Kidney Failure - 058

SPEAKER A The following program presents principles designed to promote good health and is not intended to take the place of personalized, professional care. The opinions and ideas expressed are those of the speakers. Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about the information presented. Welcome to healthy living. I'm your host, Margot Marshall. Kidney failure used to be a death sentence until the advent of dialysis and kidney transplants. But is there another option? Can failing kidneys become healthy again, even at the age of 89? Stay tuned. SPEAKER B Healthy Living is a production of 3ABN Australia television focusing on the health of the whole person body, mind and spirit. You'll learn natural lifestyle principles with practical health solutions for overall good healthy. SPEAKER A The gentleman who is now a healthy 92 year old didn't travel interstate to. SPEAKER C Be with us today. SPEAKER A But here to tell us about his remarkable recovery is his daughter, she Won, and his general practitioner, Dr. Coralia Jigau, who practices lifestyle medicine. Welcome to both of you. It's lovely to have you here, Dr. Coralia. And she won. And tell us, just in a nutshell, what is lifestyle medicine? SPEAKER D Lifestyle medicine is an evidence based medicine which we started to realize recently how important is for our health. There's a lot of research showing your lifestyle counts the most in your health or in your disease. SPEAKER A Even counts more than what a doctor can prescribe in medicines. Yeah, thank you for that. So now, Chi-Won, you had some health concerns. Tell us about those. SPEAKER C For myself? SPEAKER A Yes. Just for yourself. Well, we're really talking about your dad. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A Maybe we'll start with your dad, I think, because he's the one who had. SPEAKER C That amazing absolutely run around. Yes. So my father had had a history of diabetes and hypertension, high blood pressure, and he had had it for quite some time. So he was on normal medication, if you like, the usual medication. But there came a point in time when he was 89 that the test showed that his kidneys were functioning at 14. So his EGFR was 14. SPEAKER A Now, I don't know what that is. SPEAKER C Right. SPEAKER A Tell us about EGFR at 14. SPEAKER D So her father was end stage kidney failure. Kidney failure have four stages after the age of 65. In USA, one in three adults, they have chronic kidney failure. Acute kidney failure is a different matter. So it was at the point where you have to have dialysis to survive. That's when he came to me. SPEAKER C Yes. So what was interesting was that exactly twelve months before that, his kidneys were functioning at 31. And at 31 at that age, it's considered not a bad number at all. But six months after that, when he had his regular blood test again, it had dropped to 20. And then six months after that, it had dropped to 14. So within a space of twelve months, it had gone from 31 to 14. And he was considering actually traveling in a couple of months overseas, and his specialist suggested that he go and see a renal kidney specialist before that and wording my father up. And my father himself is a medical doctor. And Daddy knew exactly what those results meant. SPEAKER A And what did they mean? What do results like that mean? SPEAKER D It means that the kidneys are very important for the organ, have to do a lot of detoxification in the organ, has to do with your acidity in the body, has to do with diabetes in the body. Kidney have an important role in diabetes too. And as your father have diabetes for 30 years, it was a long impact and multiple problems which his kidney have. The problem is he did not expect to get a little bit better and he did not believe in it. And actually she won was dragging him into my clinic. SPEAKER A I believe it took you three years to get him to come and see Dr. Coralia, is that right? SPEAKER C That's correct. Because he resisted. Yeah, because that's how long it took. I had been well through lifestyle change myself and through a diet. And so during that period of three years, I was singing the praises of this kind of living and medicine. But because dad is a doctor himself, he said, I'd never heard of things like that. We were not taught that sort of thing at medical school, so that cannot be true. And he also said that it's well known in the medical world that with kidneys, it's a one way direction. There is no such thing as reversal of kidneys, and it cannot get better. And we couldn't get an appointment for him to see a renal specialist straight away. So I said, come and see Dr. Jigau, my doctor. And I think he didn't want to go on dialysis. He knew that he knew what that meant. It meant every two or three times a week he had to spend about four or 5 hours attached to this machine that's cleaning out your blood. And he said, that's no way to live. So for the first time, he agreed to go and meet Coralia, but with a great deal of skepticism, and he didn't think that anything could be done. SPEAKER D I just remember his face you do? How it was he was so and I insisted on him. I said, could you please try to do this changing in your lifestyle just for ten days? Please walk a bit for ten days on plant based diet. And I said, look, we have your results now, and in another ten days we'll have your blood test and we'll see what's going on from there. SPEAKER C And you remember what he said way after that. He admitted that the reason why he agreed to do it was to prove Coralia wrong. Right. He said, I don't think she knows what she's talking about because the whole world knows that it cannot be done in ten days. So he