The most common way to assess kidney health is with a blood test called creatinine. This test is used in a calculation for glomerular filtration rate (GFR), the amount of fluid filtered by the kidney in one minute. In addition to the creatinine blood test the person's age, gender and race have big impact on the overall calculation. As you might expect, as you get older the kidney function slows down even if the blood test is stable.
When I was 20 years old my GFR was 74 ml/min. This is fairly low for that age. My doctor said it was due to my diabetes and high blood pressure. At age 45 my GFR was down to 54 ml/min. My blood test was unchanged over the years. I had been on a wide variety of blood pressure pills and very diligent controlling my diabetes yet the kidney funtion did not improve.
After carefully analysing all my food, beverages, medicines and exercise I concluded that I might be eating too much protein. A high protein diet has been the cornerstone of diabetes nutritional therapy for decades and I had been carefully following it. So I cut my animal protein in half- less milk, less cheese, less beef, pork and poultry, less fish. I ate more carbohydrates and I did not gain any weight. I ate more carbohydrates yet I did not need more insulin and my average blood sugar did not go up. I ate less protein and my GFR improved by 40%. I 'found' a treatment for my kidney disease that cost no money and had no side effects. It will not be recalled by the FDA, will not react with any other medications and I will never develop an allergy to it. I hope you can find better health through better nutrition as I did.
