Coping with Kidney Disease: A 12-Step Treatment Program to Help You Avoid Dialysis

This doctor's ideas of a healthy diet for kidney disease, leaves a lot to be CORRECT! Telling a kidney patient to drink clear sodas, not dark colas, isn't my idea of a well informed doctor. Kidney patients could NOT drink ANY sodas of ANY color. SUGAR is one of the worst things for anyone with kidney disease. And I don't need a Medical Degree to know that! Buy ANOTHER kidney book, not this one.

This book, in my opinion, is a must for kidney patients. Well written and easy to understand, it gave me a much better understanding of CKD and what I need to do to live a longer and healthier life. Dialysis is not something I want to experience. After being diagnosed with CKD 18 months ago (stage 3)I did a lot of research on diet, etc. and happened upon Dr. Walser's book. With the approval of my nephrologist, I started using the amino acid suppliments in place of most of my dietary protein. My GFR went from 45 to 75 in three months. Very heartening! Most of the recipe books for CKD patients, in my opinion, offer a nutritionally deficient regimen and many seemed more like recipe books for developing diabetes. Being a person who likes whole foods, I decided to create my own diet regimen. I bought a copy of DietPro (a diet program that tracks food nutrition by weight) for my computer, a digital food scale, some Calwood Nutritionals amino acid powders and some of the other nutritional suppliments Dr Walser recommended. Since I'm still in the earlier stages of CKD, some days I still eat a small amount of animal protein with my evening meal, but limit it to under 4 ounces raw. I keep my potassium at 2000-3000 mg, phosphorus at 1500-1000 and sodium to under 1500 daily. It wasn't easy at first, but I'm used to it now. It takes a bit of time to set up the menu plan initially, but after that I spend about 15 minutes a day on DietPro working out my daily menu. My nephrologist says I'm doing very well and says he wishes more of his patients took a more active interest in managing their CKD. My bun creatine levels have improved and my blood potassium levels have dropped to the normal range. The swelling in my ankles and hands is pretty much gone too. Thank you Dr. Walser!!!!

Even though some of this book is technical, most of it has case histories on people who delayed dialysis for many years so that is proof that patients can delay dialysis with diet alone. There was also mention of amino acids and when I mentioned it to our physician and nephrologist, our nephrologist told me we didn't need amino acids and not to administer anything without consulting with him. However this book can help with the diet and help loved ones cope with Kidney disease as when you are told someone in your family has it, it is a shock and feeling of despair, this book comes in handy. It has helped me better dealing with it.

This book does a good job of explaining the issues of kidney failure in plane english. Of all the books I have purchased on this topic, it was the most informative and easy to understand.

Coping with Kidney Disease is a really useful, well-written and organized helpful book when you are approaching dialysis or transplant. It is written for the layperson, however it is still very technical. Precise directions are given as to how one can go about arresting the downward progression of kidney disease once protein appears in the urine. Limiting protein to 22 grams each day and supplementing with essential amino acids accomplishes this. I have seen this working with one extremely well motivated individual. If it will also work before nephrotic syndrome develops, remains to be seen. The book corrects any acidosis instantly, by using sodium bicarbonate pills. With PKD, sodium bicarbonate oftentimes causes kidney stones to develop. If your doc will go along with using sodium citrate, this might be a better alternative alkalizer. There are several unique observations made by Dr. Walser - nausea and vomiting associations with anemia - leg cramps and itching when the body is too acid. He corrects anemia early so it does not lead to LVH left ventricular hypertrophy. I would add when taking iron tablets also take rose hips vitamin C for increased absorption. He clearly explains certain practices that make individuals worse with PKD as opposed to diabetic kidney disease. He goes over which medications including many OTC's which precipitate a decline in kidney functioning. Very interesting reading and it so far it seems to be working.

I have met many of the people who are featured as case histories in this book and their story is fantastic. Many have delayed dialysis from 5-12 years. They all had to struggle with their personal physician and with their local nephrologists, many of whom do not believe that people will change their diet to avoid dialysis. Dr. Walser maintained a lonely struggle in this country to get others nephrologists to push a strategy that had a 2.5% death rate (unrelated to the diet) vs. a 24% per year death rate for patients on dialysis. This book presents a cheaper and far superior lifestyle as opposed to the costs of dialysis and ultimately transplantation (for those who are not too old). The real question, which Dr. Walser does not address in this book, is why aren't other physicians, especially primary care physicians, recommending this approach as a first line response for the ever increasing number of Americans with kidney disease? The strategy really does work.