Popcorn????? Yes, Popcorn.

Well, it looks like that air popcorn maker my children got for me last year is exactly what I need – and I didn’t even know it.  I thought it was a frivolity, but now it’s a health aid! Before we get to the crunchy stuff, I keep forgetting to post some of the reviews for the book.  Doing it first will help me remember:

5.0 out of 5 stars         A Must Read for Anyone With CKD

Lynne Sanditen, Founder of KidneyDiet, An App…

Gail Rae’s story and book are a terrific resource for anyone facing the challenges of CKD.  “What Is It and How Did I Get It?” is an honest, personal, forthcoming account of what it takes to stay on top of your own health. It’s great that Gail empowered herself by education and learning — resulting in trusting herself.  Hopefully, her story will teach others to take control of their own health by eating the right diet, exercising, and taking the time to understand the myriad of information that comes from the medical world.  She does an excellent job of explaining what happens once someone learns they have kidney disease.  From what happens with every medical exam, test, visit to a doctor, researching medicines, nutrients, causes, body functions, physiology, etc…touching on every aspect in a very helpful way.  This book is a must read for anyone who has any questions about kidney disease, whether it’s personal or for a loved one.

Thank you, Lynne, for this review and DaylillyGal for the last review I posted.

It’s still National Kidney Month for another six days.  Watch my daily tweets for sources to help you understand and cope with this disease.  They’re also in the book, but it never hurts to be reminded of what’s available to you.

New headshot – your opinion?  (not that this has anything to do with Chronic Kidney Disease unless I use it as my blog avatar)

Don’t forget that I’ll be bringing the book to the 21st Chattanooga Renal Symposium on Thursday.  If you’re anywhere nearby, come visit.  I’ll be in the vendors’ area. Send your nephrologist over to my booth, too.  Let’s see if we can’t get some of the renal doctors to give the book to each and every one of their newly diagnosed patients.  Those are the ones who need it the most, although their families, friends, co-workers, nutritionists, nurses and doctors could use it, too.

Now, air pop some corn kernels, sprinkle powdered cinnamon or garlic (or both) on it and settle down to read today’s article.

Popcorn: The Snack with Even Higher Antioxidants Levels Than Fruits and Vegetables

Newswise — SAN DIEGO, March 25, 2012 — Popcorn’s reputation as a snack food that’s actually good for health popped up a few notches today as scientists reported that it contains more of the healthful antioxidant substances called “polyphenols” than fruits and vegetables. They spoke at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, being held here this week.

Credit:: Terry Connors  – Popcorn claims the title as “perfect snack food” in a new study. Joe Vinson, PhD., study leader, readies a bowl for tests in the lab.

Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a pioneer in analyzing healthful components in chocolate, nuts and other common foods, explained that the polyphenols are more concentrated in popcorn, which averages only about 4 percent water, while polyphenols are diluted in the 90 percent water that makes up many fruits and vegetables.

In another surprising finding, the researchers discovered that the hulls of the popcorn –– the part that everyone hates for its tendency to get caught in the teeth –– actually has the highest concentration of polyphenols and fiber.

“Those hulls deserve more respect,” said Vinson, who is with the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. “They are nutritional gold nuggets.”

The overall findings led Vinson to declare, “Popcorn may be the perfect snack food. It’s the only snack that is 100 percent unprocessed whole grain. All other grains are processed and diluted with other ingredients, and although cereals are called “whole grain,” this simply means that over 51 percent of the weight of the product is whole grain. One serving of popcorn will provide more than 70 percent of the daily intake of whole grain. The average person only gets about half a serving of whole grains a day, and popcorn could fill that gap in a very pleasant way.”

Vinson cautioned, however, that the way people prepare and serve popcorn can quickly put a dent in its healthful image. Cook it in a potful of oil, slather on butter or the fake butter used in many movie theaters, pour on the salt; eat it as “kettle corn” cooked in oil and sugar — and popcorn can become a nutritional nightmare loaded with fat and calories.

“Air-popped popcorn has the lowest number of calories, of course,” Vinson said. “Microwave popcorn has twice as many calories as air-popped, and if you pop your own with oil, this has twice as many calories as air-popped popcorn. About 43 percent of microwave popcorn is fat, compared to 28 percent if you pop the corn in oil yourself.”

Likewise, Vinson pointed out that popcorn cannot replace fresh fruits and vegetables in a healthy diet. Fruits and vegetables contain vitamins and other nutrients that are critical for good health, but are missing from popcorn.

Vinson explained that the same concentration principle applies to dried fruit versus regular fruit, giving dried fruit a polyphenol edge. Previous studies found low concentrations of free polyphenols in popcorn, but Vinson’s team did the first study to calculate total polyphenols in popcorn. The amounts of these antioxidants were much higher than previously believed, he said. The levels of polyphenols rivaled those in nuts {me: so maybe it’s not so bad that we CKDers can’t eat nuts} and were up to 15 times greater than whole-grain tortilla chips. The new study found that the amount of polyphenols found in popcorn was up to 300 mg a serving compared to 114 mg for a serving of sweet corn and 160 mg for all fruits per serving. In addition, one serving of popcorn would provide 13 percent of an average intake of polyphenols a day per person in the U.S. Fruits provide 255 mg per day of polyphenols and vegetables provide 218 mg per day to the average U.S. diet.

You can read the whole article at: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/586785/?sc=rssn&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NewswiseScinews+%28Newswise:+SciNews%29

Until next week,

Keep living your life!

Happy Post St. Patrick’s Day

There’s so much I haven’t yet shared with you, so I’ll do that before the actual blog.

If you haven’t listened to my latest (and best, to my way of thinking) guest appearance on a radio show, here’s your chance:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onlinewithandrea/2012/03/07/early-stage-chronic-kidney-disease.

