Fasting and Kidney Problems
Fasting is amazing for healing kidney problems.
However, fasting can irritate damaged kidneys due to the amount of toxins they filter. Try short juice fasts of 3-to-5 days before progressing to longer fasts. To maintain the healing, you will need to permanently remove high-protein meals, refined flours, commercial oils and fats from your diet after the fast.
By Tom Coghill of Fasting.ws Articles may be copied or reproduced as long as the back links to fasting.ws are intact and the author’s name is included.
I am 7 days into a water fast. On the third day, I caught an illness from a few friends (I’m almost certain it’s the H1N1 virus, but I’m not worried about that). The next day, my right kidney began to hurt and is making it very uncomfortable to cough because of muscles pushing on it. I took a glass of 2 freshly juiced apples and two days later juiced an apple and some spinach, hoping to slow the fast a little and get some nutrients. The kidney pain remains!
I’m 19, 5’8″ and normally 115lbs but am currently 106lbs.
Do you think the detox and the flu-fighting is too much on my kidneys? Should I ease off of it and begin another when I’m feeling better? Or do you think this means I have some kidney problems that I’m not aware of?
Hi Leslie
Infections can cause kidney pain. Water fasting is also hard on the kidneys. On the other hand water fasting is very effective against cold and flues. Drinking juice which will lessen the strain on the kidneys and also supply nutrients for the fight. Juice fasting for 30 days healed my kidneys.
Hi Leslie
You may have a [UTI] But soar kidneys can be assosiated with water fasting.
Best advise would be to get checked by a doctor if you are worried
Best regards Keith.
Thank you both very much. I don’t think I have a UTI, so I will ease into a juice fast for a bit.
Hi, I am so glad I found this website, and it has really given me a lot of hope. I am having kidney problems and I need advice on fasting, but before I get to that I want to provide a little bit of background information. I am 21 yrs old, 5’8, about 145 pounds. I usually walk around at 165-170, but digestive problems (gallbladder disease) over the past 6 months have made it so I can’t eat how I used to. I have always had a fast metabolism, and I used to go to buffets and eat literally 7-8 steaks at a time. I would eat so much my stomach would bloat profusely. I would drink milk by the gallon with whey protein, and I would work out VIGOROUSLY. There was a period when I was a teenager (from 15-18) when I would work out at least 5 days a week, and I was a very good basketball player.I would eat whatever I wanted and I never got past 160. (There was actually a time period when I LIVED off of fast food for about three months yet i still worked out vigorously and gained no weight)…
At about 19 I moved away from the gym I went to, and the workout routine stopped. I began smoking cannabis heavily again (a habit that I had once kicked, as I smoked heavily from the time I was 13-15). During the time period from 19-20 I gained a bit of weight and was up to about 180. I still did pushups every day, and I felt stronger than I had ever felt in my life, but I also felt slower and more sluggish than ever. Then about 6 months ago I found out I had gallstones, and I have been suffering with chronic constipation and indigestion ever since. I could no longer enjoy my favorite foods, no more milk, pizza, ice cream..( all resulted in severe constipation and gallbladder attacks) you get the picture.
Okay now on to the kidney problems. I had a tooth infection that I was taking Penicillin (4 times a day) for, and after about a week of taking it I started having pains in my kidneys and I almost completely stopped urinating and all my urine was dark. I stopped taking it and within a week my urination had returned to normal except for slight hesitancy. I went back to my doc, told em what happened, they looked at me like I was crazy for thinking it could have anything to do with the penicillin and then prescribed Cipro and told me I had a UTI.
I had an adverse reaction to the Cipro after ONE pill, itching, spasms, woke up in the morning with aching joints and felt 90 years old. It took two weeks for my joints to feel SEMI normal! Okay, I told em what happened, and they switched me to Doxycycline. I took the Doxy for about a week, when to my horror the same thing happened that happened with the penicillin except WAYYY worse! My kidney area was sore to the slightest touch on both sides, and my urination had once again screeched almost to a complete halt. My urine was nearly brown and I felt like crap. I stopped taking the Doxy with only about 4 days of it left in the bottle. After about a week, the pain in the kidneys had SOMEWHAT subsided but it was still there and I was urinating 20 times a day!
