My Neice, 23 And Diagnosed With Polycystic Kidney Disease

[BrianF]

My niece was last year diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease (Im presuming autosomal since they tell me its supposedly inherited). Sledge hammer blow to her and my brothers family.

Like PCOS, I presume PKD is caused by among other things, oestrogen dominance. Over the last few years she has lived with her partner who basically lives off fast food and takeaways and because of his influence, her diet has went wayward with his, so lots of PUFA, on top of their already pretty sedentary lifestyle.

The docs tell her not to worry about a transplant at this stage, years off the say and there will be advances during that time that will make things easier (stem cell advancements were mentioned) but my worry is that these things don't always go as planned and Im concerned that a diet response is needed as well.

Any feedback welcome?

 

[wushucookie]

My father died from this disease and my brother has it. I'm not sure about any PUFA connection but it's definitely hereditary.

She will have to make major dietary changes (cut potassium out) as the disease progresses. I'm unsure of any improvements to PKD that would come with PUFA restriction; potassium was the big bad for my dad. PUFA wasn't mentioned at all when he was being treated.

I hope by the time it starts really affecting her life there are better treatments and even a real cure (other than a transplant).

 

[BrianF]

Thanks for your response and the advice on potassium.

 

[Koveras]

Thyroid and natural progesterone would seem to be the basic protective things, although as much work as possible to get a healthful diet in place would be warranted.

Keeping parathyroid hormone low through a proper balance of calcium and phosphorous in the diet should reduce some of the stress on the kidneys.

"Women and other mammals that are deficient in progesterone, and/or that have an excess of estrogen, have a higher than average incidence of cancer. Animal experiments have shown that administering progesterone could prevent cancer. Cells in the most cancer-susceptible tissues proliferate in proportion to the ratio of estrogen to progesterone. When the estrogen dominance persists for a long time without interruption, there are progressive distortions in the structure of the responsive organs–the uterus, breast, pituitary, lung, liver, kidney, brain, and other organs–and those structural distortions tend to progress gradually from fibroses to cancer."

"As a result of the early studies in both humans and animals, progesterone was used by many physicians to treat the types of cancer that were clearly caused by estrogen, especially uterine, breast, and kidney cancers. But by the 1950s, the drug industry had created the myth that their patented synthetic analogs of progesterone were medically more effective than progesterone itself, and the result has been that medroxyprogesterone acetate and other synthetics have been widely used to treat women’s cancers, including breast cancer."

 

[Sheila]

Dear Mr Koveras, I concur with your comments.

Mr BrianF, may I just add it might be wise to adjust diet and bowel function ahead of thyroid and/or progesterone because -as has been my experience in these cases - the latter can induce more problems if the diet/liver clearance is not attended to first. At the very least, use of grated carrot salad, daily, whilst sounding trivial seems very helpful as a starting point, it will give the liver a rest (especially if the OCP is in the mix). Since young ladies don't always care to do much (I was one once, so I know) this might just be a simple starting point generating a bit more energy and thence to the next step. If this is not a flyer, daily LOW dose charcoal - sufficient to bind up some toxins but not prevent bowel motions, might be a consideration. I can't find the quote right now, but RP has stated that kidneys are very affected by bowel toxins (and PUFA) and in my experience if nothing else is considered low dose charcoal mitigates some of this damage until a more comprehensive approach is adopted. Best of luck,
Sheila