Kind: captions
Language: en
today I'm going to talk about seven ways
to help your health if you've been
diagnosed with kidney damage and the
number one way is to cut down
salt before we can talk about that we
really need to be able to uh understand
what your kidneys do and why they're so
important for your health are you ready
let's go ahead and dive in so first of
all kidneys you got two of them and
these kidneys are the filter for your
body specifically they filter your blood
where are your kidneys located well
they're located um in your back all
right on both sides of your spine just
underneath the rib cage if you reach
back and you feel the bottom of your rge
C actually you reach in front and move
your hands all the way back and you'll
see um where they meet your fingers will
meet in the back your kidneys are just
underneath there all right one's on the
left side your left kidney and one is on
the right side that's your right kidney
and as a filter this is how the kidneys
work all of your blood runs through
these kidneys all right and one of the
things that the kidney does as it's
filtering uh the fluid is that it makes
sure that your body has the right amount
of
electrolytes what are electrolytes well
they're chemicals that are naturally
found in your blood chemicals that your
doctor actually tests when you um get
your blood drawn um on a medical visit
sodium pottassium
chloride minerals like calcium
phosphorus and magnesium now you might
not think about these minerals and
electrolytes these chemicals very often
but in fact they are critical for your
body to be able to function uh normally
your cells require these these elements
in order to be able to actually do their
thing to be able to maintain function to
keep you alive now you're going to hear
me talk about electrolytes again a
little bit later in this video but your
kidneys actually are the filter to make
sure that you have the right number of
electrolytes uh in your bloodstream at
all times okay the other thing that your
kidney the filter does is that actually
make sure that you've got protein in the
blood all right now you probably know
that protein is really important to eat
when you age because our body our
muscles are actually made out of protein
prot right and we need to actually eat
Protein that's why it's a macro that's
important in our nutrition when we eat
the protein proteins made out of amino
acids our body will take amino acids
that we eat to build the protein in our
body all right and we need that in order
to be able to put muscle strength and
all those other really really critical
uh aspects of proteins actually do the
other thing that proteins do in your
blood is it keeps um the blood in your
blood vessels
all right it's called oncotic pressure
so basically when you got a concentrate
of protein in your blood it draws fluid
into your bloodstream and if you're low
in protein guess what it doesn't have as
much draw and so the fluid in your blood
vessels run out of your blood vessels
into your tissues and that's not good
you ever see somebody with like you know
really really bad lower leg swelling
like the ankles the cankles they used to
call it you can push on the Flesh and
you can put a big dimple in there
well that can be due to a lot of things
heart failure is one of them but the
other thing is actually when you
actually have a kidney problem and
you're not keeping enough protein in
your bloodstream and now fluid leaks out
of the blood vessels because it doesn't
have enough solute to draw fluid in and
then the fluid in your tissues uh uh
gravity right so your ankles actually
swell up uh and uh that's
another kind of uh sign that you don't
have enough protein in your blood that
can happen to your kidney which keeps
the protein in your blood so it's a
filter you know it it lets out the urine
or the liquid for urine but it keeps in
and it lets out some of the electrolytes
the sodium the potassium magnesium
phosphorus make sure that the right
amount is in the blood and the protein
it hangs onto the protein it's not
supposed to let the protein go all right
um if you let protein go into your urine
then the PE your urine will become
frothy like protein all right so the
kidney actually holds on to that and so
that your blood continues to hold on to
protein very important um function of
the filter now how does your body do
this filtering process all right well
your kidneys actually made up of
thousands of tiny little blood vessels
that end up in each of them end up in a
filter and that filter is like a little
ball there's a name for them we call it
the glomerulus
or many different glome Li in the kidney
actually are turn make the kidney one
giant filter each
glomerulus is at the end of a blood
vessel all right so think about it like
a like a skewer with a ball in the end
of it the skewer is the main blood
vessel the end of the
skewer the meatball is filled with blood
vessels that that special blood vessel
actually does the filtering because the
liquid goes in there and uh that the
filters right inside that glomerulus all
right now these balls the filter have
special cells that do that filtering
function you know how many uh balls the
filters that each kidney has each kidney
has
500,000 of these little ball filters the
glomi all right and so your left kidney
has 500,000 your right kidney has
500,000 filters so collectively together
our kidneys have one million our body
has one million of these filters half of
them the left kidney half of them the
right kidney all right now uh every bit
of blood that enters the ball filter all
right about 20% of it goes out of the
filter turns into urine and that means
that 80% of it uh of the liquid actually
is which includes the blood cells that
are kept back in back in uh inside the
filter and returned to the body let me
say that again all the blood in your
body runs into these filters these
million filters that are in the left
kidney and the right kidney 500,000 on
each side and when the blood goes to
about 20% of it is filtered out mostly
as liquid and it turns into urine that's
how urine is made all right that