agreed to do this, but he was actually extremely disciplined. So the minute we walked out of there, benton did the blood test, and in ten days time, his GFR Japan. SPEAKER D Up from 14 to 19. I couldn't believe myself because I never have a patient like that okay before, especially at this age. At that age, I was impressed. I said, wow, this is worth. SPEAKER A So from 14 to 19 in ten days is something that even shocked you. It is. Because that might not have a lot of meaning to people like me. SPEAKER D Yeah, let's have another month. SPEAKER C Yeah. But during that time, almost immediately after we got that new result right, of EGFR being between 18 and 19, which was such good news, his appointment with the renal specialist had come up, and this specialist wanted a blood test done too, and it showed 18. So my father said, oh, so it wasn't an error then. SPEAKER A So he didn't even believe the lab result. SPEAKER C He felt he was feeling much better because he was feeling so tired and lethargic and all of this. So in ten days, he was feeling better. And he asked the specialist, he said, look, it's improved. You can see it was 1410 days ago, and it's 18 now. And his specialist said, maybe you were very dehydrated when you had your first blood test done. Okay, and that probably explains it. But my father said, I'm starting a new diet now. I'm going to have my diet change to whole food, plant based vegan. And specialist said, well, that might not hurt, but pretty much he wasn't very convinced. So he did another blood test two months after the first one, and it had gone on. SPEAKER D His GFR was 24 24. SPEAKER A So from 14 to 2019 within two months, 24. Tell us meanwhile how big that is. Sort of convey that to people. SPEAKER D I mean, this means you can live normally without need to have dialysis, which at this age, it is extraordinary. But in the meantime, he was taking blood pressure tablet and he said, Coralia, you didn't tell me my blood pressure will get better when I'm going on this. Because he used to have Avapro 300 milligrams, which is a blood pressure tablet, and we cut it down to 150 milligrams. So we cut it to the half. So we've been on half for a while, and now we are 175 only. SPEAKER C Yes. And the reason why what surprised him was our focus was so much on trying to get him his kidneys in order, but of course, this whole change in his lifestyle and his diet resulted in having a huge impact on his diabetes and his hypertension. So what happened was my father, who was on these huge doses of high blood pressure tablets, he was starting to feel very giddy and dizzy, and he said, oh, my gosh, what's going on? So when I rang Coralia, Coralia said, he has to cut down his blood pressure tablets, the level and my father had refused, you see, because he was so nervous. He said, do you know what my blood pressure is like? If I cut it down, I may not make it. So he then cut that down. And the follow on effect on his diabetes was great, too, wasn't it? SPEAKER D And after that, he had to give up his insulin. We cut down gradually, insulin, so we. SPEAKER C Have taken his all of that. So ultimately it hit 31. His EGFR went up to 31. SPEAKER D So that's what it is now. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D Age of 92. SPEAKER C At the age of 92 is actually. SPEAKER A This is three years later now. SPEAKER C Three years later, yes, that's correct. SPEAKER A And he's really well, he is so. SPEAKER C Well, he's walking now and he goes around. Yes. So it wasn't just his diet. Now he's doing all the walking and his exercises, so he's focusing on both. And he's been very good. So it's the nuts. You sound like a nut. All grains. I'm so proud of him because it's been such a huge, I think emotionally and mentally and professionally, the shock that he had dedicated his whole life as a doctor and he went into medicine in order to be a very good doctor. SPEAKER A Yes, I'm sure he would. SPEAKER C And he said, Shuan. We were not given 1 hour of education on lifestyle, on diet, and the connection between that and health and diseases. And therefore he kept saying, I'm so upset about this, I'm so angry about this. SPEAKER A Yes, I could believe that. SPEAKER C And he said, I feel so embarrassed about this. SPEAKER D We can mention about your mom, what happened to your mom. SPEAKER C Oh, yes. My mother is five years younger than my father. And about that time, wasn't it that Mommy, I thought she had had a stroke because she was throwing up. And I looked at her face and one part of her mouth seemed like it was drooping. She went to see her GP and was not Coralia at that time. And they said, no, she seems fine. Made her do a few tests and said, no, she hasn't had a stroke or anything like that. But they were intending to fly overseas in the next seven days. And I said to Mommy, you must come and have a second opinion. So she came to see Coralia with Daddy and I, and Coralia took her blood pressure, asked her a few questions and said, you must go and do an MRI straight away because I think you have had a stroke, but a very mini one. And we took her to do the test and sure enough, she had had a mini stroke. So there was no international travel from that MRI. She went to a hospital and to emergency and was admitted straight away and then proceeded to spend the next three months in a rehab hospital, really recovering from it. And she's totally fine now. And so she too has changed her diet. No more white carbs for anybody, both eating grains, lots of legumes and nuts and fruits and vegetables. And this is from a know where our main diet used to be. SPEAKER D What about your niece with IBS? SPEAKER C Oh, yes. And with Nina. Excuse me, my sister's