Dietary Clinic

Dietary Clinic

Dietary Clinic: Our dietary clinicians make recommendations about requirements for appropriate diet changes to support patients with kidney diseases. Our dietician instructs individuals on how to use their diet to best support their medical conditions. It not only addresses existing medical conditions but also attempts to lower the risk of new complications.

How our dietician can help with certain conditions

Our dietary clinic can be a very effective component of the overall management plan for a number of common diseases.

Diabetes

Diabetes is a condition in which your blood sugar levels become too high. This can either be type 1, in which your pancreas produces too little insulin, or type 2, in which your body doesn’t properly use insulin to regulate blood sugar.

If left untreated, diabetes can lead to complications like nerve and vision damage, stroke, kidney disease, poor circulation, heart disease, and gum infections.

Research shows that a proper diet can help control diabetes

For example, studies note that this therapy can lower certain markers of diabetes, such as hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), which is an indicator of long-term blood sugar control.

It’s also effective at managing gestational diabetes, a high blood sugar condition that occurs during pregnancy and requires dietary changes.

Treatment usually involves an RDN teaching carb counting and portion control, a technique that helps control blood sugar by keeping carb intake consistent — since carbs affect blood sugar more than other nutrients.

Heart disease

Heart disease refers to several conditions that affect heart function, such as irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, and plaque buildup in your arteries. Left untreated, it can lead to heart attack, stroke, aneurysm, heart failure, and even death.

Research demonstrates that MNT can reduce risk factors for heart disease, such as LDL (bad) cholesterol, triglycerides, and high blood pressure.

A dietician may recommend that you adhere to a diet low in saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, and inflammatory foods. However, it is important that you increase your fruit and vegetable intake and follow a more plant-based diet.

As obesity is a risk factor for heart disease, an RDN may also encourage lifestyle changes to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, including increasing physical activity and getting adequate sleep.

Cancer

Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells start to divide uncontrollably. It can affect any part of your body, such as your blood, bones, or organs.

One of the primary reasons that a dietician may be involved in cancer treatment is to help individuals with poor appetite, which is a common symptom of chemotherapy or cancer medications.

Radiation therapy may also damage the gastrointestinal lining and make it painful to eat or difficult to digest foods.

As such, many people with cancer struggle to eat enough and are at risk of malnutrition. An RDN may recommend high-calorie nutritional shakes or other fat- and protein-rich foods that are easy to consume and digest.

In severe cases, an RDN may recommend tube or IV feeding.

Digestive conditions

People with ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and Celiac disease, as well as those who’ve lost part of their intestinal tract due to surgery, can all benefit from MNT.

These digestive ailments can lead to poor nutrient absorption, malnutrition, weight loss, a buildup of toxins in the colon, and inflammation.

A dietician can develop a tailored MNT plan to fit the needs of a specific digestive condition, reduce symptoms, and improve quality of life.

For example, someone with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may benefit from a supervised elimination diet, in which certain foods are excluded and slowly added back to their diet to identify those that trigger symptoms.

Kidney disease

Untreated kidney disease, in which your blood is not filtered normally, can lead to complications like high levels of calcium and potassium in the blood, low iron levels, poor bone health, and kidney failure.

MNT is useful because most people with kidney disease may need to adjust their diet.

For example, some should limit their intake of nutrients like protein, potassium, phosphorus, and sodium, while others may need to adhere to certain fluid restrictions. These needs vary widely depending on the stage or severity of the disease.

Treating high blood pressure is often central to MNT for someone with kidney issues, as high blood pressure can increase your risk of this disease.