trickles into your bladder um but 80% of
it is held back and including all the
blood cells that you want to keep and
the protein all right that 20% that
becomes urine drains into your bladder
uh and as it continues to collect your
bladder fills up with urine when your
bladder stretches you feel like you need
to pee need to go to the bathroom
and then at some point when you find the
bathroom you let it go and you drain it
but your kidney 24/7 is actually doing
this drainage function it's a filter all
right now you can imagine based on what
he just told you how important your
kidneys are for normal healthy function
regulates blood volume regulates um uh
the protein in your blood it makes sure
that the electrolytes the natural
chemicals that are found floating in
your bloodstream to keep cells working
is always always at the right level so
if your kidneys are damaged your health
is going to get damaged and let me just
talk about now how that happens all
right how do you how does your kidney
get damaged there's a lot of different
ways your kid that that your kidneys can
actually suffer damage one of them and
the most common way that kidneys are
damaged is high blood pressure now you
probably heard about high blood pressure
C in causing cardiovascular disease
right hypertension leads to stroke can
lead to Heart failure right hardening of
the arteries but guess what your kidney
is made out of blood vessels and so high
blood pressure also damages the blood
vessels that are actually serving as
your filters all right damages the
filtering system the second most common
reason that the kidney can be damaged is
type two diabetes all right type two
diabetes is the second most cause of uh
common cause of kidney failure and of
course diabetes damages the blood
vessels as well now I study and Genesis
that's the study of blood vessels so I
know a lot about this type 2 diabetes
you actually damage the lining of blood
vessels the endothelial cells and this
also happens in the kidney so you wind
up having diabetes damaging the
filtering system as well kidneys can
also be damaged by medications there are
some medicines that are nephrotoxic that
that's a fancy word that means toxic to
the kidneys the nephrons that's a big
unit um of which the glomerulus the
filter is part of it uh infection can
actually damage the kidney I remember
when I was a a kid the neighbor of one
of my best friends had a strep infection
and stopped taking his antibiotics as
soon as he felt better uh but didn't
take the full course of antibiotics well
his throat infection the strep went down
into his kidneys and damaged his kidneys
and I remember it's one of the first uh
uh times I heard about somebody getting
so a kid getting so seriously sick he
ultimately died of kidney failure this
is way back when all right we can
probably save the uh somebody with that
situation now but infections when your
kidneys are infected that can also um be
a cause of kidney failure here's another
cause of kidney failur is blood clots
you know blood clots can be sent out of
your heart um if you have atrial
fibrillation you can actually uh send a
clot to your brain so what happens is
that the heart normally pumps when it
fibrillates basically it's kind of um uh
wiggling uh the the blood doesn't flow
as smoothly there's little Eddie
currents that get trapped blood can clot
there and then boom you have one one
pump and you can shower clot and when
that clot gets showered into your brain
it's called a stroke but you can also
have a stroke of the kidney and that's
when a blood clot leaves the heart
instead of going up to your brain it
goes down uh your aorta the big blood
vessel and then gets showered um into
kind of like dirt if it's thrown uh at
you it gets showered into your kidney
and guess what because the blood uh is
filtered in the kidney those clots get
caught into the glamar now you youve
actually cause another form of kidney
damage all right so when any of these
types of things happen you can um make
less urine for example and uh that can
lead you to accumulate fluid in your
body your electrolytes the sodium
potassium phosphorus magnesium calcium
all those electrolytes can go out of
whack and now your cells can actually
start to malfunction they don't actually
work properly too much pottassium or
phosphorus for example actually can be
dangerous to your heart and dangerous to
your brain and also your other organs as
well right so you really need to be able
to have um those electrolytes manag
really carefully you don't want to
damage that filtering function and if
your blood pressure is already high and
you want to kind of keep it low if you
damage your kidney it turns out that
there are hormones made by the kidney to
also help to manage blood pressure I
don't have time to go into all those
kidney hormones today but um keep in
mind that your kidney makes hormones
that actually help to regulate your
blood pressure when you damage your
kidney those hormones can um kind of be
derailed and now your blood pressure can
go Sky High not only because of the
excessive fluids not only because of the
electrolytes but even by the hormones
that are made by the kidneys can go out
of whack and now your blood pressure can
really sore all right now what do you
think is going to happen if your blood
pressure goes even higher because of
kidney damage well that sets you up to
actually have more dangerous
hypertension okay uh high blood pressure
which is more dangerous for your heart
and more dangerous to your brain all
right so think about your kidney as a
Continuum of your cardiovascular system
because the filters those little balls
at the end of the stick the glomeruli
those filters are also part of your
circulation all right they're
specialized blood vessels that do the
filtering so damage in one area can
cause damage to the other this is how
all the body is connected all right so
how do you know when you have kidney
damage that's pretty important to know
right well the answer is you probably
are not going to know in the beginning
when you have kidney damage kidney
damage is often silent all right it just
