Question

My father is 61 years old and has had kidney disease for three years. His creatinine level started at over 300 and is now over 1000. He has undergone one dialysis session, and I want to ask what dietary precautions I should take in the future?

Answer

Kidney disease, regardless of the cause or etiology, progresses to kidney failure in the late stage, which is a syndrome of multi-organ failure, often with poor response to single treatments. When the blood creatinine level rises to over a thousand to two thousand, patients experience many clinical symptoms, and complications are severe. It is best to undergo several dialysis sessions to lower the creatinine and urea nitrogen levels first, reducing the retention of toxins in the body and preventing various complications. Based on my experience, if the blood creatinine level drops below six hundred and the daily urine output exceeds seven hundred, kidney function can gradually recover. Western medicine can be used for symptomatic treatment of complications, with Chinese medicine as the main approach. For kidney failure, Western medicine offers only dialysis or kidney transplantation as alternatives. There are no other options. Because under normal circumstances, during dialysis, toxins in the blood are removed, and at the same time, proteins in the body are also excreted, leading to a vicious cycle. Most patients develop ascites that recurs frequently and requires repeated drainage. Initially, patients may manage well, but over time, their physical condition weakens significantly. Some develop post-dialysis syndrome. When dialysis is no longer possible, Western medicine notifies the family to prepare for kidney transplantation. In reality, this situation could have been avoided because long-term dialysis has already replaced kidney function, rendering the kidneys nonfunctional. This is indeed a mistake. If kidney function is further damaged, it cannot be completely restored.