I am a former certified fitness instructor. I have had to fight my weight since starting on Paxil four years ago. (I wouldn't be here without it)

I gained 35 lbs. in a year on it. I stuck to the low carb diet (the longest i ever have) for about two months. It works great.

Now, my neices fiance is a physician. A KIDNEY specialist. He tells me that they don't reccomend the atkins diet. I KNOW TOO MUCH PROTEIN is hard on your kidneys. That is a fact. My dog died of kidney failure due to feeding him HI PRO all his life, my vet says.
I know Dr. atkins refutes this, but this is what scares me.

What i feel is healthy for me causes a terrible insulin reaction. (Basically carbs, pasta grains and fruit.) I puff up, and a layer of fat immediately starts to insulate my body!!!! I also love to exercise and do weight machines, but when on the low carb diet, i can't do very much. I think that too much protein wears out your kidneys, and too much glycogen (starches/sugars) wears out our pancreas. So, moderation is the key. THAT IS WHERE I HAVE MY PROBLEM.

Please give me some of your success stories. I know that diabetics can get off insulin by forgoing carbs. But how are their kidneys?

Any M.D.s out there?

im so confused.....

Terri (NoCarbBarb)

please email me at terrimcmichael~yahoo.com
thank you

Barb...you just sit tight until the pros get here...for now, I'm here to tell you that there is a ton of scientific evidence that low carbing is not only safe (on the kidneys too) but even a better way of eating for your type of metabolism and mine.

I was scared when I first looked into this...and was terribly mean to a friend of mine who went on atkins and lost 40 lbs. I was telling her about how much fat is dangerous, where is your fruit, etc. I didn't know what I was talking about until I read the book, spoke to some professionals and tried it myself.

My hypoglycemis is all but GONE! My fainting feelings each day, migraines, shakes, appetitite cravings...you name it, all GONE.

You'll hear from others about how your kidneys are going to be fine, but from me...the quicker you get on and stay on, the better and healthier you'll be.

Dunno, I've never been on a high protein diet. It is a myth that Atkins is a high protein diet. It is a high FAT diet.

With respect to a lot of protein being hard on kidneys, there's a big difference between "extra work" and "dangerous". Doing cardio is hard on your heart. Should we all stop? After all, athletes have died mid-exercise. It's a matter of risk vs benefit. Thus far, to my knowledge, there is no evidence that low carbing is detrimental to kidney health in healthy people.

Reducing protein in the diet is only recommended for people who already have kidney damage, just like hard cardio probably wouldn't be recommended for someone whose heart was malfuntioning. For a healthy person, there's no reason to avoid it.

Now, with respect to diabetics and kidney health: good question. IIRC, complications of diabetes is the number one cause of renal failure. So it would be really difficult to assess, in a given low-carbing diabetic whose kidneys konked out, whether it was caused by the diet or the diabetes.

If you are really worried you could always try a moderate carb diet. It seems to me that many people seem to think they have to choose between high carb and low carb. In fact they can find a balance in between.

SugarBusters, Montignac, The Insulin Resistance Diet, The Schwartzbean Principle etc. are all moderate carb and work for loads of people ( including myself).

Maybe investigate these if it is less worrying for you.

My own urologist, who also teaches other urologists at a teaching hospital, lost a lot of weight about 3 years ago and I asked his nurse how he lost all that weight and she said he lost it on the Atkins diet. A few years ago I was playing with the Atkins diet and was in ketosis and had an appointment with the urologist. All that he said to me about it was, "You're spilling ketones." If that was a problem, I'm sure he would have said a lot more. As of last June when I had my last appointment he hadn't gained the weight back.
asugar

Hi Terri!