daughter. She was about ten, and she had been in and out of the children's hospital, in and out all the time, complaining of pains, missing school. And the last time this happened, they said, we think we found the cause. We think it might be her inflammation of her appendix. But they did more tests and they said, well, the inflammation and the size growth is not big enough for us to justify removing the appendix, so we don't quite know. We suggest you take her home. And that's when I said to my sister, what have you got to lose? Take her to see Coralia. So she did. And in one appointment, Corellia asked her, what are you eating? What are your favorite foods? And what do you do? SPEAKER D I tell her, you have mesenteric adenitis. After I consulted her mesenteric adenitis, an inflamm gland in the abdomen. And she had an ultrasound which confirmed it. And I told her, You've been in a hospital for many times. Just get off your dairy products completely. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And we know that's what happened to lifestyle medicine? Ever since, I've never seen her as a patient. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER A Not in your interest, then. So it seems like your main objective is to put yourself out of business. SPEAKER C But that hasn't happened because my whole family is singing Coralia's praises, obviously, and telling everyone. My father, who's a doctor, is telling his specialist right. About so what about yes, yes, with me. I first went to see Coralia. So you were the first person I. SPEAKER A Went to see, Dr. Coralia? SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER A And what were your concerns? SPEAKER C And I was living a very sort of hectic life and working very long hours, working in very high pressured work. But I was fine, I was doing well. So I thought, yes, type A type of person, and I'll be fine. And I thought that my diet was very healthy because I was trimming away all the fat from my meat. But every single meal consisted of meat, white carbs and maybe some vegetables. But I really thought I was doing very well because I was eating a fruit a day, a piece of fruit a day. And I had some greens, but I thought in order to have protein and everything, that was what I needed to do. And I suddenly started to feel so unwell. I knew in myself I had no energy. I could hardly get out of bed, but I'll drag myself out of bed and be very worried that I'd be falling down. But no energy. Very difficult to focus. I went to see some doctors. They did a lot of blood tests, and they said, we don't really know what's wrong with you. We don't think there's anything wrong I mean, they didn't quite say that quite like that, but it seemed as though we can't find anything wrong with you. But someone from church said, go and see Dr. Jigo. So I went to see her and she said, I want you to do a blood test. And I said, you know what, I've already given so much blood, I can tell you exactly what my blood test results are. And she said, what did they look for? And I said, oh, what do you want to look for? And she said, I want to see what your vitamins and your mineral levels are. And I thought she was joking because I was quite convinced I had a major issue and that I was about to die. And I thought, she's looking for my vitamin level. SPEAKER A Did you really think you were going to die? SPEAKER C I knew so, because you see, I thought amazing health all my life. SPEAKER A So you felt that bad? SPEAKER C Yeah, I felt that bad and really fearful because nobody could pinpoint anything. So I was pumping on adrenaline and that was how I was continuing to just continue. And the blood tests came out and I went to see her and she looked at the blood test results and she had this huge smile on her face and she said, Shuwan, you are the walking dead. And I thought, Why are you smiling? That's right. And she said, But I have very good news for you. I know exactly why you are feeling the way you are, and this is very easily reversed. And I said, what is the problem? And she said, Your vitamin D level is eleven. And I looked at her very blankly and I said, what? I don't know what that means. And I said, well, what else is wrong? And she said, that will do it. SPEAKER D For those in B twelve. It was a lot of others. This is one of the problems. This was the worst. SPEAKER A For anyone else viewing who doesn't know how bad eleven is for vitamin D, tell us how bad that is. SPEAKER D Vitamin D. It's very bad. It is supposed to be above 75 with good figures up to 250. All right, so vitamin D is absolutely essential for our body. People knows about it only regarding with the bone and with calcium absorption from our bowels. But vitamin B is essential for your cardiovascular system, is essential for your mental health, it is essential for protecting your body for a lot more than just simple bone and calcium and have white involvement. SPEAKER A And could she have died? SPEAKER D If she wouldn't die, but she would be lingering around, lingering around, lingering around, okay, yes. SPEAKER C And I didn't want to live a life. SPEAKER D Correct vitamin D. We correct vitamin B? Twelve, like that. We check your omega three index with also poor was extremely low. So we correct everything what we could. So within two months and your homocysteine was very high. SPEAKER C Homocysteine was very high, but not as. SPEAKER D High as your father, which was 49. SPEAKER C My father's homocysteine level was 49.9 when he first went to see her. SPEAKER D The normal level is up to ten. SPEAKER C Within the ten days. Two months later it had gone down to 34. Mine, I thought, was very high too, but nothing like that is. So she put me on