Just add potassium salt to everything high sodium. It’s what I’ve finally decided to do
2 Likes
I’ve done that (potassium gluconate), but I haven’t noticed any measurable benefit. How much potassium do you take?
Do you have the link to the interview? Any cliff notes to how to check kidney health? I am a bit paranoid about mine as I have kidney stones (which do run in the family). My dad also has had a benign kidney cyst forever. But I don’t know how my kidney is doing otherwise.
1 Like
Authors’ conclusions: Citrate salts prevent new stone formation and reduce further stone growth in patients with residual stones that predominantly contain oxalate. The quality of reported literature remains moderate to poor; hence a well-designed statistically powered multi-centre RCT is needed in order to answer relevant questions concerning the efficacy of citrate salts.
2 Likes
@medaura Ill put a link here when I publish the interview. In general, he mentioned the traditional blood test for kidney function: creatinine (confounded by creatine supplementation and high/low muscle mass) or cystatin-c (this is better). He also mentioned having to pee more often when kidney function declines (counter intuitive).
Clif notes from memory. More to come.
- stay hydrated. Drink water before a salty meal
- eat low sodium if kidney function is declining. Avoid processed food and salty food
- vicious cycle: damaged kidneys can’t clear excess sodium—> excess sodium draws water into blood plasma to increase BP—> high BP damage kidneys
- keep BP down…metabolic health is key (he points to high sugar as a bad player) but also watch uric acid (purines): beer, shellfish, sardines, brewers yeast
3 Likes
creatinine is an awful biomarker. Its biggest problem is that it metabolises in blood samples and so the longer it takes the sample to get to the lab the higher the value.
I have had values (UK SI values) from 16th June 2022 where I sent one sample to a lab by the post and got 122 microMoles per litre and I hand delivered the other sample which was tested the same day and got 85.64.
Cystatin-C can vary, but I find it a lot more reliable. Sadly not all labs offer it as standard.
They both do the same sort of thing which is measuring how well the kidneys remove a substance from the blood.
2 Likes
My last lab work shows creatinine at 0.640 and it seems 0.6 is the lowest end of the range for women, low being good, so maybe I’m fine so far.
Still a bit nervous though because I pee a LOT. But right now I’m pregnant so it goes with the territory. And before then I’m pretty sure it had to do with a chronic bladder infection.
Since I found out about the kidney stones I’ve become a hydration fanatic. My urologist said I could probably flush them out just by overheating as I have a ton of them but they’re all small.
1 Like
I can see the source of false positive red flags if the lab takes too long to process the sample. But my value is very low. There’s no such thing as the reverse problem, is there? That they processed it too fast, giving an artificially rosy picture? 
1 Like
No I think you can see yourself in reasonably good territory. It might be worth getting some pH strips to see if your urine is a bit acidic.
If you are pregnant I would think Rapamycin is a really bad idea. I don’t know what the effects of citrate are in pregnancy either. I know there is a lot of citrate in seminal fluid, but that only affects the zygote and a few subsequent divisions.
1 Like
More bad news on creatinine…it can give a false negative when the person has low muscle mass. Cystatin-C is the way to go. And, you’ll have to calculate your own eGFR is my experience…the calculators are available online.
2 Likes
@medaura Joseph is right about that, but the range differs for males and females and if you are at the bottom end of the range that is unlikely to be an issue.
I have five children, but pregnancy is not something I have personal experience of. Hence I am not inclined to say anything other than I don’t think Rapamycin is a good idea.
1 Like
Same for me. I’m not super low but averaging about 1127mg over the last couple of weeks per cronometer. My sodium/potassium ratio is probably not quite optimal yet at 1:2.5 but it’s gradually improving. The most important thing for me is just feeling better though tbh.
2 Likes
I’ve long been off the Rapa for sure. And won’t be taking anything except probiotics, collagen peptides, and my prenatal. 
2 Likes
That’s good to hear. I don’t know, but I would assume that a good balance of micronutrients would be good and a good balance of vitamins. I would not suggest trying citrate (and you will almost certainly be eating some) as I am not 100% certain what the impact would be for a baby. However, there clearly is a need for supported acetylation as we can see from one of the functions of the prostate gland.
Hence it is a question human health needs really to have an answer for.
1 Like
Yeah I’m not doing any far fetched protocols right now but I’m going out of my way to eat well. When I have cereal for breakfast it looks like the food porn version on the front of the box — frozen wild Maine blueberries, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, banana slices. The works.
I must say out of my 4 kids, the very smartest one was made out of dollar slice pizza when I was under the gun during pregnancy. I’m amazed at how bright she is considering what I put into her making.
4 Likes
Overheating like in sauna/hot tub?
I’m often touch and go on this forum and make lots of typos. I meant to write, “over-hydrating.” He said adding a bit of lemon juice to my water jug would also speed up the dissolution process. Otherwise there’s a commercial solution which if memory serves was some sort of citrate salt. Maybe potassium citrate? He said a dash of lemon juice is just as effective.
And if all fails, since my stones seemed to be oxalate based, the next step would be shockwave therapy. That would make them crumble. I haven’t been back for a checkup especially since I’d need a CAT scan with contrast and I’m not particularly keen on getting the radiation. My stones haven’t moved at all so they don’t bother me and have been out of sight out of mind for the most part. I’ve got a lingering low grade bladder infection (basically a chronic UTI) that’s really been raining on my parade so I’m determined to fix up my whole UTI system but unfortunately all the things I’ve recently learned are inapplicable during pregnancy so I have to wait a few months.
Basically for kidney stones, especially when they’re not huge, there’s plenty of research showing natural compounds can help break them up. I haven’t bookmarked the literature but it is extant in pubmed. And there are commercial products on Amazon— basically kidney stone supplements — containing those research backed ingredients that the reviewers rave by.
So I do think there’a better modalities besides over hydration and short of shockwave therapy.
1 Like
I have seen many cases where there are those with dangerously low sodium levels (129 - 131) with extemely high blood pressures. In that case how would you quickly restore the sodium levels, without increasing the bp is the dilemma. Usually it is a renin and aldosterone problem in the kidney, not so much diet. But nevertheless sodium is extremely tricky.
For example, It should slowly be ingested or IV’d (and diluted!!!) and in balance with other minerals. I think the problem is eating or drinking sodium rich items without dilution. Like an extremely salty snack or drink where you get all the sodium in one shot instead of diluting it and drinking it throughout the day in small amounts. I think peter attia said it somewhere, that that exact dilution problem could be the reason for such contradictory and opposing studies on the benefit and harm of sodium.
1 Like
Citric acid (lemon juice) has the disadvantage of being acidic. The other citrates are alkaline. Hence taking more of the others should be ok. But i would be careful taking a megadose in pregnancy. It is unpredictable. (As to the question as to how much is a megadose, I have taken 70g in a day - as a test - not recommended - and am currently taking 15g a day, but I would think under 2g would be outside the large doses territory. There is perhaps 3g in a single lemon which is mainly citrate.)
Incidentally eating lemons to get increased acetylation has a difficulty in that you are eating acid. When cells get acidic they deacetylate the histone to get back to mildly alkaline. Hence eating lots of lemons is not something I would advise.
1 Like