To be honest, I’ve never been comfortable with the label “kidney expert.” I’m just unfortunate enough to be a Chronic Kidney Disease patient.  After this show, I realized how much I knew… and that only made me want to share the information even more.

I’d also forgotten all about my promise to share reviews of the book with you, so here’s another one:

  5.0 out of 5 stars         Dr Rich Snyder, DO. Nephrologist, March 3, 2012

This review is from: What Is It and How Did I Get It?: Early Stage Chronic Kidney Disease (Paperback)

This is a must read for anyone who has kidney disease. I had the privilege of reading Gail’s book and  interviewing her on the radio. For anyone with kidney disease, this is one of the best books around written by someone who has kidney disease. I recommend this book highly!!!!!!!
Dr Rich Snyder, DO is the author of What You Must Know About Kidney Disease: A Practical Guide to Using Conventional and Complementary Treatments. He is the host of the radio show Improve Your Kidney Health on the Voice America Health & Wellness Channel.

Okay, let’s get blogging! Now that you’ve eaten just about everything green you could find, make or buy, it’s time to remind yourself of how you should be eating on your renal diet.  We all make exceptions in our lives and St. Patrick’s Day is a grand excuse to make an exception to the diet.  Okay, over, done with, back to the straight and narrow. (She writes thinking lovingly of the chocolate cake with walnuts that was her St. Patrick’s Day exception even if it wasn’t green.)

This survey is from Canada, but is true to the renal diet as we Americans know it.  Take it and see what you’ve forgotten since you last saw your renal nutritionist. It’s short and a good reminder about the diet.  For example, I got so confused about the difference between healthy eating and the renal diet that I was still eating whole wheats instead of white bread.  Not good.

Test Your Knowledge on Nutrition

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/722719/Nutrition-Quiz

After taking the survey,  I went to The American Kidney Fund’s Pair Up site and found some other information about the renal diet that I can’t accept. You’ve got it, the line about eating whole wheat products.  Also, while stocking your fridge with already washed and cut fruits and veggies is a good idea, you’ve got to keep your restrictions in mind – for me it’s three servings – each serving size dependent upon the food – of each a day, but also a limited variety.  Avoid starfruit!!!! It is toxic to CKDers.

Limit the amount of red meat you eat, too. Or is that just for me?  I know my renal diet was adjusted for my likes and dislikes (thank you, Crystal Barrerra – my renal nutritionist) as yours should be, but I don’t know if this red meat restriction is a universal guideline.  Crystal agrees that you needn’t cut out your favorite foods, just cut down on them but I think you should cut down on them as a means to cutting them out entirely.  Why overwork those poor kidneys?  They’re already overburdened. Whoa! I’m beginning to become the renal diet foodie.

I do agree with everything else in the article and think it’s well worth a read.

Living Healthy: Myth vs. Reality

Make just a few simple changes to eat healthier

Myth:

It’s hard to eat healthy. It takes too much time and doesn’t taste good.

Reality:

A few simple changes can make a big difference in your diet.

Some tips:

• Start your day off with breakfast.
• Slow down when you eat.
  • You may notice that you enjoy your food more.
  • It takes a while for your stomach to recognize that it’s full. Slowing down will give you time to realize you’re full before you overeat.
• Stock your fridge with fruits and veggies.
  • Snack on these instead of chips and crackers.
  • Take time on the weekend to clean and cut them so they’re ready to grab and go on busy weekdays.
• Opt for low-fat or fat-free dairy products.
• Switch to whole grain bread and pasta.
• Choose lean meats.
  • Bake or grill them instead of frying.
  • Remove the skin from chicken or turkey.
  • Opt for fresh meats instead of processed meats like lunchmeat and hot dogs.
• Challenge yourself to find healthy recipes.
• Get creative with different combinations of foods and spices.
• Stash your junk food in hard to reach places, like a high cupboard or top shelf of a pantry. When these foods are out of sight and less accessible, you’re less likely to indulge.
• Instead of cutting out your favorite foods, limit how much you eat. Rather than eating half a pizza, stop after just one or two slices.
• Avoid eating from large containers. Place one serving in a bowl and put the container away. This can help you keep tabs on your portions.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Eat only when you’re hungry.

This is the website for Pair Up’s diet suggestions: http://www.kidneyfund.org/pair-up/learn/live-healthy/

Have I mentioned that I’ll be at Chattanooga’s 21st Renal Symposium in the vendors’ area?  On the Facebook  page, I suggested people come visit if they’re in the area.  A kidney transplant receipent is meeting me as is another reader, who just happens to be my younger daughter’s friend from junior high (middle?) school.  The connections you make – or remake – when you become passionate about something are surprising. Now let’s see how well I do with the renal diet when I’m away from home.

Until next week,

A very happy Mom with her two daughters, Nima and Abby

Keep living your life!

World Kidney Day Is Over, But It’s Still National Kidney Month

Maybe it’s because I’m so enmeshed with anything early stage Chronic Kidney Disease, but I find myself constantly surprised by all the people who don’t know a thing about it – many of them suffering from high blood pressure (the second most prevalent cause of CKD) or diabetes (the first most prevalent cause of CKD).  I shouldn’t be.  I was one of them until I was diagnosed… and that’s why I’m so adamant about ‘getting the word out there,’ as I’ve come to call my passion.

One of my daughters, a blogger, asked me to guest blog about this issue last week.  While Nima was making her request to me, her sister – Abby – was surprising us all with a ticket for Nima to visit.  Abby and I live in Arizona; Nima lives in New York so visits are not all that frequent. I was thrilled!!!!

Unfortunatley, Abby ended up getting pretty sick, so Nima stayed with us for a few days.  And we talked, and talked, and talked.  I told her I was still angry that, because I have CKD, the chances of her (and her sister) developing it is higher.  She asked me questions about the diet and exercise.  We ended up sharing a meal each and every time we went to a restaurant and leaning more toward the food on the renal diet rather than food that isn’t. Right now, she’s walking my dog while I blog (*sigh* guess I’ll have to figure out my own exercise for today later).

