Hello, this is Katherine from 00kidney, welcome to our journey together to a better kidney health.
Today we will find out which vitamin supplement is THE BEST TO REPAIR YOUR KIDNEYS.
Correct Vitamin intake is something you absolutely need to get right,
if you want to improve your kidney health.
But it's not easy: ABOUT 80% OF PEOPLE WITH KIDNEY DISEASE HAVE ONE OR MORE VITAMIN DEFICIENCIES.
Unfortunately, even a small vitamin deficiency can make kidney disease progress faster.
In this video I'll focus on the easiest way to solve this complex problem:
renal multivitamins, supplements specifically made for people with kidney disease.
There are 4 trusted renal vitamin brands you may choose from:
NEPHRO-Vite, ProRenal, Rena-Vite and Dialyvite. Today, I'm going to put them one against the other
in a comparison to see which one is best for you. And I think that the results of this comparison
will surprise you. And, if you can't find ANY
of these brands, I'll also show you how to put together YOUR OWN renal multivitamin supplement
from commercial brands. Question, are vitamins
really important for your kidneys? Giving the right nutrients to your body
is more important than many people realize. If you lack vitamin A you can get blindness
and infections, if you lack vitamin C you get scurvy.
And then there's vitamin D. that's a whole other problem.
As we have seen, vitamin deficiency are not that uncommon.
And, to make things worse, almost all vitamins supplements are dangerous for you:
some Vitamins can accumulate and become toxic for you if you have kidney disease.
On the bright side, when you are able to balance your vitamin intake, you will relieve symptoms
such as anemia, swelling and fatigue. And you may even help your kidneys
recover and repair! So,
WHAT VITAMINS DO PEOPLE WITH KIDNEY PROBLEMS ACTUALLY NEED TO TAKE?
You need all the 13
essential vitamins everyone needs. But if you have kidney problems,
you may need to supplement water soluble vitamins and to avoid fat soluble vitamins.
Water soluble vitamins that you may need to supplement include
B complex vitamins B complex vitamins are grouped together,
but it's not just one vitamin. It's 8 of them.
thiamin (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), niacin (vitamin B3), pantothenic acid (vitamin
b5), pyridoxine (vitamin B6), biotin (vitamin B7), folic acid (Vitamin B9), cobalamin (Vitamin B12)
Mostly, these vitamins help to change the foods you eat into energy your body can use.
And one of the most important functions of vitamin of the b complex, especially B6,
B12 and folic acid is to work together with iron to prevent anemia.
And this is CRUCIAL to repair your kidneys!
But you also need Vitamin C
Vitamin C is very important for people with kidney disease. You may have to supplement it too.
Vitamin C is widely known for its function as an antioxidant that improves the immune
AND heart health. Now, maybe the most
important vitamin for you is vitamin D. In people with chronic kidney disease,
low vitamin D levels are frequent, sometimes even severely low levels.
Some doctors have even started to call vitamin d the kidney vitamin.
now, guys, you may understand from this brief introduction
that the vitamin problem is a complex one.
Dietary restrictions, impaired ability to filter of the kidneys, other health problems may all
play a role in making this matter worse. SO, what you actually want is a supplement
that only contains vitamins of the B group, vitamin C and vitamin D in the active form.
But without any vitamin A, E and K. This is because
In people with kidney problems, fat-soluble vitamins such as A,
E and K are going to build up in the body, if taken in the dosage often found in supplements.
This is dangerous. This is why taking a regular multivitamin,
such as Centrum silver, Costco multivitamin or SmartyPants or any other regular multivitamin
is dangerous if you have kidney disease. So renal multivitamins come to the rescue!
Now guys, I know this may sound like a sales pitch but I can guarantee you this is not.
I'm in no way affiliated with any of the brands I'll talk about today.
There are 4 main brands that I will be reviewing. Let's take a look.
OK, THIS is a comparison table I made for you in excel. Don't worry, I'll explain
in details why these numbers are important. Now, the 4 brands I'm reviewing today are:
NEPHRO-Vite from WATSON LABORATORIES. Rena-Vite from Cypress Pharmaceuticals.
ProRenal+D from Nephroceuticals and Dialyvite 800 Ultra D from Hillestad Pharmaceuticals.
All these vitamin supplements are specifically made for people with kidney problems, so you won't
find anything that's harmful for you in them. There's NOT going to be potassium, for example,
and there's not going to be any dangerous vitamins such as A, E and K.
All these are non-prescription, otc supplements. You can buy them on amazon,
at your nearest pharmacy or directly from the websites of the manufacturer, in some cases.
Still, I encourage you to talk to your doctor before taking any supplement.
Your doctor may also want you to get checked for vitamin deficiency.
And, by the way guys ... talking about getting checked!
take a look at this: This is something really interesting
I want to show you in my next video. What is this:
This is a complete urynalisis kit you can use at home!
It can tell you if you have proteinuria and... even your creatinine levels!
So, basically, you dip one of these strips in a urine sample and you know how well
your kidneys are working! At home! Best part, 10 strips cost just 5$.
I bought different brands and I'm going to test all of them in my next video!
So, subscribe and set the notification bell to all if you want to know more about this!
Now, back to our vitamin supplements.
Let's understand which one is the best here and why.
As you may see, these 4 supplements all provide vitamins of the b group in reasonable amounts.
This is very important, as vitamins of the b group are exactly what you need.
All of them have enough b1, B2, niacin and Panthotenic Acid, or b5. Very similar levels -
around 100% of the Daily Reference Intake (DRI). This is what you need.
Now, what about vitamin b6: as you can see, it's 500 to 588% the Daily Reference Intake.