occurs quick and silently like if you
have an infection you won't even know it
when the back go into your kidneys and
start causing a problem if you take a
medication uh that knocks out your
kidneys you won't even know it until you
actually have a problem uh but then
you'll start seeing changes in color of
your urine you might have pain in your
kidneys so it can actually be very
silent until you actually have a problem
now that's a cute kidney failure um that
happen can happen quickly but kidney
failure can also build up over years
like diabetes right diabetes kind of
slowly sneaks up on you you've got
problems with your metabolism you've got
problems with insulin sensitivity your
blood sugar start to creep up up up up
up this high blood sugar and poor
metabolism wears down and causes damages
of the lining of your blood vessels
everywhere now it eventually affects
your kidneys this is not a process that
happens overnight that that process with
diabetes actually happens over years but
and your kidney can compensate you know
actually there's got a lot of nephrons
you got a million nephrons you can knock
out a few of them and the rest of the
kidneys will actually compensate but
eventually when you knock out enough of
those nephrons or glomeruli the filters
when enough of those filters get knocked
off you know what you'll start noticing
changes usually in your urine hey there
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video now let's get back to the other
video all right the urine which actually
should be clear or maybe light yellow
right that's what we're used to when
we're feeling good and healthy your
urine starts to turn dark okay it could
even be dark brown and if you take a pee
and you look in the water and it's like
a color that's kind of freaky to you
like dark brown it might even have blood
in it might even have blood clots in it
that's usually what brings uh uh you to
the doctor uh and who's going to
basically say wait a minute let's take a
look at this you have a problem in your
urinary tract and your kidneys are part
of the urinary system and so your
doctor's going to order some blood tests
and maybe a urine test to check on the
health of your kidney all right and if
there's a problem with the blood test
your doctor might order additional tests
that could involve collecting urine or
maybe getting a scan like an ultrasound
or even an MRI all right you can even do
a Dye study where they inject dye into
your vein in order to be able to study
the circulation because don't forget all
the blood gets filtered into the kidney
so when you inject a Dye you can
actually see where the filter might
actually be having a problem okay and
then after all that then your doctor
will actually decide on Next Step so
what I'm trying to say that kidney
problems can sneak up on you by the time
you notice them it's pretty alarming
because of the change in color of your
urine you go to the doctor the doctor is
going to order blood test maybe a urine
test maybe a scan and based on those
results will let you make a decision
what to do so I'm sharing with you sort
of like the the mind of of how a doctor
actually thinks now and when it comes
time uh to come up with a
diagnosis um and then deal with whatever
the problem is your doctor is going to
be working closely not only with you but
with a nephrologist which is a kidney
specialist all right because kidney
failure really is not a family doctor
primary care doctor issue it's something
that really should be help you need the
help of a nephologist a kidney
specialist to help really really figure
out how to guide the repair guide the
healing back to normal you don't want to
be mess around with this uh by yourself
all right uh the nephologist can uh work
with your doctor and you to help figure
out what the cause of the kidney damages
and come up with a plan to help your
kidney function recover all right uh and
get it back into working
shape that's really important for you
know the filtering function as I told
you to get blood volume protein uh
kidney hormones that regulate blood
pressure electrolytes that allow your
cells to function when your kidneys fail
it is uh the it is sort of like a very
likely like dominoes if your kidneys
fail other organs can start to fail too
so you don't want to go there all right
now it is true sometimes kidney damage
is so severe you can't really um help
the kidney recover very well or maybe it
recovers very very
slowly so uh as doctors we're actually
able to give you artificial filtration
all right and that's called dialysis
probably heard about that term before
dialysis is really when we uh as doctors
help you the patient with compromised
filters like your left kidney and right
kidney is not working well why don't we
hopefully temporarily divert the blood
out uh and have an artificial filter uh
in a doctor's office or in a medical
center or we can eventually kind of do a
certain kind of dialysis in your home um
filter the blood for you while your
kidneys repair themselves all right
that's a big deal if you're actually
into the dialysis your kidney damage has
gone to a really really Advanced stage
and everything that needs to be done
should be done in to to help your kidney
recover from the damage now if the
kidney can't recover from that damage
well you might need to take it all the
way down to the end of the line and
that's where we do a kidney transplant
all right kidney transplant is once uh a
totally audacious thing to do is to take
a kidney from another person a donor and
put it into you but listen if you need a
filter replaced and you can't your own
filter can't be fixed that might just be
the thing to do all right now I I mean
this has been this is now a pretty
standard transplant organ transplant
procedure um uh the medical system has
had lots of experience with it it
actually works pretty well but obviously
you want to do everything you can to
avoid getting a kidney transplant so you
see kidneys very important kidney
problems are can sneak up on you if you
sneak they sneak up on you by the time
you see them you're going to get a
doctor involved and the doctor's going
