Overview Kidney and vitamin D

• FACT: The Kidneys are not the primary way to activate vitamin D; the tissues are

• FACT: When the Kidney has problems, there is less active vitamin D (Calcitriol) for the body

• FACT: When the Kidney has problems, there is increased death due to many factors - many of which are associated with lack of Calcitriol

• FACT: There are many ongoing intervention clinical trials trying to determine how much of what kind of vitamin D is needed to treat the problem

• FACT: One Randomized Controlled Trial has proven that Vitamin D treats CKD

• FACT: 38% of seniors have Chronic Kidney Disease and most are unaware of it CDC statistics 2020

• FACT: Taking extra Vitamin D, in various forms, does not cause health problems - even if poor kidney

• Suggestion: Increase vitamin D getting into body now - and increase co-factors so that the vitamin D can be better used

  •    Sun, UV lamp, Vitamin D supplement - probably > 5,000 IU,
  • Nanoemulstion vitamin D (inside cheek, topically) gets activated Vitamin D to the cells without the need for healthy kidney, liver, or intestine
  • Calcitriol - which bypasses the need for the kidney to activate vitamin D
  •    Problems with Calcitriol however: typically only lasts for a few hours, also, possible complications
  •         Update : Pre-cursor of active vitamin D made from plants is better than calcitriol – Sept 2012
• Category Kidney and Vitamin D contains items

See also Vitamin D Life

• Kidney Dialysis, low Vitamin D, low Magnesium - many studies

• 4X more Chronic Kidney disease patients are now using vitamin D – March 2014

• Hemodialysis patients (CKD) helped by weekly 50,000 IU of vitamin D – Jan 2017

• Kidney disease helped by active or high dose Vitamin D - Feb 2014

• Kidney Inflammation: both prevented and reduced by Vitamin D – review Jan 2014

• Vitamin D3 becomes Calcidiol which becomes Calcitriol - only if Liver and Kidney are operating properly

• Chronic Kidney Disease clinical trials of UV in Germany – April 2013

• Chronic Kidney Disease reduced with 3600 IU vitamin D (50000 twice a month)– RCT Aug 2012

• Standard and artificial vitamin D both help Chronic Kidney Disease – meta-analysis April 2013

• Kidney Dialysis clinics reluctant to add vitamin D treatment as they are not reimbursed – Oct 2012

• Need at least 80 ng of vitamin D if have chronic kidney disease – May 2012

• Adding Vitamin decreased kidney deaths by 4x – Dec 2010

  • It is amazing that such excellent results were buried in the paper. They were not in the title nor abstract.
  • This is the result of about 10 trials with about 5,000 kidney disease patients.
  • Note: some of the trials were terminated as they felt it morally wrong to not give vitamin D to all of the Kidney patients

• Chronic Kidney disease with low vitamin D causes health problems – April 2012

• Calcitriol category listing has items along with related searches

• Standard oral vitamin D is not a good way to supplement if have Chronic Kidney Disease – March 2016

• Kidney failure and vitamin D deficiency vicious cycle – Jan 2011

• All items in category Kidney Stones and Vitamin D items

• Search Vitamin D Life for Dialysis 466 items as of Jan 2018

• Majority of blacks on dialysis were vitamin D deficient – March 2010

• Blacks have 4X more Kidney disease than whites – probably due to low vitamin D – March 2015

  • Of 908 dialysis patients: vitamin D deficiency: black women (from 90% to 100%), black men (from 85% to 100%)

• Heart problems 5X worse for chronic kidney patients low on vitamin D – Mar 2011

  • CKD patients 40% more likely to die of cardiovascular problems for every 10ng decrease in vitamin D

• Depression in Chronic Kidney Disease is predicted to be 6 times more likely if low vitamin D – Feb 2017

  • Note Depression is strongly associated with low vitamin D levels

• Each 10 ng increase in vitamin D decreased kidney disease death by 14 percent – May 2011

• 33 percent more likely to die of kidney disease if less than 15 ng vitamin D – Aug 2011

• Some form of vitamin D may be the lowest cost treatment for CKD – Spanish Sept 2011

• Death rate increased 3X for chronic kidney disease if low vitamin D – Nov 2011

• 2.8X more likely to die of hemodialysis if low on vitamin D – Aug 2011

• Hemodialysis patients (CKD) helped by weekly 50,000 IU of vitamin D – Jan 2017

• 1 month after plasma exchange vitamin D levels reduced by 40 percent – Oct 2013

  • Wonder- does dialysis also reduces Vitamin D levels?

