What Foods Help Repair Kidneys? [BEST foods for Kidney Health & Diet]

This is Dr. Tom Biernacki Today I'm talking about what foods will lower your creatinine and increase your GFR or glomerular filtration rate for your kidneys. And we're starting now. I know as a foot doctor, I'm probably not the number one person to be getting your kidney info from. What people don't realize is we see thousands of patients every year with swollen feet, swollen ankles, peripheral neuropathy, ulcers, and one of the number one contributors for that is kidney disease. So especially in the early stages of kidney disease, I see a lot of these patients. I make sure to get the workups, get people to see the proper nephrologists and their doctors. Right now I'm doing a deep dive for my patients and myself. What can be done about kidney disease? How can you help your kidneys? Kidney disease is one of the most common things we see in the United States and in the world. Look at the numbers, 843 million people in the world. That's one in 10 people. It's tied to high diabetes level. And diabetes is going up more than ever. It's high in racial minorities, the elderly, women, people with high blood pressure. So these are very, very common things as we sit more, as we move less, as we eat more processed diets, kidneys and their problems are going up like a rocket since the mid-nineties until about 2017. It's gone up 41%. And look at the average cost per person under 65 in the United States. $201,000 for end stage kidney disease. If you have no kidney disease, your annual health care costs in America are about $7,000. But if you have kidney disease, it goes up to over $200,000. That's got to be the number one most costly thing in health care. One of the ways to track your kidney disease is to look at your creatinine clearance levels and your glomerular filtration rates. So first, let's talk about what kidney disease is, Chronic kidney disease is a long term condition which make kidneys gradually lose their ability to filter waste and excess fluids from the blood. It is often the result of various underlying health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, glomerulonephritis, or polycystic kidney disease. common causes in the United States. And number one is diabetes. Diabetes rates are rising every day. High blood pressure, alcohol consumption, frequent urinary infections, smoking. Side effects from certain medications. Anti-inflammatories are very common and there are other genetic actions and other toxicities. common symptoms and complications of kidney disease include fatigue, fluid retention or swelling. So I see this a lot nerve disease, electrolyte imbalance, anemia, poor flow down to the feet and a risk of cardiovascular disease. So this is a very serious condition. Sometimes these symptoms can just sneak up on you. But dry, itchy skin. Being tired, bubbly or foamy pee, more swelling in the foot, hands puffy eyes. Trouble sleeping. Loss of appetite. Muscle cramps. They need to pee more often. VS I almost feel guilty saying these because I experience all of these symptoms. And check out these skin changes, paleness skin discoloration, hyperpigmentation particularly if you have like little red blood vessels underneath your pale skin surface scratch marks that are not healing dry skin. That's something you see a lot, kind of the ashy dry skin. Chronic kidney disease has characterized into stages based on the level of kidney function, with stage one being the mildest than twos. Worse than three than four than five is the most severe This is the tricky thing with kidney disease. At the beginning, most people don't even know they have it. But remember, this is 1/10 of the world that's experiencing it. So the early symptoms is generic stuff like swelling in your feet, in your toes. You're a little bit tired. You just have to pee a little bit more. But your kidneys are still working at 60 to 89%. But then stage three, you might start getting out. You might have started getting some more swelling, you might be getting more of the symptoms that we talked about and then stage four, failure is imminent. You're already down to 15 to 29% of your original kidney function. And then when you get down to 15% or less, that is end stage kidney failure. That's when you start having significant problems and you need dialysis. That's when your life really changes, unfortunately. Creatinine clearance. Now, creatinine is a waste product generated by muscle metabolism. It is filtered out by the blood and the kidneys into the urine. The clearance level is how efficiently your kidneys remove creatine from the blood. It is typically measured through a 24 hour urine collection test. By comparing the amount of creatinine over that time, it can estimate how well the kidneys are filtering the blood. This is related to the glomerular filtration rate. This is another crucial measure of kidney function, often considered more accurate than the creatinine clearance. It estimates the rate at which the kidneys filter blood and remove waste product. The GFR is typically expressed in millimeters per minute per 1.7, three square meters of body surface area. This can be estimated using a lot of equations. So there are specific numbers from stage 1 to 3 four and five. The bottom line is kidneys are intricate. Organs with millions of nephrons and kidney damage is often caused by chronic conditions like diabetes. High blood pressure, vascular disease and not a specific food. The key is controlling these specific conditions that chronic kidney disease can result from a variety of factors, and the most common include diabetes. This is by far the leading cause, and diabetes rates are going sky high. As a foot doctor, I see so many diabetic patients and kidney disease patients. This is the number one thing you can do if you can control your diabetes and get your blood sugar down. That is huge. To me, these rates are crazy. Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, Mexico. Extremely high diabetes rate. The U.S. is actually number 55 in terms of population. Right around there is China. And believe it or not, China actually has the most overall diabetics in the world now. And after COVID, the prediabetes rate is rising. So China and India make up the vast majority of diabetics worldwide. And it's increasing rapidly. everything you can to control your diabetes, getting your blood sugar down, correcting your diet, losing weight. That's one of the best things you can do to lower your blood sugar rate and to improve your kidneys. In the early stages, there can be progress made for sure. Number two, high blood pressure. High blood pressure constrain the blood vessels and the kidneys leading to chronic kidney damage. This is very common cause. And number two, behind diabetes, I took a look at the studies and potassium in the diet at proper amounts was significant across numerous studies in reducing blood pressure. So 3 to 4 points were improved with a daily intake and proper intake of potassium and dairy can provide that. I talk about milk because it was the number one food in the Dash diet. No, the Dash diet was the designed diet and published in the New England Journal of Medicine as the best diet to lower high blood sugar rates. This study looked at the 30 randomized controlled trials of patients trying to lower their blood pressure with the DASH diet. Now, in that video, I go over all the specific foods, but essentially it's all the healthy vegetables cutting out salt below 2000 milligrams per day. Potassium from milk. But patients who went on the dash diet were able to lower their blood pressure by an average of 4.2 millimeters of mercury. Another thing you can do great sleep. Get enough sleep, lowering your body weight. All these things that help your blood pressure will also help your kidneys. This is very statistically proven. glomerular nephritis. This is an inflammatory condition which can damage the kidney. And then there's also polycystic kidney disease. There's kidney infections, there's urinary tract obstruct actions, and certain medications can irritate them. Most famously, the anti-inflammatory drugs, nonsteroidal drugs, antibiotics and blood pressure medications. There is also autoimmune disorders in genetics, and a big one is alcohol consumption or older age. Some diets that you can do is cutting out your alcohol, cutting out smoking, getting as healthy as possible. Looking around at the studies, there is no single food that can magically lower creatine and improve kidney function. It is a complex process for sure, but there is a lot of studies focusing on a pattern of eating less red meat, lower animal protein and more plant based foods, lower sodium and less sugary drinks to support kidney health. These things have helped factors that increase creatinine levels are high creatine intake. So for example, I did a video on creatine, the supplement. This is not something that you necessarily want to take if you want lower creatinine levels in your urine. At the same time, meat consumption can do this because there's creatine in meats. Medications can do this. So you can talk with your nephrologist especially or your primary care doctor about medications and your hydration levels. The more you hydrate, the more it can help. And you have to be consistent. What this These concepts are tricky because you could game the system and lower your creatinine clearance by taking less protein and eating less creatine. But is that healthier for your body? It's not. And does it make your kidneys healthier? It really doesn't. Some of the proven studies show limiting high potassium foods is beneficial, kind of like bananas. There's a few other ones reducing sodium intake. So ideally less than 2000 milligrams per day if you're having kidney issues. Make sure you're hydrating enough. So drink your eight glasses of water or more and limit phosphorus foods like limiting nuts, seeds and beans. These could put added stress on the kidneys. like here is really the big secret about diet for your kidneys. Consistency in long term dietary patterns is the key to maintaining and improving kidney function rather than seeking a quick fix or a single food. Is kidney damage reversible? Looking at a lot of studies, some causes of kidney disease are reversible, in some cases acute kidney disease or severe dehydration, infections, medications, toxicities, stress and overload. These can recover if you get to the underlying cause and fix it. Kidney infection as well, if caught early, can be treated with antibiotics and a lot of the times reversed. But chronic kidney disease, like from high blood pressure from diabetes, this is a progressive condition. And just like aging or peripheral neuropathy, as things get worse, the further you go, the harder it is to get back. So early stages can potentially be improved. But as you get into the more severe stages, it gets more difficult is best to focus on effective blood pressure control, blood sugar control and other risk factors. Now, me as a footnote, doctor, I help my patients get in better shape by getting their strength levels up, getting their cardio up, getting their sleep better, eating a better diet. All these things can help. But for kidneys, especially, you have to go to your nephrologist and your primary care doctor. You have to get these lab tests. So I'm not claiming to be the expert, but I see this so much and I feel like people just never really get to it. If I'm missing anything, let me know in the comments. You viewers are better than some of these studies. You're on top of everything. And the comments really help people. So if there's tips, if there's things that working, let me know down below.