to take very very specific steps to try
to figure out what's causing the problem
um how to actually help your kidneys
heal themselves up even if you need to
actually have some artificial filtration
for a short period of time or if you
can't Salvage it we go down to kidney
transplant all right that's the entire
gamut of thinking all right um and the
key thing is that you need this filter
every single day of your life now let's
revisit how do you actually use food and
diet all right in order to be able to
actually tackle help to tackle kidney
problems so I just I told you the
medical side of things it's pretty Ser
serious right pretty significant but
there are things that you can do with
diet that can actually be important
right so these are the things your like
the dialysis and the scans that happens
at the medical center or your doctor's
office but the things that you do at
home your diet are things that the kind
of healthcare that you do for yourself
and here are some important things now
the one thing I told you you could do is
you could actually keep your salt down
all right keep your sodium intake low
all right that's the number one thing
and that means avoiding high salt Foods
right so why is that important what what
does salt have to do with your kidneys
well excess salt puts more stress on
your kidneys because the salt in your
bloodstream increases the blood pressure
and the high blood pressure um forces
more blood down into the filters making
the fil filtration have to work harder
you're filtering at a higher rate the
kidneys have to work harder if you're
already having a kidney problem you
don't want to actually have to push it
to the Limit all right so um I think
about you know in terms of like the
force of of blood filtration that has to
be done think about you know like the
kitchen sink turning it on low and you
got a little dribble of water out versus
a fire hose you turn that baby on and
you get this huge Jed of water so high
salt high sodium all right um can make
kidney failure worse and you don't want
to do that so don't eat too much salt
now when it comes to Foods there are
some foods that you actually have to be
careful very careful about as well
because they can be very high in sodium
or salt what are some examples of that
Ultra processed foods tend to be very
high in salt in fact if you look at the
ingredient label on the back of a
package of ultra processed foods or a
can like a soup can check it out see
where salt or sodium is on the
ingredient label the the sooner it comes
up in the ingredient lab like if it's
the first 10 it's pretty high in terms
of the concentrations that are in that
product um so Ultra processed foods like
pre-made soups the ones that you
probably grew up eating like I did
snacks chips potato chips salted
tortillas all that kind of stuff listen
when they say they add a little salt
they're adding quite a lot of salt salt
tastes good salt sells products we our
body crave salt all right so that's why
we like you know having a little salt on
things and pre-made meals you know the
kind that you um pull out of the freezer
and you pop in the microwave shouldn't
be microwaving anyway but there's a
there's plenty of uh Frozen uh dinners
and frozen meals you can pull out those
tend to have a lot of sodium as well why
because they they taste good all right
and salt is also kind of preservative as
well uh pre-made seasonings by the way
you want to get like a barbecue rub
those things tend to have a lot of salt
added to them salt tastes great that's
why people that make foods that are
supposed to taste good they don't have a
problem adding salt um but if you have
kidney problems you need to be very very
careful for the reasons that I told you
earlier a lot of salt actually puts your
kidney that's already under stress under
more stress and you don't want to be
able to do you don't want to do that at
all all right now there's another kind
of food type that's kind of a danger era
when it comes with salt and you know
what that is restaurant
food uh in a restaurant all all chefs
know this salt tastes good so if you've
ever been watching a chef at work like
if you go to one of those restaurants
where they have an open kitchen and you
sit to be able to face the open kitchen
and watch it check out the people that
are salting the food all right or
finishing the food or preparing you know
like the they're just about to put it
they're put to put it on the griddle or
uh put it on the stove you'll see
they're actually sprinkling saled there
uh I bet in some of the restaurants you
might go to they are just throwing kind
of a cloud of salt right onto your food
and then they put it on a griddle or a
grill or a pan because salt tastes good
all right uh restaurant food is known to
be high sodium which is why in a lot of
restaurants you know starting in the
1980s or so restaurant menus started to
list low sodium foods but it doesn't
matter any restaurant you go to um can
have a lot of salt in your food what you
need to do if you've got kidney failure
uh or problem with your kidney you
should tell the uh the weight staff
whoever is helping you uh that you need
to actually have a low sodium version
all right and they should be able to
tell the chef to go easy or like avoid
the salt at all all right that's a very
important thing to do again remember a
lot of salt a lot of blood flow a lot of
blood flow a lot of stress on the kidney
so if you've got kidney failure go low
on your sodium that's number one number
two you want to avoid eating too much
red meat if you actually have kidney
failure or a kidney problem all right
now you already know I mean pretty much
everyone knows uh these days that eating
a lot of red meat not good for you all
right it's not good for your health you
should actually eat mostly more of whole
plant-based foods and you know cut down
your meat to a small amount or if if at
all cut down or cut out your red meat
all right and I know some people talk
about the carnivore diet um and what the
benefits are for those but listen right
now for this video we're talking about
with kidney failure so we're not talking
