The prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in India is increasing rapidly. CKD is a progressive disease but is silent in its earlier stages. Data from the CKD registry which tracks the different stages of CKD at presentation to nephrologists reveals that the majority of the patients with CKD get diagnosed in Stage 4 or stage 5. For a patient with Stage 5 CKD there are only two scientifically validated treatments all over the world that will allow a patient to survive and live: one is Dialysis and the other is kidney transplant.
All other alternative therapies that you find in lay press, advertisements or social media are scientifically invalidated and can be considered a form of quackery. In my experience over the last 30 years, I am yet to see a patient of Stage 5 CKD recording on these unscientific and unvalidated treatments. On the contrary these weaken the patient and result in loss of precious time and money and lead to malnutrition and thereby result in poorer outcomes of these patients on dialysis or kidney transplant.
