Control Your Blood Sugar:
People with high blood sugar are at greater risk of developing kidney damage because their kidneys have to work extra hard to filter the excess sugar from their blood. Over time, this extra strain may lead to serious kidney damage before you can say what vitamins are good for kidneys, but its easy to prevent or reverse if you can catch it early on.
Who Is Jill Harris
Jill is a nurse and health coach that specializes in educating patients on kidney stone prevention. For more than 20 years shes helped patients understand that kidney stones can be prevented with the right treatment plan. Its one thing to be told to lower oxalate or drink more water, but HOW do you do it? Thats where she comes in. Through the educational resources at kidneystonediet.com, stone formers can learn everything they need to know to significantly lower new stone risk.
What Vitamins Can Be Hard On The Kidneys
As your kidneys are one of the main organs responsible for maintaining the chemical balance of your blood, excessive levels of vitamins can be just as harmful as toxins like alcohol for your kidney health. So, instead of wondering what vitamins are good for kidneys, we would encourage you to avoid or decrease your intake of the following vitamins and minerals:
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Ukidney Nephrology News And Insights
I have never been a fan of vitamins. They fall in to a category of interventions with presumed safety and benefit. An important study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows the opposite that vitamins can cause harm in patients with chronic kidney disease.
The following appears on the BC Renal Agency Website:
In April, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study that looked at whether high doses of B vitamins helped people with kidney disease due to diabetes. The study found that high doses of these vitamins were actually harmful. Study participants who took the vitamins had an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. They also had reduced kidney function.
Please note this study was done with non dialysis patients, and so is most applicable to them.Key points for patients with kidney disease Patients with diabetes and kidney disease damage should not take high doses of vitamin B and folic acid. This does not apply to doses in a multivitamin or if the vitamins are prescribed for a known vitamin deficiency.
The study shows that people with diabetes and kidney damage should not take high doses of vitamin B and folic acid. This does not mean you should stop taking a prescribed daily multivitamin. Multivitamins have much lower doses and there may be other benefits for you.Do kidney doctors routinely prescribe vitamin B for diabetic kidney patients?
Additional Resources:
To read the full JAMA study
What Is A Kidney Stone
A kidney stone is a hard deposit of salts and minerals that form inside your kidneys. Your kidneys remove waste and fluid from your blood, which makes urine. If you don’t have enough fluid in your blood, the wastes can accumulate and form into stones. These stones can be as small a grain of salt or grow to be as big as a golf ball.
Vitamin C intake, also called ascorbic acid, has been proposed as a risk factor for kidney stones formation because vitamin C may increase urinary oxalate excretion, a type of calcium salt responsible for some stones.
“Ingested vitamin C is partly converted to oxalate and excreted in the urine, thus potentially increasing the risk of calcium oxalate stone formation,” says Dr. Malik. “In a metabolic study of 24 individuals, 2 grams daily of vitamin C increased urinary oxalate excretion by about 22%.”
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Best Supplements For Kidneys
According to the American Kidney Fund, approximately 37 million Americans suffer from kidney disease, but many are unaware as it doesnt present any symptoms in the early stages. While adopting a healthy lifestyle and diet will go a long way to reducing your chances of getting Chronic Kidney Disease , there are some vitamins and minerals you can take to support kidney health, such as:
What Supplements Are Hard On Kidneys
The most common form of kidney damage is called acute renal failure . ARF is caused by a lack of adequate calcium and phosphorus in the blood. , which is a type of acidosis, is the most serious form. It can cause kidney failure and death. The kidneys are the largest organ in your body. They are responsible for removing waste products from the body, including waste from your urine. In addition, they are also responsible with the production of urine, blood, and other bodily fluids. When the kidneys fail, the fluid in these fluids cant be removed. This can lead to dehydration, kidney stones, or even death if not treated quickly. If you have kidney disease, you may need to take medications to help you get rid of the excess fluid. You may also need dialysis to remove the waste product from blood and urine and to prevent kidney stone formation.
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If I Have Kidney Disease Do I Even Need A Multivitamin
However, for people with kidney disease and even those on dialysis, Multivitamins may be very important for their overall health. In fact, the choices you make in a multivitamin may be even more important because there are certain vitamins and minerals that kidney patients should not take. So what is the right decision?
Among the many reasons why people with kidney disease may become deficient in vitamins and minerals, two major ones are:
Here are a few kidney nutrition topics that every kidney patient should know:
Malnutrition:
Over the last 20 years many studies have shown that as kidney disease gets worse, kidney patients have a higher risk for malnutrition , which leads to overall lower body vitamin/mineral levels. Dr. Joel Kopple, a past president of the National Kidney Foundation in 2000 and others noted some important facts:
Vitamin D:
What Supplements Should Be Avoided With Kidney Disease
supplements patients should avoidsupplementsand
. Keeping this in view, what herbal supplements are bad for kidneys?