Okay, this was a month ago, and to this day I am still having kidney pains occasionally, sometimes intensely crippling, and I am still urinating very frequently! Every since I found out I had gallbladder disease (6 months ago) I have been drinking NOTHING BUT filtered spring water with no added chemicals (the expensive kind lol). I have been to several hospitals about this kidney problem, and they keep trying to give me pain meds and more harsh antibiotics which I refuse to take for obvious reasons. I never had problems like this until I started taking all of these antibiotics! The other day they did a CT, and it confirmed that I do not have stones, and they also checked my creatinine and BUN levels which they said were “normal”. This to me does not convince me that my kidneys are fine though, because of my symptoms of course, and because I have been told that these blood tests are not entirely reliable in the EARLY stages, and by the time they become “not” normal, your kidneys have already been permanently damaged causing kidney insufficiency.
Here are some of the symptoms I am having since the kidney problems started. Kidney pains (constant bloating pain in flank area, can increase suddenly to severe cramping pains, and sometimes a stabbing pain). Frequent urination, extremely foamy urine ( I pee in a cup to check the color and to make sure the foam is not from the urine hitting the water, and it is there in large amounts even without water!). In fact it is so foamy it looks like soap is in my urine! Headaches, fatigue, itching, confusion, dizziness, weakness, feeling like I am going to faint, swelling around my ankles,eyes and wrist, nasty taste in mouth, fluid in ears, periods of racing heartbeat, shortness of breathe, and just a general crappy feeling. My hands and feet fal asleep very easily, I feel very weak, and the once bulging veins in my hands and feet have all but disappeared! Now I KNOW all of these are symptoms of kidney problems, and I refuse to believe an emergency room doctor when they tell me “im fine”, because they have no clue what I am going through here! My girlfriend has witnessed what I am going through and she is so frustrated with the way the hospitals have been treating me. Trust me when I say none of the symptoms above are exaggerated!
After reading your testimony about how fasting healed your kidneys I want to try it, and at this point it seems ANYTHING would be better than the toxic drugs they keep trying to make me take. I have a few questions though:
What kind of fast would you recommend for me? I know you say short fasts are better to begin with, but is there a specific regimen you could refer me to?
Will I lose even more muscle mass when I fast? I am skinny enough and it is really depressing because I used to be so “built”. I want to do an intense workout regimen like p90x when I come off the fast and i would like to eventually get back to being muscular again. Is this possible with fasting?
Based on what I have told you, do you think my kidneys will return to normal function, and will I ever be able to eat how I used to? I don’t want to eat fast food ever again, but I would like to enjoy a steak now and then, and I don;t see how I am ever going to get big again without protein.
I believ God has directed me to this website, and I pray that you will help me heal my body in the way God intended it to heal.
Please offer any advice you can based on the info I have given you.
Thanks
Hi Helpmeheal,
Your symptoms indicate an infection that would be in your blood and urine. It may show on a dark field microscope.
You need a long juice fast 30 days. Cross section of vitamins and essential oils. You will want to include ginger, garlic, in the juice and make clove tea. An anti candida remedy my prove effective. You will lose muscle mass but your life is hell so it is only a short term loss. Water fasting is better for infections like candida. I say that are there as so many creature that live in the blood similar to Candida. Your blood probably looks like pond water in a microscope. Daily enema, for sure and take probiotics daily during the fast.
We discovered using a darkfield microscope that acidophoulus lives also in the blood. Lots of lemon to change the pH of your blood.
The infection is damaging your immune system as it is so occupied in a fight that it cannot clean.
If you want we can make a post page for you so that we can focus on your treatment.
You may be in for a rough ride for the first 3 days.
Death of bacteria, or parasite can release toxins.
This is a quick response but you have our support and research.
Hi Helpmeheal
I have read your frustration, and the pain in your your testimony.
I would strongly recomend you listen to what Tom has said and feed off his knowlage and support, your problems are out of my help, but i am here to help you with support on your fast.
The one thing that i have learned on fasting, you will put muscle back on faster… after the fast.
Over- training can lead your weight to hault,… Sometimes less is more if you want to build muscle.
But first things first, no more canibis…LOL.
Best wishes Keith.
Keep us posted on your progress.
