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Natural Remedies for Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Update 10/9/2023
To add further to the original article on CKD, I would like to include magnesium as being useful for CKD. In the following study, it is suggested that magnesium is also beneficial in the fight against CKD :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10484355/
Here is a relevant quote from the multi study review :
' Magnesium acts as a cofactor for antioxidant enzymes, directly scavenges reactive oxygen species, and enhances the expression of antioxidant proteins. Furthermore, magnesium exhibits anti-inflammatory effects by suppressing pro-inflammatory cytokine production and inhibiting inflammatory signaling pathways. Magnesium supplementation has been shown to reduce oxidative stress markers and improve antioxidant enzyme activities in clinical studies. Additionally, magnesium has been found to mitigate renal fibrosis, maintain tubular integrity and function, improve endothelial function, and modulate renal hemodynamics. '
Using a bioavailable form of magnesium seems appropriate. Magnesium glycinate is a bioavailable form as is magnesium citrate. Constipation is common in kidney disease and magnesium citrate is helpful for relieving constipation. If constipation is not an issue, then magnesium glycinate might be a better choice because it is a form of magnesium that is much less likely to cause diarrhea. Magnesium also helps to reduce glucose levels which would be useful in diabetic nephropathy (DN).
In any case, magnesium would be a good addition to the other supplements I mentioned for CKD. This is the current supplement list:
1. Melatonin and or earlier morning and later afternoon sun exposure
2. Fruits and Vegetables
3. Sodium Bicarbonate / Baking Soda
4. Fish Oil
5. Magnesium
Art
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Art
What do you recommend type of food for kidney disease patient?
Peter,
I am not a nutritionist, so I can't give good advice on what would be the best foods for people with CKD to eat, but there is a myriad of nutritional information available on the subject using a simple google search. Here is a typical result :
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/best-foods-for-kidneys
Art
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Hi Arlene, The daily dose of magnesium for women is 310 - 320 mg of magnesium while the dose for men is 400 - 420 mg of magnesium per day. What you have to keep in mind is that this is the actual amount of magnesium you are getting minus whatever has been added to it . As a basic example, Magnesium glycinate is a popular option for magnesium, but often times manufacturers include the glycinate and the magnesium total on the front of the label, but only give you the breakdown in the fine print on the back of the label. Here is a link to a typical product on Amazon :
Open the link and you can see on the front of the label it says " Magnesium Glycinate Capsules 500mg " which may lead a person to believe that just one capsule will give you more than the daily requirement of magnesium. When you open the window that shows the back of the label, you see that each capsule only contains 90 mg of actual magnesium. The rest is the glycinate component. So with this particular product, a woman would need to take 3 capsules for a total of 270 mg of magnesium and make up the difference from magnesium derived from food intake to reach the 310 - 320mg/day. A man would have to take 4 capsules of this product to get 360 mg of actual magnesium and make up the difference through food containing magnesium. One capsule of this product would not be very helpful for the intended purpose. I hope this was clear to you because these sellers seem to go out of their way to make things not very clear when it comes to magnesium supplements! Art
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Peter,
When you look at the label of the supplement you purchased, it shows that there is 400 mg of magnesium glycinate and 60 mg of magnesium (as magnesium glycinate) which is only 14.29% of the daily value.
This is highly misleading because it tends to make a person think that they are getting 400 mg of magnesium which is approximately the daily value of magnesium for men. In fact, you are only getting 60 mg of magnesium. Since the daily value for women is 320 mg, your wife would have to take 5 of these capsules per day just to get to 300 mg and would have to get the remainder of the RDA from the foods she eats. If she is only taking one capsule per day, that would not be enough to help her glucose level, kidneys, heart, PN or gout.
To further confuse the issue, they say, 'Serving Size 1 Capsule'. This could lead you to think you are only supposed to take one capsule per day.
What matters is the total elemental magnesium that you are getting per day.
For comparison, look at this label on another magnesium glycinate product :
As you can see from this label, each capsule delivers 90 mg of actual magnesium, so your wife would need to take 3 capsules in order to get 270 mg of magnesium and then get the remainder (50 mg) from her food intake to reach the RDA of 320 mg day for women. You can see at the top of the label it says to take 1 to 3 capsules per day. Imo, this label is more accurate than the label on the product you mentioned, because it clearly lets you know how much magnesium you get per capsule and it lets you know that you can take up to three capsules per day.
The magnesium glycinate that I take gives 120 mg of magnesium per capsule, so I take 3 capsules per day for a total of 360 mg of magnesium and then get the remainder from my food to reach the RDA for men of 400 mg to 420 mg/day.
Assuming that your wife has only been taking 1 capsule per day delivering just 60 mg of magnesium, I think moving the dose closer to the RDA for women will start to help her see the three previously mentioned benefits that magnesium has shown in studies. Spreading the dose over the day should be most effective.
Peter, when it comes to supplemental magnesium, imo, the labels could be much clearer than they currently are. I get that manufacturers are trying to make their product sound best in a very competitive field, but realistic recommendations on those labels would be highly useful for all of us end users!
Regarding Berberine and Dihydroberberine, I do not recommend Dihydroberberine because imo, it has insufficient studies to support its use whereas berberine has plenty of studies and of course, Dihydroberberine costs more. When there are more studies in humans to clearly show that Dihydroberberine is superior to berberine over longer term studies, then I will agree, but not until then. I'm not interested in being a guinea pig for dihydroberberine.
