Poor response to COVID Vaccine in Kidney Patients: Decode the Science-Understand your Options

COVID19 Vaccine Response in immunocompromised CKD Dialysis Post Kidney Transplant patients | All Things Kidney | All Things Kidney Official | allthingskidney.com | Dr Sparshita Nag | Kidney Disease

COVID19 vaccine inoculations are the best possible protection for most health profiles that science offers against this pandemic menace. However, as we know, COVID vaccines in their initially recommended dose schedules proved less effective in immunocompromised individuals. This was irrespective of whether  poor immunity resulted from a medical condition or due to immuno-suppressive medication. Patients with advanced Chronic Kidney Disease & Kidney Transplant recipients are a prominent subgroup in this population subset of the “Vaccine Helpless”.

So how did poor immunity in kidney patients impact vaccine effectiveness?

◾ Will repeated immune challenge with extra doses as part of primary vaccine series truly help all kidney patients? How tenable is it?

◾ Any better alternatives to garner adequate immune protection for our cohort without going overboard with the “immune challenge” and/or inviting side-effects of major concern?

 

Read on to decode the relevant science and understand your options for adequate immune protection against COVID-19.

(DISCLAIMER: The article is purely a medically feasible insight on current evidence from peer-reviewed scientific literature on COVID-19 vaccine efficiency, its shortcomings & potential relevant alternative pharmacological solutions w.r.t. patients with chronic kidney disease. The intention is to place the facts as they are with due respect to Science. It is not intended to promote any vaccine hesitancy or support anti-vaxxer views. It does not represent any political positioning either.)

Continue reading “Poor response to COVID Vaccine in Kidney Patients: Decode the Science-Understand your Options”

Kidney Transplant: Before the surgery – II

Transplant Kidney Transplant Hospital Admission till Surgery | allthingskidney.com | all things kidney ATK

Hello kidney warriors & knowledge seekers! Today, we continue from our previous article on all steps that kidney patients & kidney donors need to follow before getting admitted to the hospital for a Transplant surgery.

The article today explains the basic workflow involved for every kidney patient scheduled for a transplant & their donor starting from hospital admission until they finally get to go under the knife.

Continue reading “Kidney Transplant: Before the surgery – II”

Kidney Transplant – Basics


Contents


 

1. What is Kidney Transplant?

Kidneys are essential for sustaining life. Individuals who end up with very little or almost no kidney function, either due to an incurable disease, birth defect or extensive injury, require a solution to regain/assist with their kidney function. Kidney Transplant is one of the methods to do so.

This involves a surgical procedure of “transferring” a healthy, matched kidney from a willing donor to “implant” it in the belly of the patient requiring the organ. Hence the name, Transplant.

Here, the donor kidney is securely removed with Continue reading “Kidney Transplant – Basics”

High Blood Pressure in CKD

High blood pressure is almost always present at the time of diagnosing Chronic Kidney Disease. And as time passes during your CKD journey, controlling your blood pressure becomes an essential part of your treatment plan to delay kidney failure.

But why does your blood pressure rise in chronic kidney disease in the first place?!

High blood pressure in chronic kidney disease cover pic allthingskidney.com

That, and the basics that you must understand about high blood pressure in CKD is what today’s storytelling is about.

Continue reading “High Blood Pressure in CKD”

Vaccines & Kidney Patients: A Comprehensive Guide

Vaccine Guide for Kidney Patients Cover

Vaccines are necessary to boost our immune power to effectively ward-off specific infections. They form a crucial part of medically preparing all patients of Chronic Kidney Disease for a kidney transplant surgery as well.

However, patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), those with Kidney Failure on Dialysis or Kidney Transplant recipients have a weaker immune system. Since vaccines are basically made of weakened germs or its parts, vaccinating this subset of patients requires caution and clinical supervision.

Continue reading “Vaccines & Kidney Patients: A Comprehensive Guide”

Vaccine Basics for Kidney Patients

Amidst all the enthusiastic talk of developing a Vaccine to fight-off COVID19 (the new coronavirus) and the World Immunization Week (24th-30th Aprilsilently passing by, we at Team ATK felt it’s appropriate to help you gain a basic insight on Vaccines and their utility & limitations in kidney patients.

After all, vaccines form a crucial part of medically preparing all patients of Chronic Kidney Disease for a transplant surgery. Add to that, the fact that SOME vaccines are UNSAFE for transplant recipients, and this topic becomes all the more significant.

So, let’s begin then, shall we?

 

Vaccine Basics for Kidney Patients

Continue reading “Vaccine Basics for Kidney Patients”

3 Must-have tools for a “Low Sodium” Renal Diet

Low Sodium Kidney Friendly Cooking tools

Restricting your daily intake of Sodium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Protein & Fat in your food is the cornerstone of a Renal Diet Plan. Renal Dietitians are trained to help kidney patients identify which nutrients to restrict or increase in their daily diets, and by how much, based on our individual kidney health status. This means you will need to adjust your food & condiment portions to remain within your daily nutrient allowance. So how do you go about it? Continue reading “3 Must-have tools for a “Low Sodium” Renal Diet”

Ensuring Hygiene in a Kidney-friendly Kitchen

Hygiene in a Kidney Kitchen

 

Hygiene is an important consideration for everything that enters your body, whether you eat it, drink it, breathe it or inject it. This is more so if a major, essential organ of the body like your kidneys are unwell. That’s because, in normal health, kidneys efficiently eliminate ALL excess metabolic wastes and impurities in blood via urine. But Chronic Kidney Disease progressively diminishes this blood-cleansing ability of kidneys as well as blunts our body’s immune defences with time.

💡 So what are the best practices to keep your kidney kitchen hygienic?

💡 Which are the must-have equipment/utility items that you should consider stocking-up your kitchen with, to turn it into a “Kidney-Fortress”?  

 

These are what this article has discussed today. Continue reading “Ensuring Hygiene in a Kidney-friendly Kitchen”

Kidney-Friendly Kitchen: The must-have tools!

Kidney friendly

What business does someone trained as a physician-scientist have, talking about “Tools necessary for a Kidney-friendly kitchen”, you may ask?

Kidney Friendly Kitchen



Well, it’s my own decade-long Experience navigating life as a Kidney Warrior (currently post-kidney transplant) and the frustrating lack of organized information on this matter in the medical literature or public domain, that has motivated me to help fellow members in the Kidney Community in this regard.

As soon as you are diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, dietary modifications take the centre-stage Continue reading “Kidney-Friendly Kitchen: The must-have tools!”