HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Kidneys, Blood Pressure, and Infections

Support Forums
>
Lyme Disease
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 5/10/2022 1:44 PM (GMT 0)
My mom (70) has had issues with high BP and was recently prescribed 5mg Amlodipine which has greatly helped in keeping it down. The following are her recent kidney numbers. They were about the same when checked 6 or so months ago.

BUN (range 8-27 mg/dl) Result - 13
Creatinine (range 0.57-1.00 mg/dl) Result - 1.01
BUN/Creatinine Ratio (range 12-28) Result - 13
eGFR (range >59) Result - 60
Albumin/Creatinine Ratio, Urine - (range 0-29) Result - <24

Based on these results:

1. Do you think a Lyme doctor would treat aggressively with abx while supporting the kidneys with supplements? What I mean is do you think the doctor would be concerned about treating her because of her kidney results?

2. Is there anyone who has had kidney numbers improve with infection treatment? Funny how if I recall correctly, her kidney numbers improved when taking Houttuynia one summer, but I can't be certain it was connected.

I'm praying about using Dr. SP's Lyme/Bart protocol including Tetracycline and Diflucan for her, as I suspect she has some kind of infection (Bart, Lyme...) and probably parasites based on her reaction to IVM. Would definitely be getting labs to track kidney numbers during treatment.

Thoughts?
Posted 5/10/2022 2:08 PM (GMT 0)
Hi JMF,

Houttuynia has been shown to reduce the oxidative stress and nephrotoxicity (kidney toxicity) induced by gentamicin, this may or may not extend to other antibiotics. Also it has been shown to reduce glycative and oxidative stress in the kidneys of diabetic rats. It's also anti-inflammatory.

So one of the questions to maybe figure out, is if it's indeed the high BP causing the kidney numbers to be borderline like that, or if it's something else causing it. For example, something else she's taking? Where the Houttuynia actually reduced that issue one summer.

Here are 4 relevant papers by the way:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-015-0994-y

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmc3834437/

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0230645

https://www.spandidos-publications.com/10.3892/etm.2015.2467
Posted 5/10/2022 2:41 PM (GMT 0)
not a subject i have dug deeply into - but based on those numbers - i am struggling to see a major issue

at least all are within range - except for creatinine - which is a tiny bit over "normal range" - but that can be high due to simple dehydration - or diet ( higher protein intake can raise creatine) - or any condition that causes tissue breakdown in the body - eg bart/lyme ?

creatinine being slightly high is pulling the BUN/Creatinine ratio toward the lower end of normal - but that would be expected as BUN is middle of range / normal - so this ratio is really not telling you anything new.

eGFR is towards the lower end - but its a bit of a weird calculated number and i see that a lot - so think this could be normal for someone of 70years of age - and also with a history of high blood pressure

i guess i am just saying that i don't really see any evidence of a significant kidney problem as such there
Posted 5/10/2022 3:02 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you, RainyCloud and Garzie. Yes, I didn't think it looked too bad but wanted some clarification if we do decide to go forward with treating her ourselves.

"or any condition that causes tissue breakdown in the body - eg bart/lyme ?"

This could be.

Rainy, she's not really on any other meds, just on supplements and some herbs. She did just finish a couple weeks of Rifaximin as a trial run to see if SIBO could be the issue. That was after the kidney tests though. The Rifaximin hasn't given any real noted benefit that I can see, but we'll see how she is after a few days off it.
Posted 5/10/2022 4:54 PM (GMT 0)
I don't think most LLMDs would be concerned about these test results at all. Maybe they would repeat the labs periodically to keep an eye on them, but they probably would advise the same detox and kidney support they would recommend to all their patients. In my experience, doctors aren't concerned about out-of-range test results unless they are way out of range.
Posted 5/10/2022 6:00 PM (GMT 0)
Treatment may not even affect the kidney function.

Even if it does - just keep an eye on the testing -

At one point when I was treating Bartonella/Persisters - my kidney function number would drop but when I stopped treatment it would go back up.

Now my gfr is usually in the 70’s
(I’m not on the Bart/Persisters protocol anymore)
Posted 5/10/2022 9:19 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks, all. This is very helpful.
Posted 5/10/2022 10:18 PM (GMT 0)
JMF - Before the results you report on your mom's tests, how long ago was the last time you had gotten "kidney" numbers on her? Just wondering if this may have been a slow process or happened fast. Garzie's mention of HBP is a good one and may have had a slow drain on kidneys.

As far as Houttuynia goes, I have been taking it for months now, and it doesn't seem to have impacted my kidney numbers, which have been low for years. I started taking it after reading the same information Rainy mentioned.

Her overall numbers are, as already mentioned by Garzie, are not bad. And he's right about age effecting the results. So nothing to panic about there, but surely something to keep an eye on. My LLMD and a naturalist kept telling me "low kidney function is common for Lyme," which I finally learned it is not and should be monitored.
Posted 5/10/2022 11:38 PM (GMT 0)
running wild, we last checked about six months ago, and her numbers were very similar and were not much different a year ago. I was just looking back at some of her labs over the last year or two. It does look like her kidneys have worsened some in that time period but so has her health, as she seems to be fighting some kind of infection. And with the worsened infection, it appears her BP goes higher. Lord willing, correcting the BP will help and addressing whatever is ailing her. Thanks.
Posted 5/12/2022 10:12 PM (GMT 0)
Hope the blood pressure does the trick. As I'm sure you've seen, less red meats could help with creatinine, as well as meats in general. Easier said than done. But with everything else in good range, that may not be needed. I've gone about 9 years with numbers not much worse than they were in 2013. But the creatinine has gone up some.
Posted 5/12/2022 11:15 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you, running wild.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply