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55:44 · Feb 10, 2025

Kidney Disease and the Carnivore Diet! | Brandon Maxey

Brandon Maxi shares his remarkable recovery story from severe kidney failure through the carnivore diet after years of devastating health decline on vegan and raw vegan diets. Diagnosed with IGA nephropathy at age 15, Brandon's condition deteriorated dramatically while following plant-based protocols, ultimately leading to hospitalization with a hemoglobin level of just 1.5 (normal is 12-14) and requiring dialysis three times per week. His vegan journey, influenced by yoga community beliefs, left him wheelchair-bound, unable to use his hands, and weighing 45 pounds less than his current weight.

After discovering Dr. Anthony Chaffee's work and switching to a strict meat-only protocol, Brandon experienced dramatic improvements in strength, mobility, and overall health despite continuing dialysis. He progressed from wheelchair dependence to hiking and cycling, consuming up to three 16-ounce ribeye steaks daily during his recovery phase. Brandon also provides crucial insights into the dialysis experience, revealing how diabetic patients continue consuming sugar while losing limbs, and emphasizes the importance of seeking care at centers of excellence rather than standard hospitals for complex medical conditions.

Key Takeaways

  • Hemoglobin levels of 1.5 (versus normal 12-14) can result from severe plant-based malnutrition, requiring immediate medical intervention and blood transfusions
  • IGA nephropathy patients may benefit from early carnivore intervention to halt disease progression, though existing kidney damage may not be reversible
  • Recovery from severe malnutrition required consuming three 16-ounce ribeye steaks daily for approximately one year to regain 45 pounds and restore basic mobility
  • Dialysis patients with diabetes continue deteriorating because they receive plant-based dietary recommendations while consuming sugar, leading to progressive amputations
  • Centers of excellence provide significantly superior care compared to standard hospitals, including newer treatments and surgical techniques not available elsewhere
  • Strict elimination to meat, salt, and water only may be necessary for those with multiple food sensitivities and autoimmune conditions
  • IGA Nephropathy Diagnosis and Early Dietary Interventions
  • Veganism to Raw Fruit Diet - Health Deterioration and Hospitalization
  • Discovering Carnivore Diet for Autoimmune Kidney Disease
  • Dialysis Recovery - From Wheelchair to Walking on Carnivore
  • Diabetes and Dialysis Centers - Plant-Based Diet Recommendations
  • Mayo Clinic vs Local Hospitals - Centers of Excellence for Kidney Transplant
  • Dialysis Treatment Advocacy and Corporate Healthcare Challenges

This is an auto-generated transcript from YouTube and may contain errors or inaccuracies.

welcome to the plantree MD podcast with Dr Anthony chaffy where we discuss diet and nutrition and how this affects health and chronic disease and show you how you can use this to optimize your health and happiness both mentally and physically hello everyone thank you for joining me for another episode of the plant-free MD podcast I'm your host Dr Anthony chaffy and today I have a very special guest someone's become a good friend of mine Brandon Maxi who is going to tell us his story Brandon great to see you man how you been great to see you too thanks for having me you're very welcome um so for for people haven't come across you haven't heard your story yet can you tell us a bit about yourself sure so um I'm currently um on dialysis and looking for a kidney transplant hopefully that'll be happening in uh March as I have a living donor um of course I'm always taking taking backups because you know finding a match and finding um you know kidneys is a difficult and interesting process to say the least but um I was diagnosed with IGA nephropathy uh when I was 15 and ever since then my kidneys have you know slowly been getting worse um I've tried lots of different lifestyle hacks and interventions uh mostly dietary um really so uh you know shortly after being diagnosed I was in college and in college you know the cafeteria food is not not very good so I was going to uh actually I had a I had an Earth Fair which is kind of like a healthy supermarket and so from from from very early on in my kidney diagnosis I was uh conscious about eating and um lifestyle exercising and and and doing all these things I grew up playing sports playing soccer golf tennis and uh continued those um through college recreationally and um yeah so I started off first with like uh you know eating organic food and you know that was kind of the the call to action there it was just like uh like the non GMO and stuff like that and then um I got into yoga and meditation became a yoga teacher and a meditation teacher and started with the the lineage of yoga and meditation that I began with um vegetarianism and veganism were like hard were pushed very hard so I adapted veganism um which after a couple years led to um chronic fatigue syndrome and I remember actually uh my girlfriend at the time sent me to a nutritionalist and was like Hey you the nutritionalist like you need to eat some meat she was recommending like a western price style and I hadn't had meat in two years and I I ate I I remember eating a steak and then I woke up that night in the middle of the night with just so much energy and I was like wow like I