Johns Wort, echinacea, ginkgo, garlic, ginseng, ginger, and blue cohosh. If you have a kidney transplant you are especially at risk, as any interaction between herbal supplements and medicines could put you at risk for losing your kidney.
what vitamins can be hard on the kidneys? The fat soluble vitaminsare more likely to build up in your body, so these are avoided unless prescribed by your kidney doctor. Vitamin A is especially a concern, as toxic levels may occur with daily supplements. Vitamin C supplements are recommended in a 60 to 100 mg dose.
Subsequently, one may also ask, are supplements bad for kidneys?
Supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration , and many products can be dangerous, especially for people with kidney disease. Supplements for weight loss, bodybuilding, or an energy boost should not be used by people with kidney disease or kidney failure.
Can vitamin supplements cause kidney problems?
You may need to avoid some vitamins and minerals if you have kidney disease. Some of these include vitamins A, E and K. These vitamins are more likely to build up in your body and can cause harm if you have too much. Over time, they can cause dizziness, nausea, and even death.
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Talk To Your Doctor Before Taking Any Over
Because CKD can change the way your body processes certain substances, its important to talk to your doctor about any over-the-counter medication, vitamins, or supplements that youre takingwhether its something new or something youve been taking regularly. Certain medications and even herbal substances can be harmful at any stage of CKD. Talking to your doctor can help ensure that youre protecting your kidney health.
Can Too Much Vitamin C Lead To Kidney Stones
Being in the midst of cold season, many of us try to take as many preventive actions as possible to avoid the sniffles, whether it’s washing our hands more frequently, taking more vitamins, sucking on zinc lozenges or popping extra vitamin C supplements.
But if you are a male, be aware of how much vitamin C you are taking. A recent study in the “JAMA Internal Medicine” journal found that men who ingested vitamin C supplements of 1,000 mg/day or more were at increased risk for kidney stones. Vitamin C intake through diet did not carry the same risk.
The recommended dietary allowance for vitamin C in the United States is 75 mg/day for women and 90 mg/day for men.
“Most people get enough vitamin C from a balanced diet and our bodies absorb it most effectively from the foods we eat,” says Sarah Malik, MD, Nebraska Medicine gastroenterologist.
“People who might be susceptible to vitamin C deficiency, such as smokers, people with severe intestinal malabsorption or cachexia and cancer patients might be at increased risk of vitamin C inadequacy, may benefit from the use of vitamin C supplements under a doctor’s supervision,” says Dr. Malik.
Major sources of vitamin C include citrus fruits, tomatoes, cantaloupes and strawberries. Approximately 70% to 90% of vitamin C is absorbed in moderate intakes of 30 to180 mg/day. However, at doses above 1g/day, absorption falls to less than 50%. Absorbed, unmetabolized vitamin C is excreted in the urine.
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Symptoms Of Kidney Stones
Common symptoms of kidney stones include:
- Sharp pain in your side or lower part of your abdomen
- Pain while urinating
- Urinary urgency
- Pink, red or brown urine
Kidney stones can become stuck in the kidney if they are too large to pass on their own, which may lead to symptoms such as severe kidney pain, nausea and vomiting, explains Dr. Malik. If there is kidney obstruction, permanent kidney damage can occur if left untreated.
If urine is infected next to the obstructing stone, this is a urologic emergency that requires rapid decompression, Dr. Malik says. If this occurs, you may experience fever, chills, frequent and strong urge to urinate, blood in your urine, cloudy and foul-smelling urine.
“If you have any symptoms of a blocked stone or infection, see your doctor or go to an emergency department as quickly as possible for assessment and treatment,” says Dr. Malik. “This is a situation in which a patient could become septic very quickly if left untreated.”
Use Of Vitamin D Drops Leading To Kidney Failure In A 54
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Vitamin D toxicity is rare, but clinicians must be aware of the risks of vitamin D use to limit complications related to hypercalcemia.
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Calcium levels may get worse before getting better in patients even after cessation of supplements, as vitamin D is fat soluble.
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Observational data and expert opinion suggest that glucocorticoids, ketoconazole and hydroxychloroquine are reasonable options to treat hypercalcemia related to vitamin D toxicity by decreasing the active 1, 25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 levels.
A 54-year-old man was referred urgently to the nephrology clinic by his family physician for suspected acute kidney injury, with a creatinine level of 376 mol/L. He had recently returned from a trip to Southeast Asia, where he had spent extensive periods sunbathing for 2 weeks. His medical history included hypertension, dyslipidemia and gout, for which he was taking perindopril 8 mg daily, rosuvastatin 10 mg daily, amlodipine 10 mg daily, indapamide 2.5 mg daily and febuxostat 80 mg daily.
The patients family history included autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, with 2 first-degree relatives requiring dialysis before age 60. However, he had undergone radiographic screening with abdominal ultrasonography, which was negative for polycystic kidneys.
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Make Sure The Vitamins You Take Aren’t Affecting Your Liver
As with medications, taking high doses of certain vitamins can put stress on the liver and even cause in liver damage. Some vitamins, such as B-3, are especially hard on the liver, such that your physician may recommend periodic liver function tests during vitamin therapy. Due to risk of liver damage and other harmful side effects, it is important to get your doctor’s approval before taking vitamin supplements.
