In today's video I'll show you 5 things you can do right now to lower your creatinine
levels fast.
I know these things work because... these are the things that I did to improve my kidney
function.
Yes, I'm a kidney disease patient and today I'm showing you my actual, working strategy
to lower creatinine and improve kidney function.
Hello, this is Tony Benneth, welcome to 00kidney.
After being diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, two years ago, my doctor told me
that ... you can't reverse kidney disease.
You can improve your kidney function... but just a little bit.
And kidney disease is not reversible.
But it wasn't true.
Not for everyone at least.
Not for me.
I actually improved my kidney function a lot!
It wasn't easy, it still isn't easy.
Even if I'm better now I still have to fight, just like you, this terrifying disease.
And I was lucky enough to discover Katherine's channel here, 00kidney, and I actually found
out that there are things you can do to lower your creatinine levels.
Ok, nobody has time to lose here so let's jump to the strategy, let's see what actually
works to improve kidney function.
NUMBER 1 FIRST THING TO DO TO LOWER CREATININE - LOWER PROTEIN INTAKE
Avoid eating red meat, dairy products and
other foods rich in protein will help lowering creatinine.
yeah, maybe I should have started with an easier one.
Never mind, diet is really important for a kidney disease patient.
So, let's start with an advice from a kidney patient, me, to another kidney patient, you.
Things can be pretty... rough when you get near the advanced stages of chronic kidney
disease and your doctor starts to talk about dialysis.
It's frightening, I know.
And, while making a significant change in your diet may seem hard too, it is a lot better
than seeing chronic kidney disease progress without doing anything to fight it.
So, reducing protein intake is actually a very good first step to lower our creatinine.
And it will work fast.
You know, just two years ago I was almost in stage 5 of CKD.
because I wasn't caring enough about my health.
When I started to care, finding the correct renal diet was one of the first, big, changes
I had to do in my lifestyle.
But it worked.
I had to follow a very restrictive renal diet at first, but now that my kidneys are better,
I can have a more easy to follow diet.
CONSUMING A VERY LOW PROTEIN DIET REMOVES A LOT OF STRESS FROM OUR KIDNEYS
This will improve our GFR, giving us more energy and making us feel better.
My personal advice to lower the amount of protein in the diet is to... avoid bad protein
at all costs.
So, avoid protein from fat cuts of red meat, fat cuts of chicken and pork.
Also avoid packaged meats in general, like salami sausages.
And avoid dairy.
Yes, this is not easy at first but it will work, it will work fast.
NUMBER 2 DRINK MORE WATER Keep your kidneys healthy
by drinking the right amount of water
Aaah, here we go, this is an easy way to lower our creatinine levels fast.
Water is really important for the health of our kidneys.
A lot of people live their lives in a constant state of mild dehydration.
This will directly impact the creatinine levels, in a bad way.
If you're dehydrated your creatinine will be higher.
So drinking more water will lower it really fast.
Also we should consider that, in the long run, your kidneys will suffer, if you're constantly
dehydrated.
Water helps the kidneys removing wastes from the blood, and if there's not enough water,
the kidneys will have to work harder.
In the long run this can increase the chances of UTIs, kidney stones and kidney disease.
All of these are... really bad for our kidneys.
So drink more water.
How much water?
Men need about 13 cups of water per day, women about 9.
We're talking about between 2 and 3 liters of water per day.
These are just estimates and can change if you live in a hot climate or if you do a lot
of physical activity.
What's important is that this is a lot more than most of the people actually drink.
So drink more water if you want to help your kidneys.
Maybe bring a water bottle with you when you're at work or traveling, you know and...
How can you tell if you're drinking enough?
Look at the color of your urine.
Urine should be light yellow, if it's darker it means you're dehydrated.
This only apply to people who are not on a restricted water intake.
If you're on dialysis, you cannot drink all this water and you should drink no more than
your doctor allowed you to do.
THIRD THING TO DO TO LOWER CREATININE LEVELS - EAT MORE OMEGA 3S
A diet rich in omega 3s is proven to help improving GFR
There are actually studies proving this.
let's see...
Omega-3s and renal function in older adults Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation as an adjunctive
therapy in the treatment of chronic kidney disease
this is a long one...
ok, don't worry I'm not gonna read all these studies right now
because they're really tedious and this is still Youtube, by the way... but I've read
them.
Yes, I have read them pretty carefully.
I'm pretty cautious when it comes to my own health.
What all these studies basically say is that they tested Omega 3s on... from foods and
from supplements on a bunch of people suffering from kidney disease and the people who actually
took the Omega 3s reported an improvement in their kidney function over the years.
But the interesting part is OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS CAN LOWER CHOLESTEROL
LEVELS AND BLOOD PRESSURE, REDUCE OXIDATIVE STRESS ON THE KIDNEYS AND PREVENT HEART DISEASE
AND STROKE IN KIDNEY PATIENTS.
Now, patients suffering from kidney disease tend to have a higher risk for heart disease
and stroke, so Omega-3s are really useful for us.
So, when I discovered about this I just... you known, started to take 4 of these per
day.
These are...
I show you...
pills, jelly pills.
I take 4 of these per day Nothing more and nothing less.
Yes, this is actually one of the very few supplements that are perfectly safe and that
are actually proven to help you lowering creatinine levels naturally.
I tested Omega 3s.
They work.
NUMBER 4 FIND THE CAUSE Find out what's damaging your kidneys
and stop it.
