Spirulina and Renal Failure

Spirulina has long been used as a nutrition because it contains rich proteins, amino acids and other nutritions. It is a blue-green algae that grows in alkaline water.

Recent studies have found that spirulina also contains rich vitamins and antioxidants which can help renal failure patients to detoxify their kidneys, slow down illness progression and improve kidney functions.

Renal failure patients need to limit protein intake to help reduce the production of nitrogenous wastes, ease high toxin states in the patients, reduce burdens to the kidneys and protect residual kidney functions. Limit protein intake does not mean that protein is harmful to the patients, only that patients need to control the intake of protein to reduce extra burdens to the kidneys.

We know that protein is essential for maintaining the normal life activities of the patients, therefore it is important for renal failure patients to have some high-quality protein sources such as lean meat, milk, fresh water fish, etc. Since the amount of protein is limited, high-quality proteins contains more essential amino acids and at the same time they produce less metabolic wastes and toxins. From this regard, spirulina is a good choice because it is a complete protein that contains all the essential amino acids that we need, though it contains less amount of methionine, cysteine and lysine compared with proteins of meat, eggs and milk.

Another benefits of spirulina for renal failure patients is that it can help improve the patient’s immune system. Most renal failure patients suffer from more or less immune disorder and immune dysfunction. Weak immunity often make them easy to get cold, infections, viruses which are the common inducement of illness relapse and risk factors that can worsen renal damages. It has been proved that spirulina can help regulate immune disorder and enhance the patient’s immune system functions so that patients can become stronger and stronger.

But one thing needs to be noted is that spirulina contains rich electrolytes and minerals such as potassium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, etc. Therefore the amount should be limited or it can be harmful to the patients because sometimes we can eat too much of good things and renal failure patients should pay more attention to their daily diets and eating habits for the sake of slowing down illness progression.