• Overview Magnesium and Vitamin D – Strong interaction between Vitamin D and Magnesium

  • Magnesium regulation is controlled by the Kidneys so with poor kidney function might need to avoid too much Magnesium

• Overview Cardiovascular and vitamin D – Low Magnesium is strongly associated with heart Arrhythmia

• With CKD should measure the active form of vitamin D – April 2012 NOT the standard vitamin D test

• For those with kidney disease, diabetes is strongly associated with low vitamin D – 2012

• Chronic kidney with low vitamin D: 90 percent of pediatric nephrologists now recommend more D – Feb 2013

• Just 2 doses of Vitamin D resulted in many benefits (Chronic Kidney Disease)– Jan 2018

• Chronic Kidney Disease and Vitamin D Analogs – commentary Jan 2013 which has the following chart

See also web

• This Vitamin STOPS Proteinuria Fast & REPAIR KIDNEY! (Vitamin D) 9-minute video Jan 2024

• Vitamin D/VDR in acute kidney injury: a potential therapeutic target - Nov 2020 -doi: 10.2174/0929867327666201118155625

• Clinical Trials kidney and Vitamin D INTERVENTION 206 trials as of Feb 2024

• Clinical Trials (kidney OR dialysis) AND "vitamin d" 674 studies Feb 2024

  • "There is not enough evidence showing that one type of active vitamin D is better than another, but there is much difference between their costs." More studies needed

• Editorial over the Many Faces of Vitamin D in Chronic Kidney Disease: from Mineral to Immune-Inflammatory Modulator - Nov 2017

  • "Taken together, the findings of Zhao et al. confirm the immune-inflammatory modulating capacity of vit D and expand the molecular basis to further explore its therapeutic potential in CKD"
  • 📄 Download the PDF from Vitamin D Life__
• Preserved circannual rhythm of vitamin D in kidney transplant patients. Sept 2012
  • Incredibly Kidney transplant patients are advised to avoid sun exposure because of their high risk of skin cancer.
• Arrhythmias in chronic kidney disease 2011
  • "The arrhythmia burden of the patient with CKD is high, with the single greatest contributor to mortality in end stage renal disease (ESRD) being sudden cardiac death (SCD)"
• Magnesium – its role in CKD. Nefrologia, May 2013, full text online
  • Magnesium for treatment of hyperphosphataemia in patients with chronic kidney disease
• Dialysis Takes a Toll Dec 2013 New York Times
  • Huge health problems with dialysis. No mention of vitamin D
  • References a RCT of Dialysis. More of the group which which was randomly assigned to delayed dialysis (7 months) survived
• Vitamin D supplementation and mortality risk in chronic kidney disease: a meta-analysis of 20 observational studies. PDF at bottom of this page
  • Compares different types of vitamin D - no analysis of Magnesium, etc.
• Treatment Failure of Active Vitamin D Therapy in Chronic Kidney Disease: Predictive Factors Sept 2015
  • ". . . up to 50% of patients may experience treatment failure eventually because of development of hypercalcemia or resistant SHPT, characterized by an elevated intact PTH (iPTH) level despite treatment"
  • "We propose a definition of vitamin D treatment failure as iPTH >600 pg/ml after 6 months of intravenous active vitamin D treatment and corrected total calcium serum levels >10.2 mg/dl,. .
• Patient Voices: Kidney Disease New York Times Jan 2018
  • Affecting nearly 30 million in the United States
  • " chronic kidney disease can be caused by diabetes, chronic hypertension, a genetic factor or a rare disease"
• Vitamin D treatment and mortality in chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis. 2013 PDF at bottom of this page
  • 14 studies, 195,000 patients, Risk of death reduced 49% if had gotten ANY AMOUNT of ANY KIND of vitamin supplementation
  • Imagine how many fewer deaths if had gotten the right amount of the right kind of vitamin D, along with Magnesium

Kidney is one of only 2 ways that vitamin D is activated in the body

A guess (based on NO data) 50% of vitamin D is activated by the kidneys

Vitamin D Life - Vitamin D Deficiency Vicious circles

Low vitamin D ==> Diabetes ==> Kidney failure

Kidney failure ==> Low Vitamin D and poor regulation of Magnesium

Activated vitamin D decreases with worsening of CKD

Incidence of Chronic Kidney Disease - US

URL

Perhaps 120% increase incidence in a decade

Dark skinned people (with less vitamin D) have 3X more incidence of CKD

Click on chart for more information

Causes of CKD

URL

Only 15% kidney function remains by stage 5

URL

CKD signs and symptoms

URL

Factoids from The Body by Bill Bryson, 2019

• It remains something of a mystery even now as to why we have two kidneys.

• The kidneys process about 190 quarts of water and 3.3 pounds of salt. daily

• Between the ages of forty and seventy, kidney filtration capacity drops by about 50 percent.

Associations with Kidney: Calcitriol 16 Intervention 13 Meta-analysis 13 Diabetes 12 Cardiovascular 12 Skin - Dark 8 Top news 7 Intervention - non daily 6 Genetics 6 Virus 5 Infant-Child 5 Magnesium 5 etc.

and     4 each of Calcidiol High-Dose Vitamin D3 instead of D2 Deficiency How much Vitamin D Vitamin K Tests Vitamin D Receptor Inflammation Vit D Binding Protein Hypertension as of Feb 2024

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