Maybe today is the day to go back to basics about dealing with Chronic Kidney Disease in my blog.  Let’s start with the American Kidney Fund’s information:

Eat a diet low in salt and fat

Eating healthy can help prevent or control diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease.  A healthy diet has a balance of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy products, lean meats and beans.  Even small changes like limiting salt (sodium) and fat, can make a big difference in your health.

Limit salt

• Do not add salt to your food when cooking or eating.  Try cooking with fresh herbs, lemon juice or other spices.
• Choose fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned vegetables.  If you do use canned vegetables, rinse them before eating or cooking with them to remove extra salt.
• Shop for items that say “reduced-sodium” or “low-sodium.”
• Avoid processed foods like frozen dinners and lunch meats.
• Limit fast food and salty snacks, like chips, pretzels and salted nuts.

Limit fat

• Choose lean meats or fish.  Remove the skin and trim the fat off your meats before you cook them.
• Bake, grill or broil your foods instead of frying them.
• Shop for fat-free and low-fat dairy products, salad dressing and mayonnaise.
• Try olive oil or canola oil instead of vegetable oil.
• Choose egg whites or egg substitute rather than whole eggs.

Choosing healthy foods is a great start, but eating too much of healthy foods can also be a problem.  The other part of a healthy diet is portion control (watching how much you eat).  To help control your portions, you might:

• Eat slowly and stop eating when you are not hungry anymore.  It takes about 20 minutes for your stomach to tell your brain that you are full.
• Check nutrition facts to learn the true serving size of a food.  For example, a 20-ounce bottle of soda is really two and a half servings.
• Do not eat directly from the bag or box.  Take out one serving and put the box or bag away.
• Avoid eating when watching TV or driving.
• Be mindful of your portions even when you do not have a measuring cup, spoon or scale.

 Be physically active

Exercise can help you stay healthy.  To get the most benefit, exercise for at least 30 minutes, 5 days of the week.  If that seems like too much, start out slow and work your way up.  Look for fun activities that you enjoy.  Try walking with a friend, dancing, swimming or playing a sport.  Adding just a little more activity to your routine can help.  Exercise can also help relieve stress, another common cause of high blood pressure.

 Keep a healthy weight

Keeping a healthy weight can help you manage your blood sugar, control your blood pressure, and lower your risk for kidney disease.  Being overweight puts you more at risk for diabetes and high blood pressure.  Talk to your doctor about how much you should weigh.  If you are overweight, losing just a few pounds can make a big difference.

 Control your cholesterol

Having high cholesterol, especially if you have diabetes, puts you more at risk for kidney disease, heart disease and stroke.  It can also cause diabetic kidney disease to get worse faster.

For most people, normal cholesterol levels are:

• Total Cholesterol: Less than 200
• HDL (“good” cholesterol): More than 40
• LDL (“bad” cholesterol): Less than 100

Your triglycerides are also important.  People with high triglycerides are more at risk for kidney disease, heart disease and stroke.  For most people, a healthy triglyceride level is less than 150.

If your total cholesterol, LDL or triglycerides are high, or if your HDL is low, talk to your doctor.  Your doctor may suggest exercise, diet changes or medicines to help you get to a healthy cholesterol level.

 Take medicines as directed

To help protect your kidneys, take medicines as directed.

Some medicines may help you manage conditions that can damage your kidneys, like diabetes or high blood pressure.  Ask your doctor how to take any medicines he or she prescribes.  Make sure to take the medicines just how your doctor tells you.  This may mean taking some medicines, like blood pressure medicines, even when you feel fine.   Other medicines can harm your kidneys if you take them too much.  For example, even over-the-counter pain medicines can damage your kidneys over time.  Follow the label directions for any medicines you take.  Share with your doctor a list of all of your medicines (even over-the-counter medicines and vitamins) to help make sure that you are not taking anything that may harm your kidneys.

 Limit alcohol

Drinking alcohol in large amounts can cause your blood pressure to rise.  Limiting how much alcohol you drink can help you keep a healthy blood pressure.  Have no more than two drinks per day if you’re a man and no more than one drink per day if you’re a woman.

 Avoid tobacco

Using tobacco (smoking or chewing) puts you more at risk for high blood pressure, kidney disease and many other health problems.  If you already have kidney disease, using tobacco can make it get worse faster.

If you use tobacco, quitting can help lower your chances of getting kidney disease or help slow the disease down if you already have it.

You can find this information and more at: http://www.kidneyfund.org

This blog has a p.s. after the farewell.  Be sure to read it for a another really delightful surprise and until next week,

Keep living your life!

Nima is also my computer guru, so she showed me quite a bit while she’s here – including how to see the number of people ’Talking About’  the Facebook page at Facebook.com/WhatHowEarlyCKD (which includes this blog).  Sit down before you read these numbers.

• Countries

  12,968,464	United States of America
  1,802,022	United Kingdom
  1,324,900	India
  997,242	Canada
  735,784	Australia
  718,074	Philippines
  278,090	Malaysia
  265,313	Pakistan
  146,796	Italy
  139,240	Ireland
  137,382	Turkey
  137,199	Tunisia
  133,749	Germany
  132,983	United Arab Emirates
  131,905	New Zealand
  122,384	Egypt
  106,798	Mexico
  104,727	Saudi Arabia
  102,007	Singapore
  90,359	South Africa

• Languages

  17,461,481	English (US)
  3,197,319	English (UK)
  248,597	French (France)
  236,736	Spanish
  132,372	Turkish
  127,798	Italian
  104,827	German
  74,151	Spanish (Spain)
  65,797	Arabic
  61,022	English (Pirate)
  52,742	Indonesian
  51,763	Portuguese (Brazil)
  43,362	Thai
  31,794	Dutch
  27,905	Greek
  24,778	Hungarian
  24,629	Portuguese (Portugal)
  24,559	Korean
  20,136	Polish
  19,728	Simplified Chinese (China)

Tonight’s Radio Show Is Right Here

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National Kidney Month And Doctors Who Get It

Yesterday, day four of National Kidney Month, my buddy Karla and I met at the Herberger – our state theater – to see a play I knew nothing about.  For me, it was just an excuse to get together and see a friend of hers onstage.  The play, “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” turned out to be about what happens to a trafficker in human organs and the people he’s connected to after he dies. Naturally, I want to play the role of his mother in some other production of this play. It’s an odd-ball role, right up my alley.

