A nutritional diet would help manage kidney diseases better and may delay the costly thrice-weekly dialysis required. With 7.85 million people already suffering from Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and 2,00,000 others on the verge of end stage of renal disease, doctors are advising patients to ensure getting the nutritional diet right.
More so, as CKD is alarmingly on the rise in the country and there are only few medical options available for treatment.
But, it seems the patients are not provided balanced diet soon after the diagnosis of kidney disorder, noted Dr Georgi Abraham, eminent nephrologist and Prof of Medicine, Pondycherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry.
Abraham cited findings of one of his study which noted that about 42 to 77 per cent kidney patients undergoing dialysis treatment at different hospitals are malnourished. He said that targeted interventions directed at improving the nutritional status of the patients could have a major impact on reducing the burden of CKD in India.
CKD, or end-stage renal disease, is a progressive loss of kidney function over time. The nephrons are damaged and the kidney can no longer filter toxins from the blood; patients may require dialysis where a machine purifies the blood at least three times a week. Dialysis, if not subsidised by NGOs or the Government, costs between Rs 1,900 and Rs 4,500 a sitting, according to the doctors.
Though the Central Government has started free dialysis programme at the district level, Dr Abraham suggested that nutritional counseling for CKD patients on dialysis can reduce the burden on the Government machinery.
Authors of a recent review published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology too have found that dietary therapy benefits patients with advanced CKD transitioning to renal replacement therapy (RRT) or actually in need of RRT.
Other studies have noted that tailored renal diets potentially reduce the retention of sodium, potassium, phosphorus, acids, and water that contributes to harmful states, including oxidative stress, edema, heart failure, hyperkalemia, hyperphosphatemia, metabolic acidosis, and hyperparathyroidism.
Doctors say that sometimes it’s hard to eat as CKD patients have a poor appetite or are feeling sick they still need to eat nutrional diet so that their body does not start to break down muscle tissue.
Renal diets need to be crafted to avoid protein-energy wasting. Existing data support plant-based diets as an option to all patients with advanced or progressive CKD.Foods rich in ginger, onion and garlic and herb based drugs can be
therapeutic diet.
Senior nephrologist from Sir Ganga Ram Hospital Dr. Manish Malik said, “Scope of treatment in allopathy is very less, is costly and not fully successful as well. Hence, balanced diet and ayurvedic cost-effective drugs like Neeri KFT based on herbs can help all those kidney patients who are under the regular dialysis.”
Sanchit Sharma from Delhi-based Aimil pharmaceuticals (I) which is producing the herbal drug said the composition consisting of punernava root, leaves of lotus, patharchur and other key herbs do not let further damage of the kidney. He said that it has taken more than a decade of R&D to formulate the NEERI-KFT for kidney ailments.