about you know a health Trend we're
really talking about somebody who's got
kidney failure and what should you do
cut down or cut out your red meat all
right eat more plant-based Foods the
plant-based foods of course will have
more polyphenols more dietary fiber uh
and actually even though red meat is an
obvious source of protein it turns out a
lot of plant-based foods are also a
great source of protein as well just
plant-based protein so you can actually
get what you need this is why you know
vegans actually are totally healthy
right if they they're getting their
protein from plant-based sources so back
to the red meat if you've got kidney
damage getting your protein from red
meat can tax your kidney even more now
we don't understand the full nature of
this but I can tell you red meat a diet
heavy in red meat okay can generate
toxins like uric acid
tmos this is trimethylamine and oxide
tmao all of these toxins from meat need
to be filtered out through your kidney
right your kidney is filtering
everything out of your blood and so if
you already have a compromised kidney
and you're filtering more toxins that
are generated from eating red meat the
uric acid the tmos now you've actually
taken a weaken kidney and you've punched
it even further it's it's even going to
have a harder time kind of um trying to
heal itself so red meat is um not
healthy for lots of reasons but you
don't want the toxins that can be
generated the kidney toxins that can be
generated from red meat to be able to
damage your kidney more if you actually
already have kidney damage all right
that can make the situation a lot worse
and this is by the way another reason to
switch to a plant-based diet if you have
kidney disease um and by the way if
you're going to be on a plant-based diet
you want to be careful about which
fruits and vegetables uh that you're
eating as well because some of them are
high in certain minerals that you got to
be careful about as well
and the reason is because remember I
told you the kidneys a filter um helps
to balance the electrolytes in your
blood right like
sodium potassium phosphorus magnesium
right now some foods might have a lot of
phosphorus and phosphorus is one of
those elements minerals that is really
important the kidney actually uh
normally eliminates phosphorus it's a
mineral all right in order to be able to
regulate how much phosphorus is in your
blood and that is actually important
because phosphorus um actually does
something with calcium we talk about
that in a second all right so when you
have kidney damage it can be it can be
difficult more difficult for the kidney
to release the phosphorus get rid of the
phosphorus so you have the right amount
and so what winds up happening is that
phosphorus levels build up in your
bloodstream they should be down but
phosphorous levels can build up with
kidney problems okay kidney failure
kidney disease and in fact about 70% of
people with kidney disease have hyper
phosphate teia high levels of phosphate
in the body in the blood all right now
why is this a problem well phosphate
actually binds to another mineral called
calcium all right and phosphate binds to
the calcium and pulls it out of the
blood and so if you have a lot of
phosphate in your blood it'll bind to
calcium that should be in your blood as
well but it'll pull it out of the blood
and it will actually cause mineral
deposits in your body all right so too
much phosphorus leeches out calcium from
your bloodstream uh and it can deposit
it in your blood vessels now where does
that calcium come from where does that
phosphorus start pulling leeching the
calcium from pulls it out of your bones
all right and that's not what you want
you don't want excess calcium to be
pulling calcium out of your bones you
need that calcium to have good strong
bones especially as you age especially
if you're a woman especially you're an
Asian woman these are all things that
you need to watch out for you've heard
about osteoporosis right um You don't
want actually kidney failure to be able
to cause you to have high phosphate
levels High phosphate levels start
pulling calcium out of your bones and
then crystallizing in your blood vessels
that is a big problem now when these
mineral deposits the calcium phosphorus
deposits accumulate in your blood
vessels that can actually set you up for
a heart attack right the Plax which can
be soft to suddenly become crystallized
and hard
and those hard crystallized plaques can
crack it's kind of like part of a cave a
St stalactite or stalagmite let's call
it a stalac tape which is on the roof SL
might grows from the bottom SL tape is
tough mineralized right it cracks drops
to the ground that's not what you want
to have in your blood vessels that is
actually a setup for a heart attack but
it actually gets even worse because
calcium uh deposits calcium phosphorus
deposits can also happen in your eyes
right and and I'm telling you like this
kidney problems with high phosphorus is
really an issue uh you deposit the
calcium fros the calcium deposit in your
eyes that can compromize with your
vision and you don't want to be able to
have that either so what are the foods
that you want to be careful about avoid
cut down or cut out because they're high
in phosphorus right uh and so let me
list some of the foods that are high in
phosphorus chicken and turkey are two
healthy meats that are actually High in
phosphorus pork is a you know a the
other white meat um actually is also
pretty high in phosphorus as well so you
got to be careful this is why I'm saying
like cut down your red meat for the
reasons we just talked about but chicken
and turkey and pork also have high
phosphorus levels so you want to uh make
sure that you're not really eating very
much of those uh at any if at all milk
and cheese are also very high in
phosphorus remember you got kidney
damage your kidney is having difficulty
enough to difficulty getting rid of
phosphorus don't be load loading more
phosphorus into your system so milk and
cheese high in phosphorus um some seeds
that are normally really healthy to have
