Improved life expectancy for severe kidney disease on keto diets

Teresa Rodriguez is a Florida USA specialist dietician who has undertaken training with the Charlie Foundation to provide help to patients who have severe kidney disease of various types. Some conditions, previously thought to be untreatable, such as Polycystic Kidney Disease respond to the ketogenic diet and the quality of life and life expectancy for these people has been transformed.

Teresa sees patients in person and coaches them online and via Facebook. She is expecting her book, aimed at both physicians and patients, Keto for Kidney Disease, to be published in March 22.

Teresa comes from Puerto Rico and speaks fluent Spanish and American English and can provide learning in both languages.

I was one of several doctors who were treated to an online presentation by Teresa recently, and was amazed to see how different her approach and results are compared to NHS “usual” treatment and results.

I was taught that there wasn’t really much you could do about Polycystic Kidneys except for dialysis and transplantation when the kidneys eventually failed. She explained that PKD is actually a metabolic condition and that it responds to a ketogenic diet of usually 20g carbohydrate a day. There can be other aggravating factors such as oxalate overload and the kidney needs support to avoid the formation of kidney stones. Many patients will need to drink lemon juice in the mornings and have a much higher fluid intake than usual.

She optimises the patient’s diet based on the results of a detailed clinical history and blood and urine results. She finds that Cystatin C is a much more reliable predicator of kidney function than standard tests such as Creatinine Clearance. She often has to modify drug prescriptions. The blood pressure must be kept within normal limits to reduce deterioration in kidney function but Calcium channel blockers are not beneficial in PKD compared to ACE inhibitors and Sartans. Metformin, however is beneficial.

There is increasing interest in Ketogenic Diet Therapy and Therapeutic Carbohydrate Restriction worldwide.