What is Cardiovascular Kidney Metabolic Syndrome?
A newfound medical condition caused by the interplay of chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular system
Did you know that someone as young as 10 years old could have fatty streaks in their blood that will eventually form into plaques as they turn 20? In your
30s, your arteries may become clogged thus impeding blood flow and oxygen, increasing blood pressure, and leading to heart attack or stroke. This was evidenced by the Bogalusa Heart Study in semi-rural Louisiana, an ongoing research on a long-term population that begun in 1972 among children and adolescents and later to young adults.
If a child can have this disease, how much more an adult? If you have been diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes, have high triglycerides and low HDL or good cholesterol in addition to excessive belly fat, then you have a condition known as metabolic syndrome. These cluster of medical conditions and risk factors put you at a dangerously high risk for diseases of the heart and blood vessels.
To make matters worse, a recent presidential advisory from the American Heart Association on October 9, 2023 named a newfound medical condition called Cardiovascular Kidney Metabolic (CKM) syndrome. As if the risk factors included in the metabolic syndrome isn’t enough, chronic kidney disease is now recognized as an amplifier of cardiovascular disease.
This dire situation however isn’t hopeless. The advisory gives us hope: “There is also a growing number of therapeutic options that favorably affect metabolic risk factors, kidney function, or both that also have cardioprotective effects.”
The presidential advisory provides guidance that includes holistic approaches to care for patients suffering from CKS syndrome, as well as to equitably enhance the cardiovascular kidney metabolic health of everyone.
Part and parcel of holistic approach to patient care is nutrition. But as a registered nutritionist dietitian practicing integrative and functional nutrition, I say, we shouldn’t settle for conventional nutrition. Functional nutrition is the key to battling CKM. Functional nutrition doesn’t merely focus on diet. It is a holistic approach that considers lifestyle factors using wholesome and predominantly plant-based food sources as medicine. Instead of looking at the disease condition and simply giving a corresponding diet, a functional nutritionist dietitian will get to the root cause of the nutrition related medical condition.
For example, when a patient has high cholesterol, in addition to recommending a high fiber, low fat, and low cholesterol diet that has calories computed and divided accordingly, the functional nutritionist dietitian will also look at eating patterns, food availability, stress factors, sleep, and other factors that may influence food intake and lifestyle. Did you know that lack of quality sleep will increase your chances of getting high cholesterol and even a fatty liver due to the increase in the stress hormone cortisol? It will also affect your ghrelin hormone that increases appetite.
To shed light on how to nutritionally combat CKM, Philippine registered nutritionist dietitian and plantrician Consuelo Domingo, RND emphasizes on how functional nutrition using plant foods as medicine transcends all aspects of preventive health and disease management contrary to the mechanism of drugs which is symptom specific. Drugs can relieve symptoms but food is the only tool we can use to repair and prevent development of diseases. Do not wait until you are sick and you already need to be prescribed medication. Take action now and take nutrition seriously.
“To address CKM, we have to remember that we are dealing with insulin resistance and elevated blood glucose level, high triglycerides and cholesterol, excessive abdominal fat, high blood pressure and kidney malfunctions. Including anemia or low oxygenated blood which is common among kidney patients. Anemia exacerbates cardiovascular diseases. There are a lot of imbalances that we need to correct and the oxidative stress or inflammation that also need to be quelled,” explains Domingo.
Domingo urges everyone to shift to a wholesome plant-based way of eating. That includes getting protein from plant sources. This may post a problem for meat lovers and individuals who believe that plant foods do not provide a complete dietary source of protein—a belief that Domingo adamantly debunks.
“Contrary to the belief that only meat, egg, milk, and dairy products will give you the best and complete protein as they contain all the essential amino acids the body needs, scientific evidence challenges this long-time belief!” she says. Plantbased foods offer a more superior protein both in type and quality. Plant protein like soy contains all the nine essential amino acids which our body cannot make.”
Domingo adds that it is easy to get all the protein you need without eating meat, dairy or eggs. For as long as you are consuming the intended daily caloric needs from a variety of plant foods including beans, nuts, and seeds, whole grains and vegetables, you will not be protein deficient. Furthermore, you will be free from the added burden of consuming animal protein that is packed with saturated fat, cholesterol, triglycerides, antibiotics, steroid hormones, and other toxic chemicals. All of which will put your body in a pro-inflammatory state and affect all organs and not just the heart and kidneys.
“How then do you want your protein to be packaged? Would you like it to be wrapped in thousands of phytochemicals, antioxidants, polysaccharides, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, macronutrients, and fiber or would you rather get it with all those toxins and pro-inflammatory substances included that are detrimental to your health?” Domingo says.according to the position statement issued by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, USA, “It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately planned vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes. Plantbased diets are more environmentally sustainable than diets rich in animal products because they use fewer natural resources and are associated with much less environmental damage.”
If you have been diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes, have high triglycerides and low HDL or good cholesterol in addition to excessive belly fat, then you have a condition known as metabolic syndrome. These cluster of medical conditions and risk factors put you at a dangerously high risk for diseases of the heart and blood vessels.