Diabetes and high blood pressure are the most common causes of ckd.
they are both preventable and curable Ok, let's take a look at this pie chart.
44% of the cases of chronic kidney disease are caused by diabetes.
44%.
Now, if you have diabetes there's too much sugar in your blood.
It's actually called blood glucose level, and if you have diabetes it is one of the
things you should be checking regularly in your blood analysis.
This excess of sugar in the blood is what's actually damaging your kidneys.
There's a protein, called albumin, which should be present in your blood but not in your urine.
So if in your analysis says that there's albumin in the urine, it means that diabetes is actually
damaging the nephrons, the tiny filtering units of the kidneys.
If I'm telling you this is because, according to the statistics, 44% of you listening to
me right now have diabetes.
So I'm thinking that it may be actually useful to address this problem.
Because if your kidney disease is caused by diabetes there is no way you're going to be
reversing it, or improving your kidney function if you don't take care of diabetes.
So, if you suffer from diabetes, take all the necessary steps to address it: take the
medications prescribed by your doctor, follow the right diet and weight loss program.
All the other tips would be useless if you don't address this problem first.
Now, looking at the pie chart, there's another 29% of people who got chronic kidney disease
from high blood pressure.
my blood pressure was as high as 190 over 120.
These are pretty incredible numbers, since the right blood pressure is 120 over 70.
The damage to my kidneys was... severe.
So, I can actually tell you from my first-hand experience that if you have a blood pressure
this high it is going to damage your kidneys.
What blood pressure is actually damaging are the blood vessels inside the kidneys.
The kidneys will not filter the blood good enough when this starts to happen, so there
will be more fluids in the blood than there should actually be.
What will happen then?
What will happen if you have more fluids in the blood than there should be?
You guessed it, these extra fluid in your blood will make your blood pressure even higher,
causing further damage to the kidneys.
It's what they call a vicious circle.
It's not funny at all, I can guarantee this to you.
So, how did I lowered my blood pressure, you may ask me now?
I basically did two things: I started to avoid sugary foods and started to exercise regularly.
Sounds funny, doesn't it?
No more sweets, no more ice cream, no more sugary beverages...
I had to get a gym subscription, instead.
I had to give up eating at the fast foods too.
Do I miss them?
Every single day.
Did it work?
Yes, it did.
NUMBER 5 NEVER STOP FIGHTING To overcome our diseases,
mental strength is fundamental
Look, I know how this feels.
When life throws you a curveball and you don't know how to handle it... well... life is just
unfair sometimes.
But I'm not here to tell you this.
What I want to tell you is that you can still fight.
Because you have to fight.
Sometimes being brave and standing our ground is everything that is left to us.
The psychological aspect of the disease is something that a lot of doctor don't want
to consider... they prefer to let the patient face it... sometimes alone...
I've seen this personally.
You can ask anyone who went through a chronic illness.
It is impossible to survive, to beat the illness, if you don't have the mental strength to fight
the illness.
It's not just kidney disease: every chronic illness, cancer, diabetes, degenerative conditions...
even accidents you know... will put people in a situation where they have to be brave
in a way they never thought they could be.
All the people going through this kind of conditions have to fight.
But when you're strong, when you have the will to fight, you will become stronger and
stronger day by day and you illness will look weaker.
If you decide to be strong, it means that you can still win.
NUMBER 6 ALWAYS BE INFORMED Knowing our illness
will put us in the condition to overcome it
Ok, this isn't easy as it seems, but it's maybe the most important thing you can do
to improve your kidney health and to lower creatinine levels.
You won't always have the possibility to talk to a doctor during the day.
Look, I don't know how this works for you, but for me talking to a nephrologist or a
dietitian to ask for advice on a daily basis is almost impossible.
And yet, there are a lot of things you would want to ask them...
Can I eat this... or that food right now?
Would it be better for my kidney health to eat more fruit or should I limit the calories?
Should I even eat at all?
But you cannot ask your doctor about all this right now, can you?
You have to schedule an appointment... you have to wait... a lot... and maybe you won't
even get the answer you need in time.
And I'm thinking about the daily routine, here.
And what about what's not routine?
Ok, it seems like being informed about our condition is actually a matter of self-protection.
For me personally, during my journey to reverse kidney disease, collecting information was,
and still is, a huge project.
Something that took me a lot of energy and time and money.
Still, getting informed about my illness is something that made all the difference for
me.
When I started to understand my condition, I started to actually being able to fight
it and, ultimately to reverse it.
Luckily there's one thing that made this a lot easier for me and this is what I want
to share with you.
My journey to reverse kidney disease was not always easy.
At the beginning I did all that I could to improve my condition.
I was really motivated.
But despite all my efforts my blood tests kept showing a decrease in kidney function.
And my blood pressure was still high.
Ouch.
Then there was a moment in my journey when my creatinine started to go down, my GFR started
to go up and my kidney function started to improve.
I needed some help to get this result.
Sometimes, you cannot do it all by yourself.
The help came from a doctor, actually.
He created this program.
This is what helped me the most in lowering my creatinine.
I got to talk to the doctor that wrote this book... it's all part of the program actually.
He gave me a lot of answers to questions I cannot resolve by myself.
Because you cannot always do everything by yourself, no matter how hard you try.
That's why I'm telling you to give this program a try.
Look, I'm leaving a link to find it right here, you can't miss it.
Really wishing you all the best