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your consideration and help. I am still dealing with this problem only now the pain is not as bad but the frequent urination has not subsided and the back of my tongue is still coated. I’m also experiencing generalized swelling, mostly in my feet and around my eyes in the morning, and I wake up every morning with tons mucus in my nose… this morning I had a nose bleed. I believe you are right about me having high candida in my body. I hope it is not too late to have a post page made for my case. I would love to do a juice fast with the help and guidance of you and your staff. I would post regularly about my experiences, so it would be a good learning experience for future visitors of the site. I really want to get back to being healthy again. I am so sick and tired of feeling sick and tired, and the docs just want to give me pain meds and antibiotics.
I’ve already been on three courses of antibiotics and they seem to do me more harm than good! The infection always bounces back stronger and it takes me weeks to feel semi-normal after I get off of the antibiotics. The last two courses of antibiotics they gave me made my pee turn the color of tea and my lower back where my kidneys are was inflamed and verrry tender! I know it was the antibiotics causing this because I started taking them for a stupid tooth infection, and when I stoped taking them my kidney area was no longer tender after a few days. Therefore stopping treatment with the antibiotics actually brought RELIEF somewhat, so I KNOW the antibiotics were creating those symptoms, no matter what these “doctors” are trying to tell me. Even though the tenderness subsided, I’m afraid that permanent damage has been done to my kidneys because I wake up throughout the night urinating and my pee is very foamy, plus I am retaining fluid in my feet which is another sign of possible kidney damage. I have been to the doctor several times and they say that my blood work is normal, but I found out that kidney dysfunction may not show up on blood tests until almost 50% of kidney function is lost in some cases! I am not trying to sit back and wait until I lose that much kidney function, because once that happens it would be all downhill form there. I know that a creatinine clearance test would give a more accurate depiction of my kidney function, but the doctors obviously don’t think it’s necessary to do that for some reason.
In my efforts to find out what is happening with my body, I found out that antibiotics also kill the good bacteria in your body, leaving you susceptible to secondary mycotic (yeast/candida) infections! Not only that, but the antibiotics actually WEAKEN the immune system and they don’t always clear the initial infection! So once you stop taking them you’re left with the initial infection (which comes back stronger because the antibiotics actually can cause it to MUTATE!) AND a you also get candida infection on top of that! How terrible is that!? I get ridiculous diarrhea on the antibiotics as well, and then after I stop taking them I’m constipated for about a week! I’m not brave enough to take another course of antibiotics right now.. who knows what the next course would do.
I tired to stick it out and take the advice of my doctor, but I am not some naive fool who is going to put my life in the hands of someone who won’t even give me a word in edgewise, and who keeps prescribing me “meds” that are making the situation worse! What if I was dumb enough to take the pain meds they are prescribing me? Think about how messed up my kidneys would become taking pain pills twice a day! It seems like most “doctors” nowadays just don’t care!
I am confident that proper nutrition along with natural antibiotics like garlic and cayenne will help me a lot more than these toxic cocktails I’m being prescribed, but I really need guidance in how to do this. Any advice you could offer would be greatly appreciated.If possible, o you think you could recommend what kind of fruits and vegetable I should use? Also, how much juice do I need to drink per day, and what literature could refer me to that would be helpful in this situation? If you could outline the details of the fast for me it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Hi Helpmeheal,
You want to move toward the green juices such as pepper, cucumber, celery. To this add garlic and ginger. You need to take a lot of probiotics daily. The enema is good. A yeast buster formula is good. Occasional days of water fasting will help the process. You are in for a 30 day fast if you want to heal the kidneys. Sure send a pic and I will set up a page.
Hi Helpmeheal
Cleary your statement” generalized swelling, mostly in my feet and around my eyes in the morning, and I wake up every morning with tons mucus in my nose…” indicates a bacterial infection in the lymph. Did you get some probiotics. It is good to take some daily till you are better. Oregano oil and clove oil is good. But I should send you some Formula 256 as it is clearing TB, asthma and malaria here in Papau New Guinea in the hospitals and is research documented. It has been tough as production is slow without any people that can work for me with skill. Send in you address on the contact form of fasting.ws and lets see what happens.
If you are eating take a small amount of oatmeal for breakfast.
