Be Careful of Supplements & Remedies

 Sometimes, like most people with chronic illnesses, I get to feeling a little desperate about my health. I'll think that there must be something to help my kidneys heal or that I should be able to find something to help fight back against the effects of sarcoidosis. In addition to those things and battling depression, and getting older, I struggle to maintain a healthy weight. So I will often go searching out something - anything - to help with all of that. (I've even thought briefly of going back to smoking just to lose a few pounds.) And, then, every now and then, I get a reminder to be careful.

The other day, I saw this news headline: "Congressman’s Wife Died After Taking Herbal Remedy Marketed for Diabetes and Weight Loss".

Hold up. Hold up. What?

Yeah. Go read the entire article. In summary, she:

died from dehydration due to gastroenteritis — an inflammation of the stomach and intestines — that was caused by “adverse effects of white mulberry leaf ingestion,” according to a report from the Sacramento County coroner...

She was my age and, from photos, she appeared to be in much better physical shape than I am. 

It's very easy to get hopeful about finding a supplement or treatment that can help us look and feel better. Not many months ago, I actually bought a bottle of collagen peptides because I'd heard they could be useful for weight loss. And, of course, I'd also heard so much about the other benefits of collagen being good for skin, bones, muscles, hair, etc. Sounds great, right? I thought so until I realized that excessive intake can cause oxalate deposits. I try to limit foods and supplements high in oxalates. I even refer to a list of certain foods to monitor in order to protect my kidney function. There is one list I keep in my OneNote folder. But I was hyped about that collagen...

I got the same kind of hyped when I heard about Chitosan supplements. Chitosan is said to be possibly beneficial for lowering creatinine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The thing is, I had trouble trying to find one without added calcium and phosphorous. When I did find one, the reviews from CKD sufferers were not encouraging. Some said their creatinine only went down by tiny amounts after weeks of taking a supplement. Some said that they couldn't deal with the side effect of terrible constipation after just a matter of days. So that is something I am going to have to talk about with my specialist. I think that this is the kind of supplement that I will want as a prescription. Too many supplements are not well-regulated if they are regulated at all. And we are talking about my kidneys here...

I'm not saying that every supplement is bad. For my own personal health, I do try to be careful of knowing as much as I can about any supplement. I always check with my GP, rheumatologist, and nephrologist before I get excited about any vitamin, supplement, or other "remedy".

Just understanding the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals in my basic food diet is complicated. When it comes to adding supplements, things can get really tricky.

Talk to your doctor or treatment team about adding anything - even vitamins - to your routine. I was taking a multivitamin for a few years and my doctor recently had me switch to a different kind. At this time, I don't need the excess iron that I was getting in this particular vitamin. Thankfully, I have an attentive medical care team watching my lab reports and they were paying attention as things were changing but they only know about the vitamins and supplements that I tell them about. So, I'm sure to add anything new.

These are the other lists on the same page such as...

After reading about this woman's death, I am even more determined to deal with my health more carefully. Sure, I still want to lose 20 pounds (I'm lying, y'all, I want to lose a lot more than that!) but I will be relying on exercise and willpower.

By the way, I still love and rely heavily on FREE resources such as the Cronometer app. I stepped back from the paid version but the free one is still a favorite. I use it daily. If you can afford to, the paid version is great and I like to donate to the project when I can.

There are a LOT more details than shown here

Be safe, be sensible, and don't give in to quick-fix trends. 

Peace

--Free

 It's been a while since I have posted here - or on any of my blogs. I am dealing with some depression stronger than usual. 

I wanted to do a little update to apologize and say that I will be back posting when things get better. In the meantime, here is a little humor to brighten y'alls day.

And this one to remind you of something important: And the most important thing of all: I remind myself every day that God's got this. 

And the most important thing: 

Even if the disease(s) kills me, my soul is already safe. 

Peace

--Free

**All images are from a basic search & I own no copyrights**

*MEAL IDEA* Homemade Pizza (mini)

 Had a pizza craving so here is how I sated it:

879 calories

These are the ingredients:

The Mama Cozzi mini crust came with a packet of sauce so I didn't add any. I just mixed the sauce into my browned beer crumbles. 