need I need a steak but and I should have taken that uh that message a little bit more seriously um but I kept on in in the yoga community and since the veganism wasn't working I I switched to raw vegan veganism and that things just got worse from there and then in 21 I ended up in the hospital I was living down in Costa Rica so I could actually like eat a raw fruit diet and because at this time I I had moved down there in 2018 all I could find online about kidneys was raw fruit and you know how that was like helping the kidneys get all this super ultra filtration and and things like that there was no there wasn't any carnivore kidney talk on you know YouTube or like on the internet at this time so my time in has been a little bit off but anyway I ended up in the hospital down in Costa Rica in 21 um with severe anemia my hemoglobin was like 1.5 the ER doctor was like how are you even walking you know so they they checked me into the hospital they said I couldn't leave because I was basically a risk to the commun to the community so I was in the hospital for for five days and then my friend flew me back to the States and I was on I went on to hemo dialysis for two months and then they switched me they kind of sold me to another to parital dialysis and that really didn't work and I I got completely emaciated and uh it really destroyed my health and then I got back on hemo dialysis at the end of 23 or 22 excuse me and I've just been recovering ever since basically my story and carnivore started with your group and your challenge in April of 23 nice well I mean that's crazy so people don't know I mean hemoglobin of of 1.5 I mean this is basically you don't have any blood left and uh you know you do transfusions on someone you know below hemoglobin of of nine if they're symptomatic and and sometimes you know if it gets too far if it gets that low or lower you might just you might just um transfuse them anyway so you know 1.5 is is extremely low you mean you want to be above you know 12 12 and a half 13 14 is a normal level so you had essentially you know 1/8 of the hemoglobin and and uh you know that this the oxygen transport molecules in your blood about 1/8 that you need it and obviously that's very unsafe and uh yeah I'm not um I'm not surprised your doctors were surprised that you were barely that you were even walking um well that's that's uh an incredible story um it's really really sad to hear that you went through all of that um and I think that um you know some of the things that that we spoke about you know in our group and everything like that it was you know got it got into more detail about how difficult that was but um how was it how did you come to the carnivore died and what made you realize that this is something that you needed to change in your life so how did I come to the carnivore diet that's a that's a really good question um I believe it was just research I was just online researching about you know Kidney Health um and I I found I found kin Barry first and then I found you and Dr Kilts and kind of like the crew you know and um I just the fact that I knew that IG nephropathy was autoimmune related I realized that you know basically that cutting never I tried I've tried it at this point tried everything else so I was like okay let me just let's let's cut out everything let's do you know lion diet and let's see what if what I have you know allergic you know immunity to that shows the response um and that was where and that was where it started and I remember I went through like like it was probably six months of like torture like I had like you know my you know that when you were little when you would you have like a growth in your legs like that feeling of like you know you're you're getting nutrients and you know your legs are growing or maybe your bones are becoming more dense I had I had that I had like keto rash I had oxalate dumping detox all of all of this stuff but yeah I found I found um I found it online and I was like I'm G to I'm going to give this a try and so so I did yeah and you were having some some other issues as well like neurological issues is that right um no nothing really ner I mean like perspective uh I would say neuropathy yeah you know in my in my feet um was really bad at the at the beginning just like it just felt like there there was they were just like it's weird it's like gloved feet that just you you don't have any just no sensation in Num numb and tingly and just they don't feel quite right on your body yeah and so apart from the you know the anemia and the kidney issues what were some of the other problems that you faced when you were in the the the vegan side of things trying to heal yourself by going doubling down on raw vegan then fruitarian and things like that you know I didn't really have any symptoms until well that's not true when I started the when I started the raw fruit diet I had a lot of gout and then that that shifted um but I was like in my own little like you know low cholesterol molecule mind and I was just like I'm detoxing like this is good like I'm having gout and I'm you know I'm having like digested stools but you know this is just like yeah so the stools were definitely like doing all of that were very like loose and I couldn't digest anything so um at the Forefront of my problems with the veganism and the raw veganism was just like the gut and just just just not having a happy gut yeah okay I remember um one of the discussions we had you know if you're happy to talk