very high dosage of vitamin D and within I think, two months it had gone from eleven to 75. And my father's vitamin D level was also shocking. His was 26. So a little bit better than the walking dead here, but not much, right? And his went up in ten days from 26 to 64. But you know, you were right. You were right in saying that because had she not told me that, I would not have believed the condition of my body because I thought I was eating so healthily, I thought I was exercising, I'm being very active. And so it was only hearing how shocking my health was that I changed. SPEAKER D But your body told you you felt and how do you feel now comparing with have you been before? SPEAKER C Just take a look at it, bursting with energy. SPEAKER A Wonderful. Yes. SPEAKER C But it's taken me four years to change. And it took me four years because at the beginning I just started eating a lot of fruit and vegetables because that was what I could focus on and that was what I understood. And then I had to add on things like nuts and legumes and seeds and things like this. And I found that it took me four years to really comprehensively understand what lifestyle, living and change really is. So I incorporated all of that and giving up, I think, changing my taste buds, living on meat and living on strong tastes, if you like, going to more bland food, more natural food, and incorporating things at a different level, all of that. And also learning about the importance of vitamin B twelve. So I became such a zealot that my vitamin B twelve level dropped because I wasn't listening to my doctor. She had said to me, once you give up animal protein, you must beware of vitamin B twelve and you must take supplements. But I very ignorantly, thought, well, now that my diet is so healthy, surely I'm getting everything I need from my diet. And even though she kept warning me, I disregarded it, you see, until one day I wasn't well at all and this was last year. So I went to see her and she said, what did I tell you about this? Your vitamin B twelve level is so low and this means all of your other organs are going to be affected. And because I thought I was having I had heart issues and I didn't understand why when I was so healthy and so well, right, had been so well for such a long time. So then I went on, she said, you have to have vitamin B injections straight away now. Did that for six weeks. One vial, one injection per week. Brought that up. So it's actually quite not that simple. It's not just eat lots of vegetables and fruit. SPEAKER A No, you're right. It's one of the things that isn't well supplied in a totally plant based diet. And it's very important. I'm glad that you finally got Shuan to understand that it's very important that that happens. SPEAKER C Yes, that's right. Yes. So my father is well? He's very well, but he's overseas, so he couldn't be here today. SPEAKER A Oh, that's a shame. I would love him to have been here. SPEAKER C Absolutely right. SPEAKER A Do you think he would have come, your dad? Do you think he would have come if he'd been not overseas? SPEAKER C I think he might. He says, a little bit shy, but I think he's so grateful. SPEAKER A But he's happy for you to talk his journey. SPEAKER C Yes, he is. SPEAKER A That's lovely. And I just think it's remarkable. I think it's remarkable that this disease reversal can take place at all, but in someone who's 89 and I just think that's a beautiful thing. And I just like to say to people, our bodies are very forgiving, just like the one who made them. And even at 89, you can get a good result. So don't ever think, oh, well, I've left it too late, or I'm too sick, because we've just found out that it's not too late. And even really significant diseases can be helped because of that. Our cells are being replaced all the time. We're being remade. SPEAKER D I didn't believe myself. I didn't believe I'd never have experienced this. SPEAKER A Isn't that amazing? SPEAKER D In the patient at this age? I didn't believe myself. I didn't. Because you are going by the book, and you see what you see, and you didn't expect at this age, the people will improve. SPEAKER A So you're a little bit nervous about. SPEAKER D No, I was not nervous. I was shocked with the results. SPEAKER A Okay. Not nervous, but shocked. SPEAKER C Do you remember with Daddy? Oh, my father has three stents in his heart. Right, okay. So his heart was never terribly good, and now he specially says, I would like my heart to be like your heart when I'm 92. And he says, I don't really need to see you, you know, don't need. SPEAKER A To see you anymore. SPEAKER C Yeah. SPEAKER A Isn't that the best thing that you can take? You're not just putting yourself out of business. You're putting, I don't need to see you anymore. Oh, my goodness. SPEAKER D Now, there is a lot of business if the patient will listen and will do little changes. But we are in this culture. It is a sort of culture. We want a quick fix. Well, the quick fix take a pill and that's it. Don't do anything. Don't go out of your way. Do whatever you want. Live whatever you want. Take a pill and be happy. It's not working. SPEAKER A Well, I think that timing was very quick, to be honest. It may not be in the next couple of hours, but a couple of weeks is amazing. Well, today we focused on kidney failure, but the healthy lifestyle changes that reversed it have been found to reverse many other diseases. So be sure to keep watching Healthy living. And remember, you can watch our programs on demand. Just visit 3abnaustralia.org.au and click on the watch button. SPEAKER C God bless you. SPEAKER D You. SPEAKER B You’ve been listening to a production of 3ABN Australia Television.