Stages Of CKD And The Diet Plan

The abbreviation CKD stands for chronic kidney disease. It is a condition in which the kidney loses its capability of filtering the waste from the blood over time. We can say that it is a slow and steady loss of kidney functioning. There is a myth related to CKD that this disease is not widespread, but the reality says something else. It is not a rare problem, and it can make your kidney dead if you do not give proper attention to it. 

It develops its symptoms at the advanced stage of the disease. Blood in urine, fatigue, and high blood pressure are common symptoms of this disease. If you are wondering what causes the problem CKD in a person, then learn that diabetes is one of the major causes. Furthermore, certain diseases like polycystic kidney disease are also a reason behind this problem. There are five stages of this disease in which it ruins a person’s body. It is important to halt these causes and symptoms to prevent CKD from becoming deadly. 

Modern methods of treatment say that there is no cure to this problem and focuses more on the treatment of symptoms. Ayurvedic treatment has a lot to offer in this case. Chronic kidney disease treatment in Ayurveda suggests the intake of herbs, following Ayurvedic guidelines, a proper renal diet, and little physical activities. CKD stages diet helps you to keep a check on your calories, fat, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, etc. intake. 

In this blog, you will be reading about the stages of CKD and the diet associated with it.. 

Stages of Chronic Kidney disease

The stages of CKD can be divided into five stages depending upon the damage caused to your glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and your kidneys. The treatment and diet of CKD also depend on the stages of CKD. 

Stage 1- At this stage, the GFR rate stays normal, which is 90 milliliters or above, and the symptom becomes evident. 

Stage 2- The symptoms at this stage become detectable, and the GFR rate stays 60 to 89 milliliters. 

Stage 3- The GFR rate at this stage falls to 39 to 59 milliliters or even less than that. 

Stage 4- The GFR rate at these stages becomes lower than 30 milliliters, which are 15 to 29.  

Stage 5- At this stage, the renal is said to be failed. GFR falls lower than 15 milliliters. 

However, this is a good thing to know that patients with CKD rarely face the progression of disease beyond stage 2. CKD stages of diet plan change on every fall of the GFR. 

Diet of CKD stages

There is nothing like the right CKD stages of the diet plan. Every diet plan is right, depending upon the functioning of your kidneys. Also, other factors like diabetes affect the diet plan. A dietitian will help you best in understanding your nutritional needs in the stages of CKD. Protein, calories, vitamins, and minerals are some of the essential nutrients that you need in CKD. Intake of these nutrients will keep you fit and healthy. It will also help your disease from getting worse with time. 

Now, let us talk about four important nutrients that are needed by a patient of CKD. 

Protein: Generally, protein helps in muscle building and to repair all the damaged tissues. It will also help you in fighting infections. A kidney patient is needed to look after his protein intake. If you eat more than the required amount of protein, it will create more waste and prevent kidney functioning, but the same protein can be helpful in many ways if taken in a moderate amount. The limitations can be put depending upon the stage of your CKD, the mass of your muscle, nutrition status, etc. An expert can help you better with this.  

Calories: Calories provide you with the energy your body requires to live. It keeps you active and lets you maintain a good weight of yours. It also helps your body to make tissues and the muscles. In the absence of calories, your body may use other nutrients to provide you with energy. So it becomes important for a person to take enough calories. The CKD stages diet plan of a person may involve extra calories and, therefore, is asked to eat things like sugar, jam, candy, etc. The case becomes different when a CKD patient also has diabetes. So, this is why each patient on an individual level needs a proper CKD stage diet plan. 

Vitamins and Minerals:A normal healthy person can eat anything and get the required vitamins/minerals. A kidney patient requires extra care on what source of food they used for vitamins and minerals. You can also ask the dietitian to know more about the nutrients requirements. Some vitamins and minerals can harm CKD patients. Eat healthily and what is good for your kidneys. 

This was all about the diet requirements of patients suffering from stages of CKD.