Umm...your vet does realize that in the wild the diet of a dog is mostly protein, right? Dogs are descended from wolves. Wolves are carnivores and yet they have not all gone extinct from kidney failure. I'm not sure what's in HI PRO, but I'd be willing to bet that it's not all protein. My parents fed my dog from the table after I got married and moved out (couldn't take the dog with me). After 4 years of that diet (which included vegetables and starches), she became grossly overweight and developed diabetes. They had to have her euthanized because by that point, I was living in another state and my mom had terminal cancer and was in no condition to give the dog insulin injections.
There have been NO studies to the best of my knowledge that show that an adequate protein diet is harmful to the kidneys in any way. Yes, the glomuler filtration rate can increase a bit, but so does your heart rate when exercising. Does that mean that exercise is dangerous to my healthy heart because it increases my heart rate? My point is that a higher filtration rate is not necessarily indicative of a problem; only that the kidneys are doing what they were designed to do...filter. Normal healthy kidneys do not filter protein and will not unless they are already damamged by another mechanism, so how can eating adequate amounts of protein harm healthy kidneys? Atkins, as well as many other low carb plans, is an adequate protein/high fat/low carb diet, not high protein. There is nothing magical about carbs that decreasing them while maintaining your protein intake (or even increasing it to meet your minimum requirements) suddenly makes protein harmful to your kidneys.
As for diabetics on low carb, I am one. I've been on low carb for over 18 months. My doctor checks my kidney and liver function every 6 months. So far, everything is working just fine and I'm at a much lower risk for kidney problems now than I was before because my blood pressure and blood sugars are now normal. High blood pressure and uncontrolled blood sugars are the leading cause of kidney damage and failure because both damage the filtering mechanism of the kidneys which is what allows protein molecules to then be filtered and appear in the urine.
Another good example of a diabetic on low carb is Dr. Richard K. Bernstein. He's been doing it for 40+ years and puts his diabetic patients on it. No kidney failure for him so far. As a matter of fact, he was already exibiting kidney problems when he began low carbing to control his type 1 diabetes and it has since reversed itself.

I'm a diabetic heart patient, two-year survivor of a triple bypass. My bp has come down 60+ pts on both numbers. My triglycerides are down by half and my total cholesterol is under 200 for the first time since we started checking. I started Atkins in mid-March of this year and have lost 57 lbs. I have only good things to say about low-carbing.

and this to consider.

I have heard from others (and told myself) "what about fruits and vegetables." Well, I went through a few days of eating what I wanted and let me tell you this. When I eat without thinking about it, without dieting, without restriction, I barely touch fruit and vegetables. I usually will have one veg with dinner and if I am not too full from the other junk, a piece of fruit with or after lunch. And that is on a good day. So, if I am not going to eat the nine servings of fruits and vegetables anyway, that is no longer a valid argument for me not to do low carb.

To all nay-saying physicians I say this: if you think I am not going to eat healthfully my way (low carb), and I know I am not going to eat healthyfully your way (pyramid), isn't it better to let me do it my way and lose some weight? A lot of physicans (and others) need to wake up. How many times does it have to be said that obesity has become an epidemic?

Trust me...I don't think anyone can argue any more than I can with myself. And the bottom line is: I don't lose weight your way. I don't feel good your way. I don't have good skin your way. I don't sleep well your way. I have mood swings your way. Why should I continue to try it your way? How many times do I have to get burned before I learn? How many people have to die before you learn? How many people have to get diabetes? heart disease? auto-immune diseases?

(Does anyone have a soap box?)

I'm sorry, but your vets a freaking moron.

Dogs evolved from wolves. Wolves kill things and eat them! They don't climb apple trees and eat apples..

Anyways, Kidney failure happens for a number of reasons in dogs. Mostly because of old age. Cancer. Urinary problems. (if you had a dog that rarely drank, theres another reason). Toxins like ANTI FREEZE will mess up their kidneys....ect. But not because of protein..



Um.. thats not a layer of fat....Its mostly water..

Calcium is harder on the kidneys than protein is, I bet he didn't tell you that though did he?


Jeff

Quietone, your post above is very true for me as well. I definitely eat more vegetables now than I did before. I never used to eat salad, now I have it for lunch almost always. And a green vegetable with dinner every single day. It really annoys me when people say things like "don't you ever miss salad? I just couldn't live like that!" When in reality, I might eat more green vegetables than they do.

I used to eat fast food, french fries, hush puppies, fried chicken and biscuits, etc., all the time, plus dessert almost every night. No one can tell me that the way I eat now is unhealthy compared with before.

OMG..you're vet is more then a freaken moron :lol

Atkins being a high protein diet is such a myth..don't listen to what anyone has to say..just go with what your body feels