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Mechanisms Of Altered Vitamin D Metabolism In Kidney Disease
There seem to be several mechanisms involved in the decreased levels of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D that occur in the course of kidney disease . Thus, a decrease in renal mass will obviously limit the quantities of 1hydroxylase that are available for production of the active vitamin D metabolite. A reduction in GFR may limit delivery of substrate to the 1hydroxylase, which may also limit the ability of the kidney to produce 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D. The importance of a declining GFR in limiting the ability of the kidney to produce 1 to 25-dihydroxyvitamin D was illustrated by the work of Nykjaer et al. , who demonstrated that glomerular filtration of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, bound to vitamin Dbinding protein, undergoes glomerular filtration and uptake into the proximal tubule cell by the receptor megalin and was the rate-limiting step in the delivery of 25-hydroxyvitamin D to the 1hydroxylase enzyme. Accordingly, as GFR declines, there is a limitation of substrate delivery that can compromise the ability of the failing kidney to produce 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D . This may be compounded by the decreased levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D that seem to be common in patients with kidney disease .
Figure 1.
Diagram of the mechanisms involved in limiting the ability of the kidney to maintain the levels of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D in chronic kidney disease . C-PTH, C-terminal parathyroid hormone FGF-23, fibroblast growth factor-23 Pi, phosphate.
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Why Do I Need Different Amounts Of Vitamins And Minerals
Having chronic kidney disease changes your need for some nutrients. Some of the reasons are:
- The waste products that build up in your body each day can change the way your body uses vitamins and minerals.
- Some of the medicines you take can change the way your body uses certain vitamins and minerals.
- Some vitamins are lost during dialysis treatment if you are on dialysis.
- Following a special diet for chronic kidney disease can mean you miss certain vitamins and minerals from foods.
- On days when you may not feel well enough to eat regular meals, you may not get enough daily vitamins and minerals.
Monitor Your Blood Pressure:
High blood pressure increases the strain on your kidneys especially when combined with other health issues like diabetes so you should take steps to keep your blood pressure within safe limits. According to the American Heart Association, normal blood pressure should be 120/80 or lower and readings of 140/90 and above could indicate hypertension, so consult your doctor if you consistently get blood pressure readings at this range.
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What Is Chronic Kidney Disease
Chronic kidney disease is an umbrella term for any condition resulting in kidney damage and reduced kidney function over time. CKD may progress through five stages over time, and can eventually lead to stage five, known as end-stage renal disease . ESRD is characterized by total kidney failure and requires dialysis treatment or a kidney transplant.
Risk Factors For Kidney Stones
Approximately 1 in 10 people will develop kidney stones. While anyone can develop kidney stones, the following will increase your risk:
- Dehydration due to dry climate or from intense exercise or you simply don’t drink enough water
- Metabolic conditions such as cystinuria, oxaluria or gout
- Use of certain drugs such as protease inhibitors, antibiotics, some diuretics and calcium-based antacids
- Diseases or surgery of the digestive tract including inflammatory bowel disease and gastric bypass surgery
- A diet rich in salt, protein, refined sugars and soft drinks
- You have had kidney stones in the past
- Family history of kidney stones
- Structural abnormalities in the kidney such as ureteropelvic junction obstruction, urinary diversion surgery, horseshoe kidney
- You have polycystic kidney disease or another cystic kidney disease
- Your urine contains high levels of cystine, oxalate, uric acid or calcium
If kidney stones are suspected, your health care provider will order tests to determine if you have kidney stones and to develop a treatment plan. Treatment will depend on how large the stone is, its makeup, whether it is blocking your urinary tract and the degree of pain it is causing.
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Packaged Foods Instant Meals And Fast Food
Packaged foods, instant meals, and fast food tend to be high in sodium, which is one reason they arent ideal for someone with kidney disease and diabetes.
Some examples of these foods are instant noodles, frozen pizza, frozen boxed meals, and other types of microwavable meals.
For example, a slice of frozen pepperoni pizza contains 568 mg of sodium, one-quarter of the advised sodium intake if you have kidney disease, and doesnt provide significant amounts of beneficial nutrients .
These foods are also heavily processed and often high in refined carbs. This isnt ideal if you have diabetes, as refined carbs are digested quickly and tend to spike blood sugar levels .
Summary
Packaged foods, instant meals, and fast food are high in sodium and refined carbs but low in beneficial nutrients. Limit your intake of these foods if you have kidney disease and diabetes.
29 ).
Keep in mind that when these leafy veggies are cooked, they shrink to a significantly smaller size but still contain the same amount of potassium.
So, if you have kidney disease, its better to eat them raw, as youre likely to eat a smaller amount of them this way. That said, its OK to eat them cooked, as long as you manage your portion sizes.
Spinach, beet greens, chard, and other leafy veggies are also high in oxalic acid, an organic compound that can form oxalates once bound to minerals such as calcium.