But what really struck me was that I unwittingly chose to attend a play about kidneys during National Kidney Month.  At the talk with the actors after the play, I mentioned that.  Not one person in the theater (and it was half full of people who stayed for the talk) knew this is National Kidney Month.

That’s why I’ll be posting something about the kidneys on Twitter every day this month.

I’ll also be guesting on a radio show for this purpose tomorrow night, Tuesday March 6th from 7:30pm – 9:30pm EST. The URL for this is:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/onlinewithandrea/2012/03/07/early-stage-chronic-kidney-disease

And I’ll be at The Kidney Foundation’s 21st Annual Chattanooga Renal Symposium on March 29th, 2012.  The event will be held at the Historic Sheraton Read House. If you’re anywhere nearby,  I’ll be in the vendors’ area with 200  nephrologists milling around.  Come say hello.

This month a specific nephrologist and I will be exploring selling our books as a set, one book written by the doctor and one written by the patient.

I’m doing my bit for National Kidney Month.  What can you do?

World Kidney Day is Thursday, March 8.  I expect there to be all kinds of symposiums, conferences and information booths available to you that day.  Why not bring a friend who doesn’t know much about Chronic Kidney Disease and the need to be tested for it to one of these?

We patients are not the only ones trying to be aware.  This New York Times article can give us some insight into what some of our doctors are doing to stay aware.

Teaching Doctors to Be Mindful

By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D.

Brett Carlsen for The New York TimesDoctors from across the world gather at the Chapin Mill Retreat Center in Batavia, N.Y., to bring intention, attention and reflection to clinical practice.

It was 6:40 in the morning and nearly all of the doctors attending the medical conference had assembled for the first session of the day. But there were no tables and chairs in sight, no lectern, no run-throughs of PowerPoint presentations. All I could make out in the early morning darkness were the unmoving forms of my colleagues, cross-legged on cushions and raised platforms, eyes closed and hands resting with palms upward in their laps.

They were learning to meditate as part of a mindful communication training conference, held last week at the Chapin Mill Retreat Center in western New York, and sponsored by the University of Rochester Medical Center.

There has been a growing awareness among doctors that being mindful, or fully present and attentive to the moment, not only improves the way they engage with patients but also mitigates the stresses of clinical practice.

Mounting paperwork demands and other time and productivity pressures can lead to physician burnout, which affects as many as one in three doctors, recent studies have shown. The loss of enthusiasm and engagement that results can lead to increased errors, decreased empathy and compassion toward patients and poor professionalism. Other problems include physician substance abuse, abandonment of clinical practice and even suicide.

Despite the pervasiveness of burnout, few interventions have been shown to be effective. But two years ago, University of Rochester researchers studied the effects of a yearlong course for practicing primary care physicians in mindful communication. Their findings, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that doctors who took part in the course became more present, attentive and focused on the moment and less emotionally exhausted over time. Moreover, the doctors’ ability to empathize with patients and understand how patients’ family and work life or social situation could influence their illness increased and persisted even after the course had ended.

“Mindful communication is one way for practitioners to feel more ‘in the game’ and to find meaning in their practice,” said Dr. Michael S. Krasner, an associate professor of clinical medicine at Rochester and one of the study authors. He, along with his co-author Dr. Ronald Epstein, a professor of family medicine, psychiatry and oncology at Rochester, developed the course in mindfulness.

But it takes training, and that training can be particularly challenging for physicians who are used to denying their personal responses to difficult situations. In addition to learning to meditate, doctors participate in group discussions and writing and listening exercises on topics like medical errors, managing conflict, setting boundaries and self-care. Small group discussions are meant to increase awareness of how one’s emotions or physical sensations influence behaviors and decisions.

In one exercise, for example, doctors are asked to write about a mistake in their professional or personal life. Examples of such errors have included missing a diagnosis, prescribing the wrong medication, making assumptions about a patient that led to inadequate care or failing to be present for their own families because of an inability to balance work and family life. The doctors must then discuss the issue with two peers, describing not only the event but also any associated physical and emotional sensations. One of the other doctors has the task of practicing appreciative inquiry, or listening without making judgments or jumping to conclusions. And the other serves as an observer, offering suggestions at the end of the session for how the listener might improve his or her skills.

Many of the participants at last week’s conference, capped by the organizers at 40 and coming from the United States and Canada and from as far away as New Zealand, described the four-day experience as “transformative.” “I can honestly say that these have been some of the most important days of my life,” said Dr. Elissa Rubin, a pediatrician and lactation consultant who traveled to the conference from Mineola, N.Y., on Long Island.

But the real challenge for these participants — and the growing number of advocates of such training — is not acquiring mindfulness. It is finding the time and support necessary to sustain their skills and teach others.

Once back in their work environments, many say it is easy to fall back into old patterns. Dr. Krasner and Dr. Epstein have had to close down some of their programs directed at interns and residents because of financial issues. And a frequent topic of conversation among several of last week’s participants who hoped to teach at their own institutions were how to best introduce these ideas to colleagues who might be skeptical or administrators who might be hesitant to set aside valuable clinical time for training courses or pay for a program that does not generate revenue.