The Minerals - which is what I focus on

I worry more about minerals than I do about calories. I've been losing weight on this self-modified renal diet so...

And, yes, this went through half my daily allowance of sodium but I wasn't hungry for anything else until later in the day. I had some toasted French bread with oil, garlic, and a tiny bit of parmesan. For my evening snack, I had an ice cream sandwich.

I just wanted to share that for anyone who gets a pizza craving but doesn't want to do a lot of cooking.

Peace

--Free

**UPDATE** This Renal Diet Is Messing With My Facial Skin

**UPDATE** I figured out that the cause of my skin issue was not the overall renal diet but the cashew milk I was drinking. I can only drink it in small amounts. I switched to macadamia milk but I like the cashew more! I now switch back and forth - depending on price - and just am careful about amounts. Amazon has both types in their Subscribe and Save program. This is the macadamia milk I use and this is the cashew milk. I can also find this Silk brand of cashew milk in local stores.

 Um, why did none of my doctors warn me that a renal diet can mess with my skin?

As my body is falling apart on the inside from the sarcoidosis and meds, I have managed to maintain my skin. My parents may have passed me some problem genes but the skin genes are awesome. Until the past couple of weeks.

Normally, I don't need to use anything on my face but a mild oil-based cleanser and some German-made Nivea, L'Oreal Age Renew, or some of that amazing Moistfull Collagen Cream from Etude. Sometimes, I use nothing but some water and oil.

Normally, I said.

For the past few days, I have been making masks of flour or oatmeal or turmeric and honey to calm down the skin on my face. I keep a bottle of water in the freezer so that I can cool down the irritated areas.

There is no visible breakout but my face just feels irritated. When I asked around about why this could be, an acquaintance who knows a little something about skincare told me to think about any changes in lifestyle or diet. Now I would love to be able to say the problem is due to the walks I've been taking, but... Nope. I thought back over everything and it has to be my diet. Right?

Well, after doing some Googling, I think I might be on to something.

I know that I am not getting enough oil in my diet - olive, coconut, ghee - and I sure as hell haven't been eating enough vegetables. That stops today.

Of course, CKD can affect the skin, but I've had CKD for a while and my skin was fine until made such drastic diet changes. In my quest to take the best care ever of my kidneys, I think I may have gone overboard. I haven't just cut back on vegetables and beans and dairy - I've cut all that out like I'm scared of it.

Anyway, I need to check with the Reddit group to see if anyone else has noticed this kind of problem. And I need to go to InstaCart with a quickness and order some skin-rescue food. 

Thank Jesus I hate wasting food and still have some beans - pinto, lentils, and black beans - in the pantry somewhere. Now I need to order some green stuff with leaves and some tuna and anything with that I can sprinkle turmeric and other antioxidants on.

My health problems are going to run me into the poorhouse. It's not time for a grocery order yet (according to that joke that I call a "budget") but desperate times and all that...

So I am going to let this oatmeal-water-olive oil paste do its thing while I say a prayer over my credit cards and put in this grocery order. I'll follow up at some point about how my rescue plan is working out.

God forgive my vanity but, if I have to feel like crap, I want to look good doing it.

Peace

--Free

That Sparkling Juice From Aldi’s…

I know I have issues when something as simple as a beverage can cheer me up. Tonight, I ordered groceries from Aldi's just so I could get this deliciousness. 

Aldis Nature's Nectar
Sparkling Juices

I love this stuff so much that I want to dedicate this song to it.

Doesn't take much at all to make me happy. 

I tried this sparkling juice just once before and it was so yummy. The problem is, everyone else loves it as much as I do so it tends to sell out about 2 minutes after it hits the shelves. It's been on Instacart a few times since that first time but by the time I see it, every can is absolute ghost.

Tonight, I was in luck. I saw the juice while browsing Instacart for some pasta sauce and a few other groceries that I was only thinking about buying. Hah. I immediately threw together an order with that juice at the top of the list. When one of my favorite Instacart shoppers texted to say Aldis not only had that flavor but a bunch of variations, I told him to just grab what he could. 