about when you were sort of at at the very end of the point that you were on veganism that um that you I I thought I remember you having some difficulty walking or using your phone or things like that is am I remembering that correctly yeah so when I was right before I went into the hospital I had developed um like some swelling and shortness of breath and because I had moved to this um to this as Asam in Costa Rica where I was doing yoga and meditation and it was high up in the mountains and I was I was just like I you know we be like go going to walk and I'd be like okay and then I was like struggling like I was at the back of the group just we're just like walking and we're just like walking up a hill and so that was really where they started the symptoms started to manifest before I went into the hospital okay and so when you decided to go Conor you you did just did a hard switch it wasn't did did you like slowly introduce me or did you just go like raw vegan to just full carnivore I did I did I say that I started in April because that was when I started with your group and started like strict carnivore which moved in the lion for for eight months um but before that in that February I had started I was doing a lot of dairy um and cream and and meat but so yes I had I had started like a little bit before there okay but I'm I'm allergic to or I have I don't know if I'm allergic because I had an allergy test and it said I was fine to milk but I have a I have a response to it so really I just eat just meat salt and water now yeah and so how how has that been how when you switched to just meat salt and water what were some of the the changes and improvements you saw well I was the main one I I think was just weight gain and just giving myself what I needed as far as like nourishment to get myself back to basically just standing upright at this at this point the Partin dialysis which um I had been on for 15 months had gotten me to a wheelchair so essentially I was going from a wheelchair uh to walking around the neighborhood with like a walker to like hiking sticks to walking so I was eating like big time for like mon for probably year I was eating like three 16 ounce ribe eyes a day um breakfast lunch and dinner and so that was crucial at at helping me get my strength back to to just walk um as well as put on weight um I was 45 pounds lighter than I am now oh so yeah yeah that's huge and so so it's been a couple years now and uh how are you doing what's what's life like now it's good I'm I'm able to I'm able to like I go to like I went to yoga this morning I can go out and go on a walk um I can ride my bicycle um I go to the sauna a few times um do some cold showers um everything's a lot better yeah I'm still having to go to dialysis I have to go to alysis Monday Wednesday Friday and that comes with its own set of uh complications and and um advocacy because I'm I'm My Own Advocate which um unfortunately most people in the dialysis unit don't have any sort of advocacy or uh know how to help themselves which is which is rough and that's I mean that's one of the things I really wanted to talk about is because you know seeing people in in dialysis like a lot of people don't don't know like what goes on in there and so just bringing a little bit of awareness to that and um besides just the fact that you you have to go there three times a week and it takes out a huge chunk of your day but it's I'm also grateful for it and um because it's keeping me alive and it's it's it's life support hey guys just want to take a second to thank our sponsor carnivore bar I don't promote many products because honestly all you need to be healthy is to just eat meat for those times that you're out hiking road tripping or stuck at work and you want a nutritious snack that is just meat fat and salt if you want it the carnivore bar is a great option so I like this product not because it's just pure meat but also because I want the carnivore Market to thrive as well and the more we support meet only products the more meet only products there will be available in the mainstream so if this sounds like something you'd like to get behind check it out using my discount code Anthony to get 10% off which also applies to subscriptions giving you 25% off total all right thanks guys all right well can you can you tell us a bit about that because I don't think many people really understand understand you know what goes on in in dialysis and what how how serious of an issue it is like you say even just from a Time perspective it can be several hours three days a week and um and that's a huge commitment as well yeah so for me I leave my house at 11 and I usually get back around like 3:34 so it's that's three days a week so those days are basically kaput um and so most people in the dialysis unit are there because of they had a diabetes and they you know that's most of the patients that you'll see in there and the most unfortunate thing is that these diabetic patients you know they are still sitting next to me and drinking Coke and eating crackers and they're and they're also so they're getting their their feet I see all the stages I see the feet like starting to kind of get like gnarled and like kind of like nasty and and then they get them they get their coat their toes cut off and then they get their their foot at their ankle cut off and then it's like the knee and that's really they just keep eating sugar and the doctors just are like you know coming around and doing their