Tom
I have a question about fasting with a kidney disease. I have a kidney disease called FSGS which is causing Nephrotic Syndrome {large amount of protein in the urine, traces of blood in the urine, low protein count in the blood}. The lack of protein in my blood has caused me to gain much water retention, and lose muscle mass.
I saw my doctor yesterday and he tells me it is an auto-immune disease and the only option I have is to go on Prednison {a steriod} to suppress my immune system. He says there are many bad side affects.. weight gain, hair loss, muscle loss, bone density loss, cataracts, and diabetis. I looked it up online and found out that it is also very addictive if used for longer than 7 days {I’m supposed to be on it for 4 months before they will decide if it working or not} and that it suppressed the adrenals and if a person stops taking it too quickly it can cause adrenal crisis ending in coma or even death.
He also told me that if I leave this disease untreated that I would slowly go into kidney failure and in the years to come end up on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant.
I started a fast this morning {water with chloriphyll in it} but read at the top that fasting can irritate a damaged kidney.. that doesn’t sound good.
What can you tell me.. will fasting furthur damage my kidneys?
Hi Evah,
Yes it can further the damage or reverse it depending on how you do it. And that is not an easy thing to guess. Best is do a few days of juice fasting and see if you are feeling better. Go to papaya for a few days and see how that feels. Protein in the urine indicates the filtering system is breaking down. So the cells are losing integrity. I would also take 1000 IU of vitamine E and a B complex vitamin.
Hi Evah,
Yes water fasting is very hard on damaged kidneys and not recommended or safe.
You need to juice fast and go slow. Drink at least 1 liter of juice daily and 2 is better for the first 10 days. If you kidneys start to hurt stop fasting. Eat for 10 days then try again repeatedly Watermelon juice is good for the kidneys . Add essential oils 4 tablespoons and day and 1200 IU vitamin E. You need a long fast of 30 days. It is possible for total healing but as yet there are no other cases of juice fasting with FSGS. We would love to support you on this. Juice fasting has cured so many disease, it would be great to add FSGS to the list. If you are juice fasting, do not take the medication. This will require some research for support, if you want to do this. Please create a post with your info so we can keep your information in one location.
Can you tell me why fasting is hard on damaged kidneys and is not considered safe? I don’t know much about fasting but I thought it would give my body a rest from having to digest food.. the kidneys time to rest from working on the toxins and all the things brought in from eating and drinking thereby giving them a chance to just work on cleaning out what is in the body.
I will consider juice fasting though that scares me more than total fasting because with my stomach still digesting juices I would feel hunger and I know that with total fasting hunger goes away {I fasted a couple of years ago for 11 days… water with lemon}.
Thanks for your info. I also read online about a therapy called Urine fasting and people having been cured from kidney disease and even kidney failure. Not sure what I think of the idea but I almost think anything would be better than the side affects of the meds the doc wants to put me on.
Evah,
Your body dumps poison on a fast and the kidneys and liver have to process it. A water fast dumps toxins at a high rate. Juice fasting a slower rate. A fruit diet slower still. So you can only cleanse at a rate your kidneys can handle. To me I think urine therapy is nuts. There is zero science and the logic fails to make any sense to me. It there are components so valued why is the body dumping it. Also if there is lower calories with the urine then the body will heal but not from drinking urine.
Hi Tom, I have Polycystic Kidney Disease which is multiple cysts that form on the kidneys until they eventually smother the kidney and a transplant is necessary. I’m hoping to avoid this. I’ve heard great things about juice fasting and am wondering if this can cause the cysts to stop growing and disappear. If I do a juice fast how should I go about it? Is there anything I shouldn’t do? I’d appreciate any help. Thanks so much!
Hi Mikeanth
Juice fasting helped my kidneys heal many years ago and the have been good every since. Juice fasting has reversed early stage cancers. And it is good for you. But they body will dump toxins and they can be hard on the kidneys. I could only fast a few days then had to break off due to the kidney pain. But alternating a fruit diet with days of juice fasting got me to the point where I could do a long juice fast and at 28 days no more pain. But there are many kidney disease causes. So have lots of green juices, lemons and carrots, and watch the lab results to see if it is working. 30 days of juice fasting is the best but not for everyone. Take it one day at a time and find what works for you. We have a provincial program approved for the Madang that will be starting so I can develop an accurate program with a bigger patient base for testing.
