses in parts of Sweden. River horsetail (E. maximum) is the largest of the European species of horsetail. Found in bogs, ditches, and on banks of rivers and ponds, E. maximum grows to a height of 3-6 ft (1-2 m).

Other names for horsetail include shave-grass, bottle-brush, and paddock-pipes.

Horsetail contains silicon, potassium, aluminum, manganese, saponins, phytosterols, phenolic acids, caffeic acids, alkaloids, and tannins. Fifteen types of bioflavonoids are also present, which are believed to be responsible for horsetail’s strong diuretic (kidney flushing) action.

The North American native peoples used horsetail to treat a number of kidney and bladder ailments. The Cherokee used horsetail to aid the kidneys. Chippewa natives made a decoction out of horsetail stems and used it to treat painful or difficult urination. The Okanagan-Colville and Potowatami peoples made a horsetail infusion as a diuretic to aid kidney function.

However, there is a downside: Long-term use or high doses of horsetail have caused irreversible kidney damage due to too much silica. It is best to follow dosage guidelines from a knowledgeable herbalist and not to improvise.

Pregnant or nursing women and people with severe kidney or liver disease should consult their health practitioner before using horsetail. People with high blood pressure or heart problems should not take horsetail. Horsetail contains low levels of nicotine and may not be safe for young children.

I don’t recommend taking the tincture for more than a few days or the tea for more than a few weeks. Otherwise you are thinking like an allopath!

Other specific remedies.

If you are unlucky enough to have a kidney disease, you might like to consider three herbs and two complex homeopathy remedies.

Parlsey is a pretty good diuretic!

Couch grass is a diuretic and helps soothe an inflamed and irritated urinary tract. It may have a mild antibiotic effect. It is also used in cystitis, prostatitis, nephritis, calculus (stones), urethritis, and benign prostatic hypertrophy.

Uva Ursi (Bearberry) is also a urinary antiseptic, and an astringent herb. It has an antibacterial effect on the kidney, that is effective against e. coli, proteus, klebsiella, staphyloccocus, and pseudomonas. The antibacterial effect is at its strongest 3 to 4 hours after taking the herb, as some of the active constituents are converted in the kidneys to activate the antiseptic effect.

HEEL, the German homeopathic pharmacy, produces two mixtures I have had great results with: Populus compositum and Solidago compositum.

Populous tremuloides (Aspen) is mainly a bladder remedy. But there are 22 other great kidney curative substances in Populus comp. too, all at homeopathic potencies! These include:

Solidago compositum is my number one for kidney disease and has 25 ingredients, mainly herbal, but including some heavy duty homeopathics we call nosodes. These are actual disease tissues, diluted homeopathically, including Coxsackie B, mercury solubilis and pyogenic nosode (pus tissue). To balance that there are healthy urinary tissues—pig bladder, ureter and kidney pelvis, also at homeopathic dilutions. Plus a lot of the stuff in Populus comp.

You can buy both these formulas on-line at www.Acu-Market.com In the UK I recommend my friend Roger Wilson at www.biopathica.com – I have no financial relationship with any suppliers.

Don’t forget to take what we call a “drainage remedy”. That’s to eliminate toxins effectively, so the treatment doesn’t cause a symptom disturbance. The obvious one is Berberis-hommacord, good for liver and kidney drainage. The mixture contains Berberis vulgaris (barberry) at 4X, 10X, 30X, 200X; Colocynthis (bitter apple) 4X, 10X, 30X, 200X; and Veratrum album (white hellebore) 5X, 10X, 30X, 200X.

Even I hardly believe the miracles we did!

Back in the 80s a few of us, world-leaders, started looking at nephritis and so-called nephrotic syndrome in a different way. Nephrotic syndrome is often an aftermath of bacterial attack, especially childhood throat infections with Strep B. Even mold and viral attacks can do it. There are immune complexes. It has all the hallmarks of an autoimmune process.

Nephrotic syndrome isn’t a disease but a collection of symptoms, especially protein in the urine, low blood proteins (due to wastage), water retention and general debility. When severe the fluid retention can cause puffy eyes, abdominal swellings and difficulty breathing.

Nobody had ever thought of tacking it as an allergy process. But we tested these kids and found repeatedly that getting them off high risk foods and cleaning up chemical overload led to the syndrome disappearing, often for good.

Some of the recoveries were very dramatic and confounded the hospital docs, who had never heard of alternative medicine (even to this day!)

That’s not to say that the cause of nephrotic syndrome is food and other allergies. But it is a body load effect. If the patient is taken off immune stressors—and foods are the main immune stressors I know—then recovery was possible through the body’s own natural healing process.

As with many diseases, I developed the view that food allergy was not a prime cause but was a contributory overload factor. Any means of lowering the body load is valid medicine. Avoiding bandit foods is the simplest way there is to lower body load and reduce pressure on the immune system.

Always remember that.