have you been diagnosed with Chronic
Kidney Disease stage 4 and wondered
what the heck does that mean? Don't worry
I'm gonna talk about symptoms, treatment
and diet coming right up! hello kidney
warriors! James here from Dadvice TV
and I am your online kidney health coach
and today we're going to talk about some
of the fundamentals of chronic kidney
disease what are the common symptoms, the
common treatment strategies, and diet to
help you battle and beat chronic kidney
disease. but before we get into that if
you have not subscribed to my youtube
channel yet please click the little
subscribe button and bell icon right
next to it and become part of our
community of people fighting kidney
disease, kicking its butt and getting
better, living life with lots of energy
and not worrying about being forced onto
dialysis. now let's get into today's
topic chronic kidney disease now when
you first get diagnosed it's scary
there's gonna be denial confusion tons of
questions and pretty much you're
probably gonna feel alone in a sea of
all sorts of information on the internet,
especially conflicting information.
whatever you find on the internet that
says do X you're gonna also find don't
do X it's bad for you but it really
comes down to what stage of chronic
kidney disease are you in now. this video
is being designed for people who are
pretty much new to my channel and new to
chronic kidney disease for those of you
that have been following me for a long
time and watching me just kick Kidney
diseases butt and get healthy right
before your eyes, this may seem a little
basic but we're gonna get it out there I
want to help those are just diagnosed
because I get these questions asked all
the time so I'm taking the time
and making you guys videos to kind of
welcome you to the family I know it's
not a family you wanted to join but the
good news is we're all here all of us
with chronic kidney disease are a family
and you're now part of that family and
we're gonna take care of you we're gonna
help you
we're gonna support you we're gonna
provide all the inspiration you need to
fight kidney disease and get better
first let's take a look at the stages of
chronic kidney disease. chronic kidney
disease is divided into five stages from
stage 1 to stage 2 stage 3 stage 4 and
finally stage 5 also known as in stage
renal disease or kidney failure now how
do you know which stage you're in
doctors use a blood test to measure your
glomerular filtration rate also known as
your GFR and your GFR goes on a scale
from zero your kidneys aren't working at
all they're as if they're not even there
all the way up to 120 now a lot of
people think GFR is the exact amount of
kidney function you have left it's close
but not exact but it's close enough that
that's typically what most people do
they may say I have a GFR of 50 so my
kidneys are working at 50 percent well
are actually just slightly below 50
percent and if you really do the math
because GFR goes from 0 to 120 but it's
close enough and GFR is really the
overall measurement kind of temperature
of how your kidneys are working at
removing toxins and wastes from your
blood as those build up all sorts of
symptoms and some of them worse than
others can start appearing now your GFR
is not a constant number it's
fluctuating throughout the day it can
change based on not drinking enough if
you're getting dehydrated it can draw
down the food that you eat he a great
big giant steak last night and it's
gonna lower your GFR cuz you just
bombarded your kidneys with a lot of
animal protein a lot of crap being
created from that so your GFR is gonna
go down and don't worry if I'm
mentioning some technical terms that
don't make sense yet just know it makes
bad stuff in your blood that's going to
start bringing your GFR down if you
exercise a lot really strenuous exercise
you're doing some high-intensity
training or something like that
your GFR can go down now your kidneys
will start to catch up filtering out the
toxins and the waste and then your GFR
goes back up a little bit but it varies
constantly kind of like the stock market
throughout the day and doctors like to
look at your GFR across three months to
finally determine what stage you are in
but you can look at a single GFR and say
hey I'm in this stage but if you're on
the border you really want to look at it
again in three months and see where
you're at because maybe you went up or
hopefully not down in your GFR now let's
look at the GFR that correlate to the
different stages of kidney disease
Stage one is called kidney damage with
normal kidney function and your GFR will
be 90 or higher Stage two is a mild loss
of kidney function and it's GFR is 89
down to sixty now stage three is usually
broken up into two different pieces 3a
and 3b and it is considered mild to
moderate loss of kidney function and 3a
is a GFR of 59 down to 45 and 3b is a
GFR of 44 down to 30 and then stage four
is considered a severe loss of kidney
function and it covers the GFR range of
29 down
fifteen and Stage five the final stage
is known as kidney failure this is where
if you are in stage five you have to
make aggressive diet and lifestyle
changes or else you may need dialysis
and a transplant and the GFR for Stage
five is below fifteen now most people
who have chronic kidney disease and
discover it because nine out of ten
people are not aware that they have
kidney disease discover it at stages
three four or five because that's where
the symptoms really start to show at the
earlier stages it's easy to overlook the
symptoms now let's look at the symptoms
high blood pressure low blood count and
malnutrition unusual pains and including
numbness and tingling especially in the
hands and the feet a decreased mental
sharpness an overall kind of general
feeling of being unwell fluid retention
and swelling especially in your arms
your hands your lower legs your ankles