Nonetheless, Dr. Krasner and Dr. Epstein remain optimistic, in large part because they believe that mindful communication is not just another optional skill or fringe fad in health care. “Mindfulness,” Dr. Epstein said, “and the self-awareness it cultivates, is a fundamental ingredient of excellent care.”

Their patients would agree. In clinic, a patient who has suffered for years from chronic pain told me why he remained Dr. Epstein’s patient. “He’s the best doctor I’ve ever had because he can get to what I am trying to say quicker than any other doctor.

“I’m not sure how he does it, but he just really gets it.”

You can view the original article at: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/teaching-doctors-to-be-mindful/?smid=tw-nytimeshealth&seid=auto

Until next week,

Keep living your life!

www.myckdexperience.com

World Kidney Day Is Only Six Years Old

Each Monday, I find it progressively more difficult to choose a topic.  I am amazed at how much information is being disseminated about kidney disease and its treatment and/or underlying causes these days.  Since March 8 is the sixth World Kidney Day, I thought we would go back to the basics to start today’s blog.  Thank you, again and again and again to The National Kidney Foundation for all the information they make available to us.  This is their World Kidney Day posting:

Top 10 Reasons to Love Your Kidneys

Sometimes the more you know, the more you love.  The National Kidney Foundation urges Americans to get to know two humble, hardworking organs: the kidneys.  To help raise awareness and appreciation for all the vital functions the kidneys perform, the National Kidney Foundation offers 10 reasons for Americans to love their kidneys and take steps now to preserve kidney health:

1. Filter 200 liters of blood a day, removing two liters of toxins, wastes and water

2. Regulate the body’s water balance

3. Regulate blood pressure by controlling fluid levels and making the hormone that causes blood vessels to constrict

4. Support healthy bones and tissues by producing the active form of vitamin D

5. Produce the hormone that stimulates bone marrow to manufacture red blood cells

6. Keep blood minerals in balance

7. Keep electrolytes in balance

8. Regulate blood acid levels

9. Remove drugs from the blood

10. Retrieve essential nutrients so that the body can reabsorb them

In my book, I discuss how important it is to tell every doctor you see about your Chronic Kidney Disease.  Notice #9. “Remove drugs from the blood.”  You may need to take a lower dosage of whatever drug was prescribed or, perhaps, take it less often.  If your kidneys are not fully functioning, the drugs are not effectively being removed from your blood.  It would be similar to willfully taking a drug overdose if you do not make your doctors aware of your CKD when they prescribe for you.  Make sure your pharmacist knows about your CKD, too.  You cannot rely on your doctors – specialists or not – to remember every warning on every label.  That’s where your pharmacist comes in.  He or she has that same information.  You are ultimately the one in charge of your health.  It makes perfect sense to draw upon all your resources.

I also discuss in my book the problem in my local hospital’s emergency room when I had a bladder infection.  Just in case you don’t remember, my primary care doctor wasn’t available, so her M.A. told me to go to an Urgent Care facility rather than wait since I have CKD.  When I arrived and told the receptionist I have CKD, she immediately sent me to the hospital emergency room in case I needed blood or other tests for which the Urgent Care wasn’t equipped.  After a battery of tests in the emergency room, sulphur drugs were prescribed, although I’d took them repeatedly about having CKD.  Sulphur drugs can harm the kidneys even more.

This got me to thinking about if I were brought into the e.r. under true emergencies conditions – as in unconscious.  How would they know I had CKD before they located someone who could tell them about my medical background?  Or access my records elsewhere? I knew the answer was a medical alert bracelet, but spent quite a bit of time ignoring the issue.  Then I got sick again – a simple flu – but the bracelet idea popped back into my mind full blown, so I started searching for one.

I wanted something that looked like jewelry, but not too much like jewelry because I have simple tastes.  So, I did what I do best: researched.  This is what I came up with:

I chose the black plate and had “Chronic Kidney Disease” inscribed on two lines on the back.  Now, the bracelet itself:

It’s jewelry like, something I’m comfortable wearing and it does the job of making me feel secure should I ever have a true emergency.  I’ll be adding  http://www.medicalidfashions.com/ to the blog roll later on.  They are one of several sites with the type of medical alert i.d. bracelet I’ve been discussing.  Feel free to click through now or wait for the address to be added to the blog roll.  You know, don’t you, that I have nothing to do with any of the companies I mention to you except that I want to share what I’ve found.

Ah, talking about sharing!  I found this review of the book on Amazon and walked on air for the rest of the day!

The Best Info on Kidney Disease around!, February 20, 2012

By DaylillyGal

This review is from: What Is It And How Did I Get It? Early Stage Chronic Kidney Disease (Kindle Edition)

This is an incredibly well-researched, well-written book written by a woman who herself developed kidney disease. Her book provides clear and comprehensive information for all about the care patients need to have, and responds to the fears and concerns of all involved with coping with kidney disease. It is an honest, very personal accounting of her experience, and I found it to be written clearly, providing tons of pertinent information about every facet of how to cope with this illness. I think Ms. Rae wrote this book for the ordinary person who learns that they will be living with kidney disease from the moment of diagnosis, on. But after reading, I believe that it is also a book that every family member, every friend of someone who has developed kidney disease ought to read as well, in order to better understand what their loved ones are going through. I also believe that this book will benefit every professional in the medical community who deals with patients coping with Kidney Disease. It has helped me, and will help everyone involved with the patient on any level to be better able to understand their patient’s concerns, anxieties, needs and limitations. For these reasons I think it is a great guide for the medical community as well as for the patient/family/friends, as it can help professionals understand the kind of information their patients need to have in order to take good care of themselves. Don’t pass this book up!

Got to go check out a symposium that sent me an invitation to exhibit.  This is a new one for me.