um uh like sunflower seeds or pumpin SE
or pumpkin seeds um and tree nuts too
especially Brazil nuts are really really
high in phosphorus so watch out don't
have Brazil nuts watch out for seeds and
it's a bummer because a lot of these
things are super healthy otherwise for
your body all right but when you've got
kidney failure you want to make sure
that you are
really following along and tracking to
make sure that you're not damag your
kidney further or you're not provoking
as an extension of your kidney problem
problems like calcium deposits and
calcium being pulled out of your bones
all right high phosphorous foods put you
at risk for that now another source of
high phosphorous foods are Ultra
processed foods all right a lot of
phosphorus is found in additives that
are add into package Foods um it's
especially found in like um uh for
example the dark colored soda a packaged
baked goods also have a lot of
phosphorus cookies and pre-made cakes
you know the stuff that you know can sit
in the shelf for weeks right um and fast
foods by the way uh n Chi chicken
nuggets for example which are a very
popular favorite um food in a lot of
people for a lot of people fast food
also can be high in phosphorus so as
well okay so we said you have to be
careful with phosphorus in your food we
said you want to cut down your red meat
we said you want to actually be uh
careful of the sodium you what you have
in your food as well all right now
here's another food you want to be
careful about you want to avoid foods
that contain
oxalates so what are oxalates oxalates
are basically naturally occurring uh
chemicals that uh are crystals and these
crystals actually get filtered through
the kidney now in a normal healthy
kidney oxalate crystals you know not
great for the kidney but the kidney can
handle it you got a million of these
filters that can handle it but if you've
got a compromised kidney kidney damage
you got oxalates um they can actually
cause inflammation right in the kidney
themselves right and in fact uh you when
they're being filtered right these are
crystals passing through the filter and
the kidneys damage you start filtering
these things you get inflammation on top
that the oxalates themselves can cause
kidney stones all right um You got a
kidney stone it's one of the most
painful things you can imagine all right
I mean people are like remember I told
you where the kidney is right it's um in
your back uh either to the right or to
the left of your spinal cord your spine
just underneath the the rib cage the
back of your rib cage and imagine having
a really really sharp Relentless pain
there it is so painful all right uh and
kidney stones are like that and oxalate
actually can cause kidney stones so when
your filters are damaged it's it's best
to avoid foods that are high in oxalates
all right so what are some of these high
oxalate Foods again
unfortunately some of the foods that are
actually not only delicious but also
foods that are good for you all right so
let's go through some of them spinach
high oxalates beets high oxalates beet
leaves also High oxalates
Swiss chard now look these are some of
my favorite vegetables and they're
really good for you uh the spinach and
beets they actually help your body
produce nitric oxide uh so if you chew
spinach or you chew beets your tongue
microbiome healthy bacteria in your
tongue interacts with the nitrogen
that's naturally present in spinach and
beets now these are um plants that
actually grow close to the ground so
there's a lot of nitrogen in the soil
and your gut microbiome converts the
nitrogen in spinach your beets into a
form that when you swallow gets absorbed
into your bloodstream as nitric oxide
and what does nitric oxide do it causes
your blood vessels to relax your blood
pressure comes down uh dilated blood
vessels also help you relax I mean they
they help you overall relax as well but
it's good for blood flow it's good for
your circulation and the nitric oxide
also helps you heal by bringing in stem
cells as well so unfortunately if You'
got uh kidney damage or kidney failure
kidney disease you got to really stay
away from these otherwise beneficial
foods like spinach beets beet leaves
Swiss chard uh one of my favorite
vegetables to cook with um slightly
bitter so many great ways to actually
cook with Swiss chard tree nuts uh high
in oxalates as well almonds uh uh is one
of them I I point out to you potatoes
also can be high in oxalates uh beans
Navy beans in particular are high in
oxalates that's a bummer because beans
are an important food um great source of
protein phenomenal source of dietary
fiber and actually you know they're a
staple food of the blue zones where
people live long and live well but if
you're starting with kidney kidney
damage want to avoid navy beans for
example because it can actually it's can
be high in oxalate and cause kidney uh
damage and kidney inflammation and
kidney stones one more food that is uh
high in oxalate unfortunately dark
chocolate all right I know listen I've
taken away so many good foods in this
video but I'm I'm just warning you that
these foods contain oxalates ones I just
talked about spinach beets beet leaves
Swiss chard almonds potatoes navy beans
and dark chocolate
unfortunately um because all these Foods
also have dietary fiber bioactives you
know um that are really good for
anti-inflammation good for your stem
cells they activate your body's Health
defenses like I wrote about in my First
Book E top disease but you got kidney
damage you got to back off this stuff to
allow your kidney to heal because you
don't want uh inflammation to be
happening in your kidney all right now
these cause kidney inflammation in the
setting of kidney damage right so if
you're normal kidneys you don't have to
worry about it the filters working just
fine it'll regulate if your kidneys
already compromised having these Oates
uh Foods a lot of foods with oxalates
can actually make it a lot worse all
right so dark chocolate as I mentioned
to you navy beans you got to cut those
down cut those out all right again these
are normally foods that are beneficial