@evah and others
Actually juice fasting is much safer than water fasting and according to Dr Richard Schulze who cured the incurables it works better than water fasting.
Water fasting can cause toxins to break too rapidly and a person with reduced kidney function may not be able to get the toxins that have been pulled from various organs out of the body especially if bowels are not working..he had his people on juice fasts take intestinal cleanses with it.
His incurable program includes juice fasting or if less ill a 100% raw vegan (whole food) diet. So it is very compatible with this site as far as fasting, but adds more to do. It can be overwhelming though but one knows at least some people have recovered and gotten off dialysis or got their kidneys working again. The incurables program btw is good for any illness even those without a name. More can be found n curezone on Schulze.
I have went on a 30 day and 50 day juice fast and after a few days all hunger goes away and stays away until such point one is starving and the return of hunger is a sign one should start eating again.
I suggest going to curezone.com to the kidney dialysis forum and looking for a long thread that is by me (knowledge seeker) and is about comprehensive program 30 steps for kidney patients.
here I got the link
http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1224263#i
In addition to a variety of things to help reverse kidney disease, I have a step on urine therapy and it has been used for kidney patients. I have heard very good things about drinking urine but I was not fasting when I tried it. It can cause a healing crisis where you feel sick from the toxins breaking loose fairly quickly in me at least like cold/flu/headache and so forth (research healing crisis) I read several books on it and am pretty impressed with it.
We have a urine therapy book that can be read online here along with some links that i think we put the same links put up on curezone but I forget now
http://naturalhealing.wikispaces.com/Dr.+G.K.+Thakkar
Also check into the save your life program done by Biser featuring Dr Richard Schulze who got people off dialysis with his incurables program and got dead organs working again. He states this in his book 25 ways to cleaner kidneys found here
http://naturalhealing.wikispaces.com/Dr.+Richard+Schulze
In the clinic he used things for various diseases in addition to the incurables program which he learned from his teacher Dr J0ohn R Christopher the father of modern herboolgy who also cured the incurables and intensified it in his underground clinic where many people with no hope went as a last resort and got healed–for instance the heart patient might take cayenne and hawthorne organic tinctures, the diabetes a lot of garlic, cinnamon, and giving up pop etc a cancer patient might take essiac tea etc a person with myastenia gravis or lou gehrigs would take nervine herbs and nutritional yeast etc.
The 30 steps represent the things one can do in addition to the incurables for a very comprehensive program along the line of what Schulze did who did not go into what he used anywhere in his writings but these have been found by me over the last few decades when I was trying to help my mother with kidney disease and I think will be most helpful to someone with kidney disease.
Be sure whenever one takes in fresh juices they do it on an empty stomach with no pulp or food for at least 30 minutes as then the vital elements go to healing and repair and not mainly to digestion.
One can consume the pulp later if desired and not fasting. Drink it within about 20 minutes lest enzymes dissipate. Make fresh each time –do not hold over in refrigerator. If not fasting though green smoothies can be held in refrig for 2 or 3 days unlike juices which go badly a lot more quickly.
Interestingly, Dr Norman Walker the father of the modern juice movement who lived to be 97 and was a big juice advocate and raw foodist and who invented the top of the line norwalk juicer said that the herbicides. pesticides etc in even heavily sprayed crops are concentrated in the fiber and when the produce is tricated (smashed) in the juicer, the safe unharmed juice inside the fibers is released and the pesticides etc are repelled form the juice as oil to water so even if the produce is commercially grown or sprayed, the juice if no pulp is consumed is as organic. (source fruits and vegetable sjuice (book by walker).
I noticed in his juice therapies for various diseases, a few juices seemed to be for all diseases almost so I would include these in any juice fasting program.
1 carrot
2 carrot (60%) and spinach 40%)
He also used lemon a lot.
Schulze said the best veggie juice is 40% carrots, 40% beets (be sure these are organic as most beets are now genetically modified) and 20% beet greens or other leafy green.
He said the best fruit juice was 40% apple 40% grapes and 20% berries
Fruits are cleansers and veggies are builders.