rounds and just observing this you know and then on top of that it's just because of the dialysis process being so intense on the body is just you know mineral and vitamin deficiency not having proper nutrition and proper supplementation for you know what they're basically putting their bodies through so most people that go into dialysis they just get worse and worse slowly um I'm I'm grateful and thankful that I've been able to um become stronger as a you know in in dialysis and then to kind of come come through uh a dark time when I was on the Partin dialysis yeah for sure and obviously you you had IG nephropathy which is a very specific reason why you had kidney failure it wasn't like it was the diabetes that can be you know reversible uh necessarily but have you have you ever spoken to some of the patients or even the doctors and said hey you got all these you know diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure and this is something that can be reversed you know if you just if you just do like even have to be a full carnivore di ketogenic diget or even just carbohydrate restriction therapeutic carbohydrate restriction if they want to be fancy and still feel like um you know they're they're having using medical terminology um have you had that conversation with anyone is anybody receptive to that yeah I've had that conversation with so so when you your care team is basically have a dietician so they come around and they're like and they totally you know what they promote they give you a sheet it's a plant-based diet yeah it's all it's it's it's all plans I already did that didn't work thanks yeah exactly um yes I've definitely had conversations and um you know they hear me and they take it in but it's really just in one ear and out the other yeah you know yeah that's unfortunate that's especially unfortunate because of the diabetes uh side of things I mean that's I mean that that's those hard data now I we have we have studies that have shown causation and reversibility of diabetes with ketogenic diets Vera Health published that study years ago and now that's been put into practice and and you're looking at verto Health themselves have reversed over have documented over 25,000 reversals of diabetes type two diabetes and I've seen that I mean every single patient that I have that had type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes or just insulin resistance every single one they adopt these measures and and it goes away and I was speaking with Dr Eric Westman who's over on on your side of the of the states over at Duke um he's a professor of medicine at Duke and I asked him I was just like you know you're he's been doing this for 25 years he's like you know is there is there a certain cohort that this wouldn't be applicable to that this wouldn't work for and he's like no this works for everybody it works for everybody in this way and you know so just you know be reassured that if you do this it will work you know it it may take you know a longer time for some people but it will work in this way and you know and just hopefully you you stop the damage before it's become so severe that that you know you have um so permanent issues because once you get onto dialysis it's um it's said that you can never get off of it I've seen you know self-reported um cases of three people coming off dialysis but that would have been more of the diabetic uh retina diabetic um issues not like IG nephropathy um with you I think you were telling me at one point you were still making urine and and that you actually saw some of the an improvement in your urine output has has that improved at all your kidney function at all since going no has it yeah um pretty the the thing that's really improved the most is just like the rest of my body yeah has really has really um come a long way okay like my my mom and sister they were they had to care for me because I I had kind of lost this was when at the end of being on parito dialysis and I had become emaciated and they were living with me because I couldn't really use my hands I was like tripping and falling and um they thought they were they thought I was a goner they like they were like they thought they were going to lose me so just getting back my my body you know has been has been the biggest thing that I've found with like carnivore and um making sure I eat meat and and stuff like that I did have um I had um a really crazy thing happened it was in like August I had um worms just out of out of nowhere um I think they had been in me for a while and it my body had just kind of gotten to the point where it had enough energy to to deal with them and um yeah I got I got rid of those uh on the Carnival and then interesting thing that happened after that is that I had like metav version um for like a couple months yeah so that yeah so that took me through an interesting time but um i' I've definitely just seen a lot of of healing on the you know carnivore diet yeah great yeah I mean you know from what you know you were saying there that sounds like things were were really tough you know at the end of the paranal dialysis you're saying that your hands weren't really working and you were in a wheelchair um what what was that like what was your life like before you actually made the switch to oh my gosh it was it was rough I was I was like literally going to my dialysis doctor and being like what is wrong with me like you know and he's like they one of the things that they they they do is they just look