Until next week,

Keep living your life!

 

 

So That’s What It Means

I have spent almost four years researching, reading, printing, and then promptly forgetting about phosphorous.  I keep writing about the three Ps and salt and ending up having to remind myself what phosphorous is and why we need to limit our intake of it each time I write about it.  I was comfortable with protein and easily remembered what I learned about potassium, but phosphorous?  This one just plain eluded me.

I keep a log of interesting articles I run across just in case there’s a Monday that I can’t think of anything special.  That’s what I thought today was going to be.  I tried to start the blog with something about the downright beautiful Arabians we saw at the Arabian Horse Show on Saturday and couldn’t figure out where to go with that.  Then I thought I’d write something about being sick with the flu if you’re a CKDer, but worked on that one on the Facebook page. Maybe something about the wood shop being constructed in my garage?  Naw.  What does that have to do with CKD?

Before I looked over my backlog of articles, I took a quick peek at Twitter.  Bingo.  Seems that my backlog will just have to stay my backlog until the second part of this blog.  An article from Food Navigator.com caught my eye.  I understand it and it feels like I’ll remember it.  Sometimes it just works like that.  So here is the mystery of phosphorous in our daily lives solved.  The article is copy right protected so I can only give you the link, but I’d urge you to read it:

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/Phosphate-in-food-is-health-risk-that-should-be-labelled-claim-researchers

As I was scurrying around making dinner yesterday, my mind consumed with phosphorous, I noticed the bread I was munching on (You know the story: grandfather was a miller in the Ukraine, love of bread in my genes, hardest part of the renal diet for me) tasted salty.  Sure enough, when I started poking around in my files, I found this Feb. 7, 2012 article from NPR.com. Notice that last sentence reference to potassium.

To Hold The Salt, It’s Time To Hold The Bread

by Eliza Barclay

                                                           

                          The sandwich on the left has a total of 1,522 milligrams of salt (per whole sandwich), while the other one has only 853 mg.

It’s no secret that some of the tastiest snacks around — potato  chips, french fries, and processed deli meats — are terrific vehicles  for salt. Without salt, they’d be bland, too starchy, or just plain  dull.

But would you guess that the white bread on your turkey sandwich  could be delivering almost as much as the turkey — up to 400 mg of sodium, or about one-third of  the daily recommended limit for 6 of every 10 adults?

A report out today from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  unmasks bread and some other sneaky sodium-heavy foods. It turns out  that 10 foods — from bread to poultry to cheese to pasta dishes — are responsible  for more than 40 percent of people’s sodium  intake.

According to  the CDC, the average American consumes about 3,300 milligrams of sodium   per day, not including any salt that may be added during a meal.  That’s way more than we need, and puts us at risk for high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease and stroke.

The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend no more than 2,300 mg a day, except if you’re over 51 years  or African American or have high blood pressure, diabetes or chronic  kidney disease. For those groups, the recommendation is 1,500 mg a day.

But   it’s clearly hard to stay within the limits, especially because we can’t control the sodium in some of our foods. Some 65  percent of sodium comes from food  sold in stores, and 25 percent comes  from restaurants. The salt shaker on the kitchen table  isn’t really the problem — it’s the industrial quantities of saline  sodium and crystals that are dumped into processed food to help preserve them and boost their addictiveness.

As public health institutions and other health groups have zeroed in on sodium, sugar and other ingredients in food that can negatively impact health, they’re increasingly looking to food companies to make some changes. Some have responded with commitments. Kraft Foods, purveyor of such salty snacks as Velveeta and Ritz crackers, said in 2010 it would reduce sodium by 10 percent over a two-year period. Last  year, Walmart also said it would cut the sodium in packaged foods by 25  percent by 2016.

Food companies also need to worry about how much potassium is left in food, as Shots has reported.   It turns out that consuming a lot of salt in combination with  too  little potassium is  associated with a greater risk of death, according to researchers from  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Emory and Harvard.

Phosphorous, sodium, potassium.  Apologies to protein for not including it in this blog.

Before I say goodbye, notice the buttons for both the Facebook page and Twitter beneath the blog roll.  We aim to make life easier!

Until next week,

Keep living your life!

It’s Been Raining In Arizona

Rain is not that usual out here, although I do my best to entice it by watering my palm trees every Sunday and threatening to wash my little white car with the red side bars any time I see dark, heavy clouds.  Of course that’s not the rain I’m referring to in this blog.  After a long, dormant period, new sites have been raining on my head.  Someone once told me everything happens in cycles, maybe she was right.

Merry Schiff, a new Facebook reader, brought the following site to my attention. (WAIT!  Merry read the book and wrote a review on Amazon.  How about each of you who has read the book do the same?  It will help get the book into the hands of every newly diagnosed CKD patient – the people I wrote it for.) The site is Safe Kidney Care.  Apparently, it eminated from a clinical study.  I know when I tried to submit an e-mail, it asked me for my bracelet ID, then explained that these were given to each participant of the study.  But you don’t need to have been a member of this study in order to view the site.  It contains neat, easily understood explanations of GFR, CKD, the kidneys themselves, what causes kidney disease, and urine protein.  There’s a glossary and a FAQ section.  What I liked best about it is the safety concerns issues: what to tell your doctor, pill and foods to avoid, fluid intake, drugs that are all right with CKD, heart and diabetes info, Medical follow up, x-rays and other radiological tests.  I also noticed a button for “Tests” and another for “Kidney Function (GFR) Calculator.” I tried their GFR calculator and found it accurate as far as I could tell.  Their resource list is almost as comprehensive as the one in my book, with one or two new additions (Got to go look those up.) This information was on the “About” page: The material of this website was developed and assembled by Dr. Jeffrey C. Fink, M.D., M.S., staff nephrologist, Associate Professor, and Director of the Early Renal Insufficiency (ERI) Program, in collaboration with the staff of the ERI Program and Safe Kidney Care Project, at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine. Funding was provided by grant R01 DK084017 from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.  The address for the site is: http:www.safekidneycare.org/patient_family.php.

Then there’s a source I’ve come across several times in the last four years and decided it was time to let you know about it.  Live Now: Rethink Kidney Diseases is from Baxter, another resource I included in my book.  While it is generally aimed at dialysis patients, there’s still some info that will work for those of us in the early stages. The Food and Nutrition section is especially helpful.  The Living, Support, and Inspire sections – while aimed at dialysis patients as mentioned – offers some insights into early stage CKD but you’ll have to spend time gleaning them.  This website is: http://livenow.info/GetSupport.aspx.

The third site that dropped from the sky is that of a telephone application for CKD patients called KidneyDiet. As the name implies, it is simple and to the point.  I downloaded it for $4.99.  It is meant to track the phosphorus, potassium, protein, sodium, carbohydrates, cholesterol, fat, and calories of the food you eat.  You first enter the limits of each your nephrologist has given you.  This only has to be entered once. Then you enter each food you’ve eaten during each meal – item by item – and it compares your totals in each category to your limits.  Portions can be changed which is very helpful, but you cannot add new foods.  If you regularly eat foods that are not on the lists available for this app, I’m not certain this is for you.  I really like that it covers everything we need to watch as CKDers, but I wonder if I want to limit my food intake to what is on these lengthy lists.  Could it  be that I’m one of the few who has found foods on my renal diet that are not the norm?  The address for this site is: http://www.kidneydiet.com.

You’ll notice all three of these new sites have been added to the blog roll.  This is not an endorsement of any of them.  I simply want you to be aware of what is available that you might find a good fit for you.

Talking about adding, I tried to add an “Add to the cart” button for the book to the blog, but I didn’t do so well with that.  You can still direct order the book by clicking on the book title on the blog roll.  That will take you to the website for What Is It And How Did I Get It? Early Stage Chronic Kidney Disease  where there IS a functioning “Add to the cart” button.

Ah, lest I neglect to mention (as long as we’re talking about adding), there’s yet another new addition to the family.  Welcome to Temperance, Lara’s newest.  (She’s a “Bones” fan, too)

Until next week,

Keep living your life!

 

It’s a Weighty Question

There’s a new addition to our family.  Oh, no, no!  Of course, with all our daughters, it’s natural to think it’s a grand child, but it’s actually a “grand” cat.  Let’s see now, we’re up to two grand dogs and three grand cats, plus our own Bella dog.  Little miss Annabelle is just twelve weeks old and cute as a button.  Thinking about cats led me to wonder if you knew that cats can also have CKD. And if you knew that some of the same treatments are used for feline CKD as for human CKD. That’s why you’ve got to be careful when you do your own research that what you’re reading deals with human, not feline, CKD.    

My daughter, Abby, brought Annabelle to the bar-b-q my fiance – Bear – threw to celebrate my 65th birthday yesterday (The bar-b-q was yesterday; my birthday was February 2 – Ground Hog’s Day – just in case you were wondering.) so everyone could meet the little cutie.

Being human, we overate, which got me to wondering about how hard it’s become for me to lose weight, much less maintain a healthy weight.  I remembered a blog I’d read on NPR way back in November and decided to share it with you.  I can’t be the ONLY one concerned with my weight, can I?

Hormones And Metabolism Conspire Against Dieters

by Allison Aubrey

There are some fresh insights from Australia that help explain why it’s so difficult for dieters to keep off the weight they lose.

Willpower will only take you so far, in case you haven’t run that experiment yourself. Turns out our bodies have a fuel gauge, not entirely unlike the gas gauge on our cars, that tell us when it’s time to tank up on food.

The gauge relies on hormones that signal to the brain when and how much to eat. But as Dr. Louis Aronne, who directs the comprehensive weight control program at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, explains, the human fuel gauge can sometimes be way off the mark — especially for dieters.

A study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine documents a pretty extreme diet regimen that limited 50 overweight and obese Australian volunteers to about 550 calories a day for 10 weeks.

Most of them, though not all, actually stuck with the diet, and, not surprisingly, lost a lot of weight. While dieting they shed an average of nearly 30 pounds, or 14 percent of their body weight. At a year, they’d still kept a lot of the weight off, but, on average, their loss was down to 8 percent 15 months after the start of the study.

What happened to their hormones? The researchers measured a whole bunch of them, including insulin, leptin (an appetite suppressant) and ghrelin (a hunger stimulator) and found that more than year after the weight loss, the hormones were telling the people to keep eating — a lot.

As Aronne puts it, their internal gas gauges went down 65 percent instead of the 10 percent or so that would have been more in line with the weight lost. In essence, “they think they’re going to run out of gas  very, very soon.”

So it’s not just a lack of willpower that’s tripping people up. Their hormones are sending a strong, confounding signal to chow down.

What’s more, the study found that the metabolic  rate of the dieters remained low a year after the low-calorie diet  ended, making it even harder to burn off those calories.

While this might be a plausible explanation, I don’t find it all that comforting.  Yes, I do understand better why I’m having such a hard time with the weight, but I also know this means more exercise to burn off some of those calories my body is holding on to.  Guess I’d better learn to love exercise all over again, only exercise that accommodates arthritis this time.

You can find the blog at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/11/03/141769832/hormones-and-metabolism-conspire-against-dieters?sc=fb&cc=fp

On another note, the lovely Aaron Milton of the FB page P2P for sufferers of any chronic illness posted an “Add to cart” button for the book there.  I’d like to do that to the blog and the book’s FB page, as well as my person website (www.gail-rae.com) but Aaron’s forgotten how he did it.  Anyone know how to do this?