Berberine is proven effective for many health issues including gout, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, diabetic peripheral neuropathy, liver health, diabetic retinopathy and kidney disease to name a few benefits. These would all be important for your wife! If it ain't broke, do we really need to fix it?
Art
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Art, give you update on my wife's gout, week one doctor prescribed 20mg 5 days prednisone to stop the pain, but it came back week 2 another prednisone treatment. Our family doctor came back this week 3 and prescribed similar (6,5,4,3 2,1) taper off version.
The pain was so bad at the week one I had to gave her 2 treatments of naproxen and I did not want to do that because of her kidney issue. She was crying thru out the night. That is when my friend 's sister, she is a doctor wrote the prescription. I thank you for your great idea on topical naproxen/alcohol topical that was effective until our family doctor back in town. I will add GSE to her daily remedy. Thanks for your concern and being a great human being. I wish there was way for people to communicate with you through phone call. Prednisone caused her sugar very high and had to control with insulin pen, but the trade off is worth it because the pain is so awful. Thanks for your time.
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Peter,
Thank you for saying that and thank you for the update! I am glad the topical naproxen was effective for her severe gout pain! It is probably a good idea to keep that on hand for pain management since in your wife's case, it avoids systemic usage of naproxen and the spray makes application very easy. I'm glad you didn't use the aspirin as that could make it worse.
The GSPE should help to reduce the elevated uric acid level, that can occur in diabetics and cause gout. I don't know if you ever started her on a bioavailable form of magnesium such as magnesium glycinate for the diabetes as discussed in the recent diabetes article, but magnesium is also beneficial for kidney disease as I mentioned, but it is also beneficial for lowering the elevated uric acid level (hyperuricemia) that causes gout as discussed here :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5872714/
Here is a relevant quote from the link :
' Our results indicated that increased magnesium intake was associated with decreased hyperuricemia risk. It also indicated the importance of recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of magnesium and the potential function of magnesium intake in the prevention of hyperuricemia. '
So in this case, magnesium is a "threefer", it helps relieve elevated glucose levels and improves insulin function in diabetes, it helps improve kidney disease :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10484355/
and it helps reduce elevated uric acid levels in gout!
Just getting the RDA of magnesium from food and or supplement should be sufficient and agreeable with her doctor.
Art
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Hi Caseyruth,
The following study may be of interest to you :
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8921640/
Here is a relevant quote :
Our results suggest that there is eGFR improvement after taking astragalus-containing preparations in mild to moderate CKD cases as reported previously. The findings should be considered with caution due to major limitations such as small sample size without optimum control, short follow-up period, and incomplete data. Further adequately powered and designed studies are needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of the long-term use of astragalus root in patients with mild to moderate CKD.
Art
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Hi again, Caseyruth,
The following may also be of interest to you :
https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/chronic-kidney-disease-art-solbrig.html
Art
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Art
I just ordered the corrected magnesium. Thanks a million!
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Peter,
The magnesium glycinate that you have is probably fine, it just takes more capsules per day, so you might as well have her use it up at the corrected dose rather than letting it go to waste.
Art
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Hi Peter,
If there is one thing you do, please stop your wife's iron supplement and encourage her to take trace minerals instead. I use Aussir Trace minerals but there are many out there.
There is a direct relationship between iron overload and gout. If she is appearing “anemic” on labs, that likely is because she is out of iron homeostasis.
Uric acid is an antioxidant. Arise in your acid means that there is a rise in iron induced oxidative stress. Her body may be producing excess uric acid just to come back the iron that is not free-floating in the blood, so it would not be picked up on a blood test, but it is rusting inside of her cells. She likely has overproduction of iron stored in her tissues. This is not something you can easily test for it unless you do a biopsy or HTMA.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10616042/
What's her diet like? Is she eating any processed food whatsoever? If so, our body is riddled with excess iron. Nearly all of our processed food, milk, grains are fortified with iron oxide. It's toxic stuff.
what is her stress level like? I think you are definitely on the right track with supplementing magnesium. I would encourage you to take at least 400 mg of magnesium in glyconate in the evening. During the day she can take magnesium three and eight or magnesium taurate or magnesium malate. Also 400 mg. She can also rub it on her skin as an oil or as a spray, and she should be taking Epson salt baths. in order to bring her body back into homeostasis with her minerals, she should absolutely be taking some sort of an adrenal cocktail if under any stress, then whole vitamin C every day multiple times a day whether it's to her food or a supplement. Not ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate! Whole food, vitamin C.
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Art,
Thanks Art!
Is one better than the other? promoted by Sugar Doctor in YouTube
Dihydroberberine vs berberine
My wife has been using below Mag Glyicinate, is this brand ok? or Please recommend.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B6CTYD6S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
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Peter,
That is considered as effective for anemia. What side effects is she having from taking it?
Art
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ferrous sulfate atten Art
Ferrous sulfate, my wife is currently on this iron pill. I have read that it has too many side effects. Do you have something else you can recommend?
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Can you please share the amount that should be taken? Thanks!
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I am about to start the magnesium glycinate for CKD stage 3a and I am a clean eater. I was wondering if anyone's heard of astragalus supplement to help heal the kidneys.
