Mailbag! Living with Stage 3 Kidney Disease
By
Dr. Scott Olson, ND
Posted November 9, 2021
I’m living with stage 3 kidney disease, and I was wondering if you had suggestions for helping manage it. Currently I’m drinking six bottles of water a day to try to prevent going on dialysis like my mother and brother have had to.
–Tim from Boston, MA
Tim,
There are two primary causes of kidney disease: high blood pressure and diabetes.
High blood pressure damages the kidneys because the kidney is full of delicate blood vessels, and those blood vessels cannot withstand the high pressure.
Diabetes harms those small blood vessels by making them weak and easy to damage (and it doesn’t help that diabetes is also a leading cause of high blood pressure).
While stage 3 is very serious, you and your doctor can help stop it from progressing by addressing the underlying causes. Many people can live a very long time in stage 3.
Here’s what I’ve recommended to my patients who want to get control of both high blood pressure and high blood sugar.
Dr. Scott’s Blood Sugar and Heart Disease Program:
· Eat colorful foods. This means getting enough vegetables in your diet. If you can’t stand veggies, you can “cheat” by getting your veggies and other superfoods in a powdered form. I take one every day by mixing it into yogurt and some berries.
· Avoid vegetable oils. Vegetable oils, especially trans fatty acids, are like setting off tiny bombs in the bloodstream because they increase inflammation. I cannot stress this enough: vegetable oils do so much damage that you need to avoid all of them. The easiest way to do this is to not eat processed foods (nothing in a box or at a fast food restaurant). Cook only with olive or avocado oil.
· Find easy ways to exercise. Take the stairs, walk to your errands, stand during television commercials… find something fun and stick with it. Exercise is proven to help control blood sugar and get blood pressure down.
· Weight control. The best way to control diabetes, as you’ve probably heard, is to maintain a healthy weight. There are many ways to lose weight, but I prefer getting blood sugar under control, dropping inflammation, and giving your metabolism a kick. The below supplements can also help you do that.
· Fish oil. One of the most powerful anti-inflammatories out there is fish oil. It works by keeping inflammatory proteins low.
· Curcumin. This extract from the spice turmeric is great at helping the body modulate inflammation. Unless you get a ton of this in your food, you should think about supplementing.
Written By Dr. Scott Olson, ND
Nearly 25 years ago, failed mainstream medical treatments left Dr. Olson in constant pain – and his health in ruins. And that’s when he did something REVOLUTIONARY. He began his career in medicine – and dedicated his life to uncovering the true, underlying causes of disease.
Through his innovative medical practices in Tennessee and Colorado, Dr. Olson has helped cure countless seniors from across America of arthritis… heart disease… diabetes… and even cancer. All without risky prescription drugs or painful surgeries.
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