Until next week,

Keep living your life!

www.myckdexperience.com

Maybe It’s Not That Hippy Dippy

I just spent the loveliest three days out of town – in Bisbee, Arizona – and out of touch.  I heartily recommend doing this a few times a year.  Talk about the relaxing we CKDers are supposed to be doing!  That’s also the reason for such a late blog today.  We got home fifteen minutes ago, threw in the wash, threw out the garbage and here I am. Before we officially begin, I’ve got to say that I have been getting some really complimentary comments… in spam!  I’ve mentioned before that I’m having a hard time separating the spam from the “real” comments, so if yours has not been responded to yet, kindly comment again but from a different email address, or don’t include your website address.  One of those two actions should allow your comment through.

I always thought of myself as a wannabe hippy in the ’60s.  You know, the ones who were attracted to some of the hippy thinking but couldn’t quite bring themselves to tune in and drop out or live on a commune.  Now, my fiance and I laugh about the retired lieutenant colonel and the wannabe hippy getting together later in life.  What’s even better is that later in my life, the alternative medicine I shocked my parents and colleagues by believing in and practicing is now becoming complementary medicine.  I’ve written about this in the book, but now Catherine Pearson of The Huntington Post has written about it, too. Nontraditional medical courses like this are becoming more common and are also offered through many online PhD programs for those with careers looking to incorporate Integrative Medicine into their practices.

How Mainstream Medicine Is Opening Up To Integrative Health

When students elect to spend a month learning about integrative medicine at the University of Maryland, they study by working with the toughest, most frazzled patients: themselves.

In their fourth year of medical school, many of the students are exhausted and fighting to get good grades. They’re tired; they experience headaches and back pain; and they don’t feel as sharp as they’d like.

But these students aren’t focusing on what drugs to prescribe. Instead, they’re looking at integrative therapies in search of better health.

Under the direction of Dr. Delia Chiaramonte, University of Maryland Center for Integrative Medicine’s director of professional education, the students make a values list, which Chiaramonte says helps them consider whether they might suffer from undue stress because they’re not focusing on what’s truly important to them. They also learn to consider how daily stresses and triggers are affecting their lives, and they practice yoga and tai-chi.

“By the end of the month, they almost always feel better themselves,” said Chiaramonte. “They really learn viscerally for themselves that this stuff works.”

The Maryland students aren’t the only ones looking past the pill in search of better health. A growing number of Americans have embraced complementary or integrative medicine, which combines conventional, allopathic medicine with alternative therapies.

According to the most recent data from the National Institute of Health’s National Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, some 38 percent of Americans used some form of alternative medicine in 2007 — up from 36 percent in 2002. [ This was five years ago!  I'll bet that percent is much more than 36 by now.] Experts say such figures explain why a growing number of medical schools have embraced what critics deride as “woo-medicine,” but proponents of the techniques say integrative medicine represents the future of health care.

“More and more students are interested in integrative medicine — that’s clear,” said Dr. Mary P. Guerrera, a professor of family medicine and director of integrative medicine at the University of Connecticut. “There is greater awareness in the world-at-large. With that, students are coming to medical school already aware of what it is.”

In the last decade, the National Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, which was formed to promote and support integrative medicine in medical schools, has ballooned from eight member institutions to 51. That list includes top academic names, like Harvard University, Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic.

Last month, University of California-Los Angeles hosted the first-ever National Student Conference on Integrative Medicine, an event created by students looking to build upon the traditional medical school curriculum by exploring topics from what they dubbed an “integrative perspective.” It drew more than 100 attendees, including some who don’t have access to training in integrative medicine at their home institutions.

“I met a resident who wanted to incorporate some of these practices and who said it was so helpful to have physicians who he could talk to. … It gave him hope that he can go out there and learn this,” Guerrera said. “He felt very isolated in his training program, because there was no one he was able to identify to help him.”

Among the institutions that do provide training in integrative medicine, that education takes many forms. Some medical schools offer month-long immersive electives, others simply offer several-hour-long lectures introducing medical students to areas they may not have considered before.

The University of Arizona [not all that far from Bisbee, folks]  has been at the forefront of incorporating integrative medicine into its programs: They’ve partnered up with like-minded residency programs and recently created a distinct program for medical students that lets them supplement their traditional training with a focus in integrative medicine over their four years.

“It’s a really big step that the College Of Medicine was willing to say ‘This is important. This is no longer fad, and we will recognize it,’ ” said Dr. Victoria Maizes, executive director at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.

But some medical schools still lack a formal environment to learn integrative medicine, experts say, and not all institutions have faculty that’s supportive of the techniques. That may in part stem from limited evidence testifying to the efficacy of alternative therapies. Even the National Institute for Complementary and Alternative Medicine acknowledges many complementary and alternative medicines lack the backing of trustworthy clinical trials.

But Maizes argued that many tenets of complementary medicine have already been independently verified. She noted, for instance, that there is significant scientific evidence supporting the role of good nutrition — which is a major focus of integrative medicine — in health, as well as the connection between the mind and body. What is lacking, she said, are clinical trials comparing integrative therapies to traditional medicine.

Which is why supporters believe incorporating integrative medicine in medical schools is important, so that students who apply integrative therapies and ideas are well-grounded in conventional training.

“We’re not cutting anything out from traditional medicine,” Chiaramonte said. “We’re adding to the toolbox.”

You can find the article at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/15/integrative-medicine-medical-schools_n_1093279.html

Remember I ran off last week to go meet my buddy?  I made that comment after writing about how I only wanted to be with people who wanted to be with me.  I’m closing with a picture of that meeting so you can see how being with people who want to be with you (that you want to be with) can be such a happy experience for the two of you.  I really missed you Joan Diamond!

Being with people who want to be with you (that you want to be with, too) can retard the progression of your CKD... or at least make it more pleasant.

Until next week,

Keep living your life!