The best thing about this juice is that it is not too CKD-unfriendly. As long as you don't go overboard... According to Cronometer, when I checked the minerals for one can...

(minerals) Nature's Nectar

Because the drinks are sweet, I find that I can drink half of one and save the rest for later. My sweet tooth has abated a lot in the past few years. Sometimes, I will empty the second half of the can into a glass of San Pellegrino - my other favorite drink when I'm craving bubbles and fizz.

(minerals) San Pellegrino plain

One can every four or five days is plenty. I haven't had soda pop in years and don't know how I ever drank so much Dr. Pepper and Coke. There are times though when I want something flavorful and bubbly. This juice hits the spot. It's sweet but not sickenly so. It's bubbly without having that irritating burn of some carbonated drinks.

Ever since my last thrilling doctor's appointment, I have had no trouble sticking to this eating regimen. It's keeping me healthy but, as the doctor reminded me, I can lighten up every now and then. She approved of my coffee drinks with the macadamia milk and she loves the Cronometer app that helps keep me on track.

Tonight, I am going to break my nothing-but-water-after-7 rule and have one of these drinks. I might even have a piece of cheese toast to go with it.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: By the way, when I couldn't find this particular juice a long while back, I looked for alternatives. I made the HUGE mistake of trying that over-hyped WTRMLN drink. All I can say about that is that it's great but only if you like the taste of rank watermelon rind water.

UPDATE **CROSS POST** Meal Prep Is Not for Sissies

UPDATE - I took another swing at meal prep. See below for the photo.

**Posted this at FreeBeingFree the other day and it probably belongs here** 

I'm not playing when I tell you that meal prepping nearly broke my soul. Talk about being a meal prep dropout. I didn't even make it past cooking more than one part of a meal...

This was my first time seriously attempting to put together 5 days' worth of meals. People, I did not make it. I just couldn't. I did manage to set up 5 separate servings of pasta and get the seasonings for each meal measured out. And that wore me out.

Not my kitchen, but...

This kitchen looks CLEAN compared to my own!

What I intended to do was put together a pasta meal for every night of the week. Sounds good, right? How hard could it be? That's what I thought.

Five minutes after I'd finished measuring and weighing the pasta and bagging the seasonings, I scrapped that plan. My next idea was to just do the pasta, the seasonings, and a protein for each night. Then the idea of weighing and cooking and sealing 5 separate proteins started to depress me.

In the end, I kept the 5 separate bowls of pasta and bags of seasonings and wrote out a menu plan for the rest - I'm not sure I should call it a "menu. It looks like this:  

• Day 1 pasta bowl with sauce + (circle one): chicken, beef, pork, tofu + (circle one): cheese bread, garlic bread, buttered bread, other.
• Day 2 pasta bowl with (circle one): fettuccine sauce, marinara sauce, red sauce with garlic and onions.
• Day 3 pasta bowl with (circle one): fettuccine sauce and broccoli.
• Day 4 See Day 1
• Day 5 pasta bowl drizzled with warmed garlic-seasoned olive oil + (circle one) cheese bread, garlic bread, buttered bread, other.

I also worked out my sodium, potassium, and phosphorus totals for each of those meals. That way I could decide how to work in (or not) any desserts, snacks, or beverages without going over.

So, basically, I cooked and separated some pasta and seasonings, then wrote up everything I didn't prep. Oh, and I looked at funny memes about meal prepping.

This looks good to me...

My niece is a meal-prep pro. Every Sunday, she sets out all her meals for the next week. Complete meals. This is a screenshot from my phone of her actual meal prep from a couple of weeks ago.

I have no idea how she does it but she even manages to hold conversations over the phone with me most of the time. She warned me that it takes practice and stamina, and maybe a glass or two of wine. Maybe I need to start drinking wine then?

The worst thing is that my kitchen looks like a disaster area. You'd think I had prepped meals for a unit of soldiers or a boarding school cafeteria. How did that happen? I didn't actually prep any of the sauces or proteins. I didn't even separate and label the bread. 

In my defense... Unlike my niece, I can't just prep the meals and call it good. I have to enter everything into my Cronometer app. I love that thing but they need to do something to help my ignorant behind deal with the metric-to-imperial measurements. 