and your feet shortness of breath kidney
pain felt in the lower back sleep
problems which could also include muscle
cramping and that can happen throughout
the day and restless legs and urination
changes which includes foamy urination
and a lot of people think oh my Yoren is
always foamy
what you need is when you urinate is
gonna be bubbles come back in two
minutes or the bubbles still there if
they are you've got foamy urine and
believe me when you do have foamy urine
it's really obvious you know about it
also your urine may be brown kind of tea
colored and it may also come out looking
just like blood you also may urinate
more or less anaemia decreased appetite
bone disease abnormal levels of
phosphorus potassium
calcium and vitamin D in your blood
fatigue and fatigue is different than
tiredness if you take a nap tiredness
goes away fatigue does not loss of
appetite nausea and vomiting taste
changes especially a metallic taste in
your mouth bad breath due to a urea
buildup in the blood and difficulty
concentrating on doing everyday tasks
like reading a news article or balancing
the checkbook now let's look at
treatment goals evaluate your health and
modify treatment as needed for any
underlying conditions control your blood
pressure blood sugar and cholesterol
learn about stage 5 treatment options
and slow down halt or reverse the
progression of your kidney disease so
what can you do see your nephrologist
regularly to discuss changes in your
labs and symptoms you may be having talk
with your renal dietician about
adjusting your diet and being more
aggressive use your labs to figure out
what you need and consult with your
health care team on treatment strategy
and your health care team that includes
your nephrologist your dietitian your
primary care physician learn about
chronic kidney disease make healthy
lifestyle choices such as quitting the
smoke eating well exercising reducing
stress and getting plenty of sleep and
take all medications as prescribed by
your doctor and if you make any changes
including adding herbal supplements let
your doctor know so what about your diet
reduce your protein consumption and by
this I mean less animal-based protein
you need protein your body needs it and
your doctor will tell you what's the
right amount how many grams of protein
you need every day and try to get more
of it from plant-based sources limit
your phosphorus this is something your
kidneys usually take care
but since you have reduced kidney
function it can start building up in
your blood so use your labs your blood
tests will tell you if you have too much
phosphorus or too little and adjust your
diet to keep it right in the sweet spot
also you need to now start lowering and
limiting your potassium now in earlier
stages potassium could be helpful
your kidneys in your body need potassium
and it does provide some protection but
as you moved through the stages now you
need to keep an eye on potassium and
limit it similar to phosphorus you want
to use your labs your blood work to find
out where you are so you have enough
potassium but not too much lower calcium
consumption lower sodium for people with
high blood pressure or fluid retention
by cutting out processed and prepackaged
foods most those are just packed full of
excess sodium take vitamins and mineral
supplements such as iron C D b6 b12 and
folic acid these are things that are
common to be lacking in people who have
chronic kidney disease and if your BMI
is above 30 that your body mass index
work on lowering your daily caloric
intake and start exercising more so you
can get your BMI lower
now many transplant centers require a
BMI below 35 or even 30 in order to be
eligible to get a transplant and I don't
want anyone out there to need a
transplant but if you do it's good to
work now to get your BMI down so that
you are not disqualified if you do need
one and there you go a summary of
chronic kidney disease for your stage I
covered common symptoms treatment
objectives and a high level some of the
dietary needs and changes you need to
make to help you fight chronic kidney
disease and improve your kidney health
if you haven't subscribed to my channel
please take a moment click the subscribe
button and click that little bell so
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time I upload a new video and if you
know anyone who has chronic kidney
disease or is living with someone who
has chronic kidney disease please share
my videos this is great information to
help them and motivate them and making
the changes they need to fight and kick
kidney disease but you can do it it can
be done I have done it now sometimes it
can be hard you may say I just can't
give up this I just can't stop that I
can't stop smoking here's my
recommendation if you need some
motivation but beyond what I offer in
these videos volunteer at a local
dialysis center they're popping up
everywhere a bunch of our franchise they
make a ton of money off of our illness
so they want us to keep getting sick but
go in there and volunteer go see what
it's like to have dialysis it's not the
life you want talk to the people notice
how they bring blankets in but it's
really warm there cuz as the machines
are taking all the blood out filtering
and putting back in they're getting
freezing cold no matter how hot it is
watch him have muscle cramps watch some
of them pass out talk to them and
whatever you're having trouble giving up
ask them hey if you could go back in
time would you give up drinking sodas
and eating unhealthy to avoid dialysis
they're gonna provide you the motivation
you need to make the lifestyle changes
to make the diet changes to fight kidney
disease
and get better alright thanks for
watching I'll see you guys in the next
video
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you
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