Your diet and drinking habits are incredibly important as a dialysis patient - you should adapt them compared to your time before dialysis. They influence your well-being during dialysis and in your everyday life.
Which values are important and why?
Did you know that as a dialysis patient, a good, dialysis-friendly diet is as important as the therapy itself? When your kidneys were still working perfectly, they were responsible for many tasks in your body. Due to kidney disease, they can no longer do this, which is why you are dependent on renal replacement therapy. In order to still live as healthy as possible and without problems in your daily life, it is extremely important that you adapt your diet and drinking habits to your life with dialysis as good as possible.
With a diet that is optimized for you, you can live very healthily and without problems for a long time with a few food restrictions. On the other hand, an incorrect diet as a dialysis patient can unfortunately lead to a variety of problems. These often put a strain on your cardiovascular system and can be very dangerous.
To be a bit more precise, you should pay special attention to protein, potassium, phosphate, and calories in your diet. Depending on the residual excretion, it is also important to drink as little as possible. The latter, as you probably already know, is mainly controlled by your weight fluctuations.
Protein - the basic building block
An optimal protein intake is important in order not to deplete the body's energy reserves. Proteins are the building materials of our body. Among other things, we need them to build and maintain muscles, for immune defence and as a key component of your blood. Protein is found in animal and plant foods. Since proteins are lost during dialysis, the daily protein requirement of dialysis patients is increased by about 40% compared to people who do not require dialysis.
Potassium - the high flyer
Among other things, potassium is responsible for the functioning of your muscles in your body. Nearly 99% of potassium is in your body's cells, only 1% in your blood. If you have working kidneys, they are the main controller of the level of potassium in your body. If your blood potassium levels are as high as a person with renal failure, it's important to make sure you're taking in less potassium through your diet. Potassium is in all foods - some have less and some have more.
While potassium can be reduced during dialysis, it increases very quickly during dialysis-free intervals. Also note that you should only eat a low-potassium diet if your blood potassium is actually too high. Too little potassium in the body is not good either.
Phosphate - the slow mammoth
While potassium fluctuates very quickly, phosphate levels in your body change rather slowly. Your phosphate balance is also regulated by the kidneys, when they are working. While it helps a bit, the usual dialysis duration, unfortunately, cannot adequately reduce the phosphate in your blood. You should therefore avoid foods with a high phosphate content as much as possible. In addition, you can often support your diet with phosphate binders. These medications bind phosphate in the intestines, so that it is directly excreted again. Make sure you take the phosphate binders correctly, as this is the only way they are effective. You should also pay special attention to processed products, as many additives contain a concentrated dose of phosphate.
Salt (=sodium) - the blood pressure regulator
Among other places, sodium is found in your cells. One of its jobs is to evenly distribute water throughout your body. Too much sodium in your body makes you thirsty and increases your body's blood pressure. While you can target and remove sodium through dialysis, a low-salt diet is still very important for people with kidney disease. It lowers blood pressure, ensures that blood pressure lowering medications work better, and most importantly, reduces your thirst.
Calories (=energy)
Despite the limitations of phosphate, potassium and salt, an adequate energy intake is indispensable. It is the basis for maintaining all bodily functions (e.g. heartbeat, breathing, circulation, etc.). If you notice that you have no appetite and therefore eat insufficiently over a longer period of time, you should definitely contact your doctor.
A personalised diet is the best way to go
There is no dialysis diet that applies equally to all patients. The state of health is a decisive factor in the optimal adaptation and must be taken into account. Support from a qualified nutritionist is therefore important.
Even if there are / will be changes to your eating and drinking habits before dialysis, you should remember: there are (almost) no restrictions. In many cases, it is sufficient to reduce the amount of food with disadvantageous ingredients or to switch to other similar products.
In addition, you will find a lot of general advice in the Mizu app that will hopefully help you in everyday life, such as the extensive search function, cooking recipes, testimonials from patients, a food diary and much more.