(Side note: I need prayer. I have a HUGE crush on this Christian astrophysicist. I get a serious headache trying to follow most of his seminars but, Lord help me, he looks so handsome. There is something about being that smart and Christian that is so, so attractive...)

Anyway.

Why didn't I ever learn the metric system? Why? It's one of those things I swore I'd never have to use (I didn't cook when I lived in England so...) but now I am dealing with recipes and nutrition labels.

And why are some nutrition labels so funky? I will see something in ml or grams when I was raised to measure by ounces. I dang near had to do college-level research when I was trying to figure out the grams for 2/3 cup of a pasta sauce. I had to work way too hard to get that right. Because, of course, 2/3 cup (or any amount) can depend on the type of ingredient being measured.

Good mercy.

I was joking to my SIL that I've gotten so good in the past few weeks at eye-balling measurements in grams and ounces that I'd make a great drug dealer. (I'm lying. I would get killed because I mismeasured something!)

So, yeah. I now have 5 partially prepped meals for next week but my kitchen is so wrecked I don't want to be in there. I will have to let you guys know how it goes next Sunday when I try this "one more again".

Peace

--Free

I think I'm getting the hang of this...

Not only did I weigh and measure every single thing but I also put all of it in the Cronometer app. All I will need to do to track meals - for 5 days anyway - is select the item and hit the time stamp. Oh, and I will have to add any bread or desserts. I'm pleased to have gotten this done without totally destroying my kitchen. Now I'm too tired to chew so I'm going to take a nap.

The Renal Diet is Working

 If I could say anything to anyone starting out with CKD issues, it would be this: "Be your own advocate. Do your own research. Ask questions until you understand the answers."

Even knowing about my CKD for a while, I didn't understand the full impact of diet and exercise until the past several months. My original nephrologist didn't tell me that eating a "healthy" diet wasn't the best thing for someone with CKD. He never explained lab results in layman's terms. And I didn't push for answers.

I had my latest appointment with my new nephrologist yesterday. Actually, she is my new nephrologist because my other one is out of the country for now. I will be seeing this lady from now on because the other one works with more critical patients and...

... I am currently doing great!

I had an ultrasound and new labs done last week and the results were outstanding. My filtration numbers are the best they've been in several months and I am at only 20% less function than a healthy person in my age range. My kidneys are a good size, shape, and texture. My urine is clear and protein-free. There is calcification, masses, or obstruction. (I'm reading from the results now and have no idea what most of this means except that it is all positive stuff!)

I discussed my diet with the doctor and she agreed that there is not enough information about the differences in a healthy diet for a "normal" person vs one with CKD. She loved the Cronometer app that I am using. She will be looking into it to see if it will be of use to others.

I went into this appointment absolutely terrified. The ultrasound is the first I have had since I was diagnosed. My biggest fear was that the results would show previously unknown damage.

This doctor also understood my concerns about the lack of diet information out there. She encourages me to keep doing what I am doing (except she says I can lighten up a bit on my food restrictions) and encouraged me to call with any questions or concerns.

I left this appointment almost floating. (With this Iowa humidity, I could have swum out the door.) I came home and immediately passed out into a nap. I haven't slept well since having the ultrasound and worrying about it. 

So this diet is working. And it's not difficult at all. I center my meals around a lot of pasta and chicken and white bread. Snacks are the cashew milk "ice cream" and popcorn (Boom Chicka is the best). I drink so much water that my bladder has gotten stronger. And my doctor has no problem with my 3 daily cups of instant espresso powder lattes. Of course, I use macadamia milk (which I've come to love) and I only add the smallest amount of chocolate.

Today was a good day. Today was an incredibly beautiful and blessed day. Now if only the humidity would go down... I am not playing when I say that the humidity is currently 90%. 

I left the house this morning with my hair looking fabulous. It was positively laid and slayed. By the time I went outside and ten steps to the car, I looked like I was wearing a chia pet for a hat. This Iowa weather does not come to play.

Right now, I am going to go have a coffee. I need it and I can have it.

Peace

--Free