Taking 2.5 grams twice a day of this powerful adaptogen
Has lowered creatinine and proteinuria - SIGNIFICANTLY - in a study on stage 4 and 5 ckd patients
Katherine from 00kidney here, welcome to our journey together to a better kidney health.
Chronic kidney disease in stage 4 and 5 is a degenerative condition with very few chances
of improvement for the patients.
This is what most doctors would tell you about it.
Some researchers from Tokyo are not in agreement with this statement.
So, they decided to test an ancient remedy known for millennia for its kidney protecting
properties.
This herb is called astragalus, and it's an adaptogen - one of the most important ancient
remedies of Chinese medicine.
In a breakthrough study, Japanese researchers conducted on 35 stage 4 and 5 chronic kidney
disease patients, this natural remedy did what many considered to be a miracle.
Today, I'm going to show you all you need to know before trying this remedy.
Now guys, what makes this discovery even more amazing is the fact that all the 35 test subjects
of the study were already receiving conventional therapy for chronic kidney disease.
Test subjects were being treated for CKD-related complications such as hypertension, renal
anemia, metabolic acidosis, and mineral bone disease with antihypertensive drugs, erythropoietin,
baking soda, vitamin D, and more.
So, basically, some of them were even receiving better care than most patients, actually.
Now, despite these treatments, none of them were getting any better.
All the patients had a declining kidney function in the months before starting the therapy
with Astragalus.
Then they were administered 2.5 g of Astragalus twice a day, together with conventional therapy.
In just 3 months of therapy with Astragalus, their GFR started to go up instead of down!
Amazing! and most of the test subject of this study
were in stage 5 pre dialysis!
Now, not surprisingly, test subjects in stage 4 got the best results from the treatment
with astragalus, since they were able to MAINTAIN THEIR IMPROVED GFR FOR THE SUCCESSIVE 12 MONTHS
- and probably even more.
The researchers concluded Astragalus that can maintain stable levels of eGFR and delay
the initiation of renal replacement therapy in patients with progressive CKD stage 4 and
5.
So guys, we are talking about a remedy than can help real patients, and not one that only
works on controlled lab settings.
I bet many of you now want to just find some Astragalus and start taking it - I mean, it's
clear that it can help.
But there are a million different astragalus preparations on the market - and not all of
them work AND FOR SOME PEOPLE THEY'RE NOT SAFE, especially for those on immunosuppressants
- so I suggest you to watch the rest of today's video before trying this remedy.
A question for you guys before we dip right into the video -
Have you ever tried herbal remedies to fight kidney disease?
Has your doctor ever recommended them to you?
Let's talk about it in comment section!
Now you may ask, was this remedy only tested on 35 people?
Is that enough to say that it works?
Well, actually... there's a large Cochrane review of studies
that was conducted just to answer this question.
We are talking golden standard here, a Cochrane review is an analysis conducted by researchers
who specialized in investigating, evaluating and scrutinizing all the studies available
on a certain subject to tell us if what the studies found out is repeatable and reliable.
They found out about large amounts of benefits of Astragalus for all kidney disease patients,
not just those in stage 4 and 5.
This review was conducted on 22 studies that involved 1323 participants, of whom 241 were
receiving dialysis treatment.
What this review found out is that Astragalus as an adjunctive treatment to conventional
therapies was found to offer some promising effects in reducing proteinuria and increasing
hemoglobin and serum albumin Which is actually amazing, no doubt about
it.
Proteinuria is one of the most important markers of kidney disease progression.
And just like for eGFR, seeing an improvement in this level in people with chronic kidney
disease is not COMMON.
Although the authors of the review also noted that some of the studies analyzed suffer from
suboptimal methodological quality - BUT, as a positive, authors also noted that astragalus
worked best for people in the earlier stages of kidney disease, unsurprisingly.
And also that it produced a very significant improvement in blood pressure - 16 over 10
mmhg on average.
This is also consistent with what other studies more focused on the general benefits of astragalus
found out.
In fact, Astragalus, as a natural dietary supplement,
is used to treat various health conditions.
Many people use it to treat the common cold, upper respiratory infections, since it has
impressive immune boosting properties.
Some proponents of astragalus also use it for its possible heart benefits.
Besides the blood pressure lowering properties we have seen, astragalus is also supposed
to protect against heart disease.
This is because it's a potent anti-inflammatory.
In fact, some people even use it to treat fibromyalgia, a condition accompanied with
widespread inflammatory pain.
It's also used to improve overall weakness and osteoarthritis.
Now, very interesting, astragalus is the most frequently prescribed herb to help with diabetes
management in China.
And there is evidence to back this claim.
The active compounds in astragalus root seems to be able to lower blood sugar levels in
people with type 2 diabetes.
Now, these benefits on diabetes, heart health, inflammation and blood pressure levels can
already tell us how powerful astragalus is in treating kidney problems.
But there's more here, as we can see.
Astragalus has also been used to treat infections of the kidneys, thanks to its immune supporting
properties, and as a detoxifier.
However, in China the main use for this ancient remedy is as an age reversing treatment.
Now, very important.
What dosage is best for treating kidney disease with astragalus?
This remedy can be found in many different forms.
You can find the root, like this I have here, or you can find it in powder form.
The dosages you see here are for the powder form.
As wen have seen, in the Japanese study on people in stage 4 and 5 of chronic kidney
disease, 2.5 grams of powdered astragalus were administer twice daily for up to 12 months.
Now, THIS IS THE DOSAGE I would be starting with, personally.
Additionally, some research shows the following doses to be useful for certain conditions:
For heart failure 2 to 7.5 grams twice daily for up to 30 days
For blood sugar control, 40-60 grams of astragalus were used.
Now in this study they weren't using the powdered root but a decoction.
Also, to treat kidney infection 7.5 to 15 grams of powdered astragalus twice daily were
used.
You can find astragalus as a supplement on amazon com both in powder form or as an extract.
The root may also be ground into a powder, if that's all you can find.
But, if you buy it on amazon, get the extract.
It's a lot easier to swallow a couple of pills than to make a decoction twice a day.
Consider that the 100mg of extract equals to 1000mg of powder.
So if you want to take the equivalent of 2.5 grams of powder, you would need 250mg of extract.
This is a common dosage.
As usual guys, talk to your doctor before trying any new natural remedy - natural not
always means safe.
Besides, astragalus IS pretty safe.
It was literally used for thousands of years and, as we have seen, it was tested in combination
with the normal therapies for kidney disease without problems.
It may have side effect, though, especially for those taking immune-suppressing drugs
or for people with an immune system disease and for people who received an organ transplant.
So be safe.
Ok guys, a new video is coming next Tuesday - I hope to see you there.
In the meantime, keep taking good care of your kidneys and be good to yourself.
This is all for today, thank you for watching!