Also be sure to include lots of green juices (also green smoothies if not fasting) using a wide assortment of greens (ex-kale, collards, beet tops. carrot tops, parsley, watercress, bok choy, romaine, arugala, swiss chard, dandelion greens, broccoli any Asian market green and safe wild greens like grape leaves, daisy leaves, burdock., plantain, lambs quarter etc blend these with any fruit you like –be sure to alternate the greens you use every day or so lest one get sick.
Juice fasts do rest your organs while giving one high nutrients and the benefits of raw foods. General on juice fast one can take in potassium broths (see schulze tab at curezone>incurables program>kidney or liver cleanse for a recipe) and herb teas.
Schulze uses kidney, blood, liver, colon cleaning etc with the juice fasting to clean the organs and help pull the toxins from them. He also advocates using superfoods to boost nutrition with the cleansing.
When doing any fast whether water or juice how one breaks the fast is very important go very slowly do not overeat. I usually use steamed carrots, some raw applesauce or a small salad when breaking it…Once in a while people will get cravings to eat or hard times, I find taking the hot potassium broth helped me to stay on it as it felt more like food as far as being substantial till I got over the hump. If you feel chilly, use a sweater.
Take about 4 days or so to get back into full eating or look on line for advise on stopping fasts.
with green smoothies do not add anything but the greens and the fruits and water..maybe a little raw agave nectar but not things like protein powders etc according to green smoothie exports Victoria Boutenko (rawfamily.com)
hope this is off help
Hi Jane, Thank you for all of the wonderful information! Ron
You are welcome Ron. I hope it helps someone.
Hi, everyone,
I stumbled upon this blog after searching for “kidney failure fasting cure”. I’ve read the other posts on this blog, but I think my story is what a lot of you are trying to avoid. You see, I’ve had Lupus for almost 14 years. In 2005, I had a complication of Lupus called TTP. I lost a LOT of blood (90%, I’m told!), I had seizures, my kidneys failed and I fell into a coma for a few days. Long story short I have been on dialysis for going on 7 years in March. I have End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). It sounds so final. 🙁
But one thing I believe, is that I will NEVER have a transplant. I just don’t believe in it… my personal preference. My kidneys do function somewhat. I still urinate. They actually have to give me potassium while I’m getting treatment. My phosphorus is always on the lower side. My diet hasn’t changed because I’m on dialysis. I’m BLESSED that I’m on dialysis for only 2 hours and a half, 3 times a week, while others are on the machine for 4 1/2 hours :/
Is there anyway that juice fasting can reverse ESRD for someone who is already on dialysis?? And should I focus on curing the Lupus first, or the kidney failure? I hate to say kidney failure, because my kidneys, bless their hearts :p, are putting in the work. I know that for a fact.
Thank you for your time,
Erika
Hi Ericka,
Kidney disease is very hard to treat even with juice fasting. We had one stage 4 kidney disease show rapid improvment for weeks then a decline after that. But juice fasting is good for you health and cleans out toxins that may be a factor in the condition.
What juices is a challenge as each case is different. Normally fasting adds additional strain on the kidneys but your dialysis would clear the toxins. Give it a try and monitor the results with lab test and if it is showing improvement keep going.
Hey Tom,
I’m curious what you think about this. I used to do 3 day water fasts a lot without any problem. Last year I found out that I had a UBJ obstruction on my right kidney from birth. Apparently my left kidney was doing almost all of the work for years. So now, I’ve had my right kidney removed. Do you think that juice fasting is ok with one kidney? Because I used to do water fasts with basically only one working, it seems like this should be no problem…
Hi, I’m on day 26 of a 30 day juice fast. All of a sudden my kidneys started hurting. My legs /toes began to tingle and I had frequent urination. When my fingers began to tingle on and off I decided to break the fast. I juiced some oranges and after drinking 16oz of water drank 8oz juice. I was feeling faint so I got really scared and started eating small amounts of watermelon. In the beginning ot& my np was 136/101 since then it has dropped to 105/78. But now it’s 123/91 and I’m scared. This is my 3rd 30 day fast, the first was in 2010 the second last year. What should I do?
Hi Staycee,
It was wise to break the fast. These are the sings of toxic overload for the kidneys.