This is because people with kidney disease, especially those on dialysis, need more of
this vitamin than people with healthy kidneys. You wont find this much vitamin b6 in regular
multivitamins. Just in these specifically made for people with kidney problems.
Now, biotin is the first difference between these 4 brands. This is an important vitamin,
especially for people on a low protein diet. Rena vite and Nephro Vite both have 100%
the DRI, while ProRenal just 10%. Now, Dialyvite packs 1000% the DRI, yes, it's not a refuse.
This could be either a good or a bad thing, depending on your levels.
Now, here's a very important part. Vitamin b9, or folic acid, and vitamin b12.
These 2 should always go together. All these supplements have high levels of
folic acid and vitamin b12 too. Which is good. Vitamin b12 is very important for you.
It's used by the body to make red blood cell, so it's crucial to fight anemia.
A deficiency in this key vitamin can cause serious symptoms.
Now, when supplementing b12, what you want is Methylcobalamin - the natural form.
Cyanocobalamin is a synthetic form of vitamin B12 that's not
found in nature. It's used more frequently in supplements, mainly because it costs less.
Only one of these brands actually has the natural form of b12: Dialyvite.
I'm starting to like this one. And all of these brands have vitamin C.
SO, with all these brands you would be getting good amounts of
vitamins of the b group and vitamin c. But with Dialyvite you would be getting
a little bit more of everything. This may be a good thing, at least in some cases.
What Dialyvite is missing is iron, while ProRenal has it - even if in a small dose.
Now, of these 4 brands, only 2 offer vitamin D in the same package
with vitamins of the b group and c. ProRenal+D and Dialyvite(r) 800
Ultra D both have vitamin D3, while Rena-Vite and NEPHRO-Vite do not have it.
So if you choose one of the two that don't have vitamin D,
you may also want to integrate with vitamin D3. Not hard to find as you can get it from any
commercial brand. More about how to find the right one in a moment.
Now, it's clear that all these 4 vitamin brands can give you a product that may
greatly help you balancing your vitamin intake. So, for many people, the deciding factors will be
2: availability and price. Let's see the price first.
Both Rena-Vite and NEPHRO-Vite can be found on amazon.com for 10$ x 100 daily caps.
This is really cheap, considering the benefits these multivitamins provide, but you should
consider that these two don't have vitamin D3. So you may consider ProRenal+D. this is the
most expensive brand - around 51$ for 100 caps. But maybe the best option here is Dialyvite(r) 800
Ultra D at just around 16$ for 100 caps. This multivitamin is produced by a small
pharmaceutical company called Hillestad Labs, which is located in Woodruff, Wisconsin.
But they can ship their product all around the world.
This pharmaceutical company is mostly known for Dialyvite.
They have a website that looks like it was made in 1992, but this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Now, the other thing you should know is that all these multivitamins are made
for patients on dialysis. If you are not on dialysis,
this is not necessarily a problem. In fact, the daily intake recommendations are very
similar for dialysis and non-dialysis patients. The only difference is vitamin b6, actually,
so you would be getting slightly more than what you need of this nutrient if you are not on
dialysis and use one of these supplements. This should not be a problem, really,
because it's a water soluble vitamin. But, as usual, consult your doctor and see if
these multivitamins are ok for you. Ok guys, if you want to purchase any
of these vitamin supplements, there's an amazon link in description you can use.
But it's not gonna be an affiliate link, like Youtubers usually do.
I'm in no way affiliated to any of these brands. IN fact, the link in description is an
amazon smile link. Amazon will donate to
your favorite charitable organization, at no cost to you, if you use this link.
So, I'm in no way profiting from recommending you any of these brands.
Actually, you can also just google the name of the brand you want
and buy from their store, if they have one. Very important: what to do if you cannot find
a way to get any of these supplements specifically made for kidney patients?
Well, I've tried to put together a multivitamin with the right levels of vitamins using just
supplement from worldwide available brands. Let's take a look.
This is how you can put together a renal multivitamin using the most widely available
commercial brand I have found: Nature Made. Again, I'm not selling these vitamins, this is the
only brand I have found in all the amazon sites worldwide, including the Indian, the European and
the Australian versions of the website. So you would have to buy what they call
Super B-Complex Tablets with Vitamin C. This is not specifically made for kidney patients,
unlike the 4 brands I've shown you earlier. The dosage here is slightly different:
For example, you would be getting 83 times more thiamine from this supplement than from
one of those made specifically for kidney disease patients.
Similar thing here for Riboflavin and vitamin b12, as you may see.
However, these vitamins are water soluble and any excess is excreted through the urine.
Therefore, high levels normally do not cause any side effects.
Vitamin C is a little bit different, since too high levels may actually cause you harm.
Now, the dosage in this supplement is still considered safe for kidney disease patients.
However, this is definitely a sub optimal option: if you can find any of
the brands developed for kidney disease patients, get one of those instead.
Even if they cost more. Now, what about vitamin D.
Nature made, and many other brands obviously, sell vitamin D in dosages
suitable for people with kidney disease. What you want is vitamin D3, the active form.
Vitamin D2 is not good for you. The optimal dosage here is 2000 iu,
same as what you would be getting from ProRenal+D or Dialyvite.
You can get this one from any brand, it's not hard to find. Just check the dosage and the form.
Ok guys, so we have seen both the vitamins specifically made for kidney disease patients
and the commercial option. I think you should be able to
make an informed decision now. But I understand this is a complex
matter, so feel free to ask any question in comment or to talk about any other brand
of vitamins you want, I may even help you double check if other vitamins you may find are suitable
for people with kidney disease. I really hope the information in
today's video will be of help! As usual, keep taking good care of
your kidneys and be good to yourself! This is all for today, thank you for
watching!