Herbs are compatible with much of modern medicine -- and many doctors are willing to allow patients to augment their therapies with herbal treatments. However, dialysis is a sufficiently complex area that leaves little room for herbalists. Dialysis patients must be careful with what they ingest, and their condition leaves little room for experimentation with herbal regimens.
Definitions
Dialysis is a renal replacement technique that is used when the patient's own kidneys are no longer capable of sustaining life. There are two types of diaylsis: peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis. Hemodialysis requires three or four visits to the dialysis center per week. The patient's blood is removed through a catheter and run through a filter in a dialyzer before being returned to the patient's body. Peritoneal dialysis is done outside of a center. Using a surgically implanted catheter, the patient fills his peritoneal cavity with a dialyzing fluid that attracts impurities and then he removes the fluid several hours later.
Desperation
Dialysis is an imperfect solution. Dialysis patients know that the long-term outlook may be bleak, as the five-year survival rate was a mere 33.6 percent in the years between 2002 and 2007. In 2004, 15,000 Americans decided to stop this life-support treatment, with predictable consequences. Patients are understandably desperate for change. Unscrupulous marketeers and people unfamiliar with the complex nutritional needs of these patients prey upon patients with advanced kidney disease, making claims that their unique blend of supplements and herbs will treat the problem.
Complex Nutritional Status
The nutritional needs of kidney patients are complex. Depending how it is defined, 30 to 50 percent of these patients have malnutrition. Simplistic solutions like "eat more fruits and vegetables" are not appropriate without considering other nutritional issues such as the excess potassium, phosphorus and vitamin A that can circulate in these patients' blood. Because herbalists are generally unschooled in renal nutrition, nephrology or the complex needs of dialysis patients, they cannot offer a reasonable solution.
Warning
Any claim that herbs can remedy the kidney problems of dialysis patients is fallacious. Once a nephron in the kidney is lost, that loss is permanent. Herbal remedies also present serious issues because the amount of potassium, phosphorus and calcium in herbs is sometimes unknown. Successful dialysis patients carefully calculate the amount of these minerals in every dish they eat because elevated levels can easily have fatal consequences. As of mid-2011, there is no existing reliable database that provides this information on herbal treatments, so the patient is unable to make thoughtful decisions.
References
- "Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease"; Dialysis Discontinuation: Quo Vadis? F. Murtagh, et al.; Oct. 2007
- "Seminars in Dialysis"; The Psychiatric Landscape of Withdrawal; L.M. Cohen, et al.; Mar-Apr, 2005
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease: Kidney and Urologic Diseases Statistics for the United States
- National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases: Eat Right to Feel Right on Hemodialysis
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