for your house but if you've got kidney
damage you got to watch out for it if
you don't have kidney damage you're fine
eating these uh uh these really great
foods good delicious foods good for your
health all right now here's another food
that you actually want to be super
careful of um if you have kidney damage
and these are foods that are high in
potassium all right um again potassium
is one of those elements that your
kidney filter actually deals with it
filters it so you can make sure that you
have just the right amount in your
bloodstream now potassium is actually
really important okay you need a
potassium in order to be able to help
your heart pump okay the electrical
system of your heart pumping just the
right way potassium is key you don't
have enough pottassium your hypo liic is
is not having enough potassium your
heart rhythm can actually go crazy but
so can it be go crazy if you have too
much potassium as well hyperemia is
super dangerous to actually have because
it can actually disrupt your heart
rhythm in fact you can go into
ventricular fibrillation if you actually
have too much potassium in your blood
that is something that you know could be
a cardiac Emer
all right so foods that are high in
potassium which are kidney normally
filters to get the right amount if
you've got kidney damage it might not be
able to actually filter manage the right
amount of potassium so you got to be
careful about eating the foods that
naturally contain high amounts of
potassium all right so you're saying all
right Dr Lee tell me what are the foods
that are high in pottassium are you
ready okay I'm just going to warn you
ahead of time these are some of the
foods that are normally quite good for
your health avocado
normally great source of dietary fiber
all right bummer high in potassium
bananas you probably heard about bananas
as a source of potassium it's true you
got to be careful with those bananas
dried fruits can be high in potassium
because it takes the whole whole fruit
that will have some potassium and it it
concentrates it down into a tiny little
bit and you can eat a lot of fruits that
way a lot of potassium from fruit when
it's dried down concentrates it and then
you're just basically swallowing
pottassium pill
um in the form of dried fruit not good
uh if you've got kidney damage potatoes
including sweet potatoes can have a lot
of um potassium Tomatoes unfortunately
one of my favorites Tomatoes can also
have a lot of potassium and citrus um
like orange juice you know um eating an
orange might be okay but orange juice
you drink a glass of orange juice you
know a tall glass of orange juice takes
eight oranges uh in order to make a tall
glass of orange juice that means that if
you drank a glass of orange juice you'd
be having the pottassium found in eight
whole oranges you're probably not going
to be eating eight whole oranges at one
sitting when you drink a tall glass of
juice which I could do at breakfast for
example I could just gulp that down and
less than a minute all right that's
actually a lot of potassium load so
again remember your kidney filters the
potassium to make sure the right amount
is in your body pabs is important for
lots of things your cells to function
but especially your heart's electrical
system not enough potassium dangerous
too much potassium even more dangerous
it can actually trigger off a fatal
heart rhythm all right ventricular
fibrillation so you basically need to be
careful about how much potassium you
have if you've got kidney uh damage all
right now actually let me just tell you
since we're talking about potassium what
are some of the signs of um not having
enough potassium because don't forget
your kidney's having problems regulating
the potassium if you have a too little
potassium hypo calmia that can cause an
abnormal heart rhythm I told you it can
cause low blood pressure it can cause
and if you have blood pressure it cause
you to be lightheaded it can cause numb
numbness and tingling because your
nerves uh depend on potassium it can
cause your muscles to Twitch all right
your muscles actually need a right
amount of potassium you can also have
muscle cramps by the way if you've got
too little potassium and because it
affects your muscles if you don't need
to if you don't have enough potassium
for your muscles it can cause weakness
and I'm not talking a little weak I'm
talking about extreme weakness all right
and turns out that when you have uh low
potassium hypo Calum tend to get
constipated as well all right so lots of
things that can happen if your kidneys
are damaged you got to watch out for
with potassium which is why if you've
got kidney damage your doctor is going
to be checking those electrolytes on a
blood test to make sure things are
looking like they're they're doing okay
you're you're still in a safe zone now
what about hyper calmia too much
potassium I told you that's also
dangerous what are some of the symptoms
there well palpitations fluttering of
the heart all right like really sort of
dangerous rhythms that can emerge
shortness of breath chest pain nausea
vomiting these are all the signs uh of a
potentially life-threatening situation
hyperemia is very very dangerous all
right um um and if you're
hyperemic you won't even know about it
except for these symptoms when you're at
home you go to the hospital in the
emergency room they'll draw blood on you
they'll figure it out really licky split
they'll figure it out real quick all
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so we talked about some like being very
careful and trying to avoid foods that
are actually high in potassium bananas
avocados sweet potato uh spinach
watermelon high in potassium white beans
Beans by the way white beans serving a
white beans has twice as much pottassium
than a banana all right so you know it's
one of those foods that you want to be
careful about I want to say this again a
lot of these foods that you want to cut
down or cut out avoid if you've got
kidney damage it's just temporary all
right it's temporary because you want
your kidney not to get stressed out more
you want to take a bad situation to make
