Hi. Happy World Kidney Day. I'm Vanessa Rojas-Bautista, RDN clinical renal dietitian for the department of medicine. Today, I'd like to talk to you about renal nutrition therapy and the prevention of CKD. Today we're going to talk about utilizing individualized nutrition therapy to prevent CKD and the progression of various stages. Today I'd like to discuss a few topics First, let's start with the objectives. First I'd like to talk about what chronic kidney disease is. what are common risk factors of CKD, is there a healthcare professional that can help me monitor my nutritional status and what they do, what is an individualized nutrition prescription, how can my nutrition prescription help me prevent CKD or the progression of CKD, what kind of diet should i be on, and what can I do today to start my nutritional journey of prevention and kidney care? First let's talk about what chronic kidney disease is. A chronic kidney disease is a condition characterized by the loss of kidney function over time. There are some common risk factors that are associated with this. Some of them are diabetes, hypertension , family history of kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and recurrent urinary tract infections. Of these five major risk factors, three of them can be reduced with renal nutrition therapy. Key nutritional components to slowing down and preventing CKD are the following. Whether you're trying to prevent ckt or you have been diagnosed with CKD, eating an appropriate diet will help the progression and/or the diagnosis. Some of these things include controlling your blood pressure, reducing your salt intake, reducing your protein intake, which will be discussed later, and managing diabetes. So what is the role of a dietician and how can a dietitian help you? A dietitian can use a therapeutic approach to prevent, monitor, and treat a medical condition, especially the progression of CKD and nutritional treatment for ESRD. This also includes the use of individualized nutrition prescription, which is your prescribed diet. It is also monitored by your medical doctor, as well as your dietitian. Now, what is an individualized nutrition prescription? An individualized nutrition prescription is an individualized instruction from a dietitian which recommends your dietary intake. A dietitian will utilize the best available evidence and clinical judgment to individualize as needed... ...based on current reference standards and dietary guidelines, which is adjusted for patients' health conditions and diagnosis. A nutrition prescription can be adjusted frequently based on a patient's conditions and clinical judgment of your doctor. For those of us who are preventing CKD or working on trying to prevent CKD, eating a well-balanced diet of protein, carbohydrates, fruits, and vegetables is very helpful. Managing your blood sugar levels, if you're diabetic, is very important. Eating fresh, homemade food that is low in sodium, choose to limit eating out, this will help eliminate your high calories and high sodium filled foods, limiting unhealthy fats and substituting with healthy fats, such as avocados and mono and polyunsaturated fat. For those of us who may have been diagnosed with stages 1 through 4, these are some of the precautions we must take. We would like to consume a diet low in protein. A dietitian can work with you on what a low-protein diet means for you. We would also like to limit phosphorus intake and limit potassium intake. This will be very individualized depending on the patient. Fluid should be tailored to fit an individual's needs. We should also focus on a low-sodium diet between 2 to 3 grams. If you're diabetic, it is important to balance your carbohydrate intake. Now let's discuss the diet for those of us who have end-stage renal disease or CKD-5. With CKT-5, it's much different. It's very important to eat high-protein diet. We would also like to limit intake of phosphorus and potassium. It's also important to restrict our fluid intake. We definitely want to consume a low-sodium diet. If you're diabetic, it's important for you to continue to balance your carbohydrate intake as well. So what should you do now? Whichever category you fall into, it's very important for you to schedule an appointment to see your doctor, who can refer you to a dietitian today. Once your referred to a dietitian, a dietitian will be able to assess your nutritional and health needs. They will also help you develop a meal plan and monitor and evaluate your nutritional status. I hope this nutrition information will help you on your kidney care journey. In the meantime, please reach out to your physician and ask them to refer you to your dietitian. I look forward to seeing you