at the blood right so they're like well based on this we're adequately Queen you're getting adequate cleaning of your blood and everything else looks pretty good and I'm just like no like I'm getting worse and worse and worse so um it was it was really brutal I had to actually make thec decision myself and I had to go in there and be like you guys have to switch me to to heemo like I wasn't advised I was just like I was just I was like it's got to be the dialysis because the parital dialysis I don't know if you're familiar with it but what basically the dextrose sugar water solution comes into your uh you know your pertino cavity and it sat it sits in there for about an hour or two it it saturates toxins and pulls fluid across the the peronal membrane you know so you can you know get the fluid off your body and then it exits out and and I was doing that all night I was hooked up to a machine that would basically fill my cavity with sugar water for two hours dump it fill it dump it fill it dump it and that just just that dialysis didn't work so I just I saw myself go from being really rough coming back from Costa Rica um with like lots of swelling and edema and things like that but being like okay with like walking and you know I was producing more urine at that time as well to basically just 15 months of just going you know downhill and I I was even doing a transplant evaluation at the end of that time it was uh December of 22 and they were like you have to get better like you know I had recently had some blood transfusions and stuff like that as well so they were like you know you can't do this so it took me it's been that was like two years and um I've now you know fit more fit for transplant yeah great and I attribute that to carnivore and and eating know proper human diet yeah well I mean even just going to from the point that you weren't really able to use your hands I remember uh one time when we were speaking you were saying that it was at that point it was difficult for even for you to use your phone because your hands were were it was so difficult to use your hands and you know being in a wheelchair and then we saw you in the group you know over the course of of month started getting a little bit better and a little bit better and being able to go to PT and getting stronger and doing more and more uh which was which was fantastic to see are have you more or less healed at this point from that standpoint are you able to to do most most things normally exercise wise yeah yes I am the craziest thing that I that I didn't even realize that I had was just like the worst gate you know like my walk was just like I felt like it was fine but people were like my my PE my physical therapists were like well we we really should have taken a before and after of like of that so yeah I've been I mean I can go like I feel more normal now than than ever like I can walk several miles a day and yeah oh really good yeah so well that's great well I'm really glad to hear that you you have a a donor lined up as well so is that um is are they still doing testing for that or to see if it's a proper match or how what's uh what stage you at now yeah so she um is getting her her work up at the end of February and I actually have two um two donors so yeah um but she's doing her work up at the end of February and then they have a kidney pool are you familiar with this where you don't act she doesn't actually have to be like my match and I like take her kidney she can actually give her kidney to the pool and then I would get somebody else's kidney that is more suited for me so she's she's agree she's agreed to like give her kidney to the pool if she's not like an exact match right okay that's that's clever and so you know you could sort of yeah at least help people uh get better matches it doesn't have to be just a perfect match for you it might be a perfect match for someone else and then someone else might be a perfect M or more suitable match for you yeah she'll get she'll get somebody else she'll somebody else will probably get will get would get her kidney if it wasn't a match for me yeah exactly oh very good well it's great that uh that that you found that hopefully that um all goes smoothly and no more dialysis which would be great yes yeah um since since you started this I know it's hard to tell but um have you seen any changes like even did your did your kidneys continue to get worse over the past couple years or did it sort of level off after you changed to carnivore they've just this you know just looking at the creatin and the bun it's just basically stay the same MH so yeah yeah that's interesting it's it's one of those things you know we talk about on a carnivore diet that sometimes things can help but sometimes you know there's damage that's already been done that the body can't recover from and and it would be interesting um to see if other people that had IG nephropathy were to try this earlier on could that halt it and make it so they didn't have such you know severe damage to their kidneys in the first place you know we don't know it's just some it's just an important question to ask and um that would suggest that that if it if your kidney function is getting worse and worse and worse and worse and worse and then sort of levels off at this point it may be that someone in the future trying this could could find that um have you spoken to anybody else are you in in kidney groups and things like that um I'm not in any kidney groups but I the um I