it worse you got to let the kidney heal
so you want to stay away from these
types of foods these Foods otherwise are
incredibly beneficial to your health
they've got polyphenol dietary fiber
actually they're good for the rest of
your health so but you need to let your
kidneys repair themselves all right very
very important Concept in food is
medicine is that there's a right time uh
and a right place for different types of
foods kidney damage because of how
important the filter is this is
something you want to Monkey around with
and so you just need to take a break
from some of these Foods you know the
foods with high potassium High oxalates
high phosphorus uh high
sodium these are it's really for your
own well-being let your kidney repair
itself then you can kind of get back to
the usual business of living your life
carefully all right um so this is a an
issues kidney disease kidney damage
kidney failure is really really serious
you want to find a way to avoid all
those potential Downstream problems like
dialysis and Transplant if at all
possible let your body heal itself first
now I want to spend a little bit more
time talking about diabetes because
diabetes is the second most common cause
of kidney uh damage kidney disease and
in diabetes we actually call diabetic
kidney disease we give it a name it's
called diabetic
nephropathy nephro meaning kidney pathy
meaning disease so diabetic nephropathy
it's a fancy word meaning kidney disease
coming from diabetes
and again it's a filtering issue the
filter starts failing um and instead of
filtering uh your blood and keeping the
protein into your blood in diabetes the
filter just lets the protein out into
the urine all right the protein just
leaks right out of the kidney is uh in
your bladder with your urine and you pee
it out and and this is and what happens
is that when you pee out when your pee
contains a lot of protein you know from
a distance from the toilet seat down to
the water you know at some distance um
protein will froth up and you'll get
bubbles okay and this is called
proteinuria when you've got protein in
your urine that's leaking out of your
kidneys you're losing protein in your
out of your blood all right what happens
is that then the oncotic pressure as we
call it in your kidneys low protein your
blood guess what the the uh blood has a
problem pulling fluid in and then the
fluid comes out of your blood vessels
and overloads into the tissues of your
body
and this can happen Everywhere by the
way um remember I told you we can SW
cause your ankles to swell up because of
gravity extra fluid just kind of runs
downhill downto your ankles the cankles
you can push with your finger and put a
dimple into uh the the swollen area all
right so just fluid in in tissue but a
really Place dangerous place that this
happens is when it happens in your lung
your lung's packed with blood vessels of
course right um because your lung is
where oxygen gets exchanged with carbon
dioxide and your and your blood takes
that oxygen up and brings it to the rest
of your body but guess what when there's
little protein in your blood and the
fluid leaks out in your lungs the water
the fluid actually just builds up inside
the sack of your lung it's your air
chamber you don't want to actually have
water building up inside your air sacks
in your lungs now that's called
pulmonary edema got fluid building up in
your lungs that's not a good thing all
right right um and protina also
increases the risk of cardiovascular
disease as well I'm telling you all this
because this is yet another reason why
you want to actually get your metabolism
under control now I wrote about how to
get your metabolism control in my book
Eat to beat your diet if you haven't
read it this is not a diet book it's
about how to avoid being on a diet but
enjoying good health um and how to get a
good
metabolism here's another reason why you
want to avoid it because you don't want
diabetic nephropathy all right so if you
think ah you know my blood sugar is
running a little high no big deal
eventually you let that go you're going
to head straight down the the highway to
type 2 diabetes and your kidney could
well become damaged and then all these
bad things that happen um can have so
please do keep your blood sugar under
control all right and here's some simple
ways of actually doing this all right
number one limit the amount of calories
you eat don't overeat eat don't overload
um your fuel tanks all right don't put
too much carbs sugars into your body
quit The Clean Plate Club don't feel
like you have to eat everything on your
plate and never go for seconds I read
about this I need to beat your diet um
and and all the reasons why so ways to
lower control your blood sugars and
control your metabolism don't overeat
all right keep your calorie intake low
number two don't eat a midnight snack if
you eat like late at night before you go
to bed I know it's a lot of habit that
people actually have but midnight snacks
actually disrupt your metabolism and it
cuts into the window while you're
sleeping that your body is burning down
extra body fat all right so when you're
eating extra food at night not only are
you loading more calories into your body
but you're cutting into that fat burning
period while you're sleeping when you're
sleeping you're not eating that means
you're fasting so when you're sleeping
you're intermittently fasting as you
know intermittent fasting actually can
help you regulate your blood sugar um
better it helps your gut microbiome it
burns on harmful body fat but the key is
you don't want to eat eat late at night
because you cut down into the useful
time when your body is actually doing it
when you're when you eat at midnight
your insulin levels go up because
there's your blood sugars go up all
right and your body won't switch into
healthy fat burning mode until insulin
goes back down so what I tell people to
do is is eat a healthy dinner eat a
healthy amount of a healthy dinner and
then when you put your dishes away
that's it you're done for the day that's
a symbolic gesture when you put your
dishes away no more food until