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Editorial on Alternative Medicine for Kidney Diseases

Alexander V. Pechersky

When waste products accumulate in high concentrations in the blood, they become highly toxic and can cause severe damage to many organ systems if they are not properly excreted. Due to the overloaded and impaired kidneys, a buildup of poisonous wastes occurs in the bloodstream. Alternative treatments for kidney disease include certain probiotic microorganisms which can utilize urea, uric acid and creatinine and other toxins as nutrients for growth. These microorganisms multiply and metabolize larger quantities of uremic toxins, facilitating the increased diffusion of these toxins from the circulating blood into the bowel across the lining of the intestinal walls. Ultimately, these microbes are excreted in the feces (normally microbes make up 50% of feces by weight). Science has defined more than 100 uremic toxins that may be involved in Chronic Kidney Disease. Alternative treatments for kidney disease offer a natural, effective way to remove these toxins. The process of using probiotic organisms to transform the colon into a blood cleansing agent is referred to as an “enteric kidney.” This pseudo kidney, indirectly removes toxic wastes with the aid of microbes and helps eliminate them as fecal matter, thus reducing the burden on the kidneys. Consequently, it is possible to maintain a healthy kidney function with the oral use of Renady. The herbal supplement market is a multi-million dollar business. You may hear from a friend or family member about an herbal supplement that they think has improved their health or well-being and they suggest it to you. While this advice may be fine for them, it can be dangerous for you with kidney disease. Use of herbal supplements is often unsafe if you 
have kidney disease since some herbal products can cause harm to your kidneys and even make your kidney disease worse. Also, your kidneys cannot clear waste products that can build up in your body. The comorbid conditions that often plague our patients are many and are associated with considerable pain that in turn can often lead to opioid dependence, which has its own inherent set of problems. Not to mention the common symptoms in patients with CKD: nausea, insomnia, anorexia, and malnutrition, to name a few (1). International studies of CKD and ESRD patients have shown that more than 50% use alternative medicines to treat their underlying illness, and 40% of transplant recipients do the same (2). Physicians often fail to inquire about these alternative therapies, and also are likely not to be familiar with them, particularly herbal agents, although quite a few have been identified as clearly harmful. Yet, in 2018, we still have not been able to effectively manage symptoms, with or without these unknown alternative drugs. Seniors remain the largest demographic of patients with CKD, and increasing life expectancy comes with increasing comorbidities. Seniors also happen to be the fastest growing demographic of cannabis users (5). In addition to their heavy burden of comorbid conditions and associated symptoms, they also have more challenges to the practical aspects of living a life on dialysis, including transportation to and from treatments and the profound toll dialysis can take on quality of life. Older patients on dialysis are hospitalized more frequently, are more prone to experiencing symptoms, and have a reduced life expectancy compared to their younger counterparts under the age of 65.