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 232 items

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See also VitaminDWiki

• 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 62 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 29 items
• Search VitaminDWiki 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

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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 VitaminDWiki__
• 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

VitaminDWiki - 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

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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

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Causes of CKD

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Only 15% kidney function remains by stage 5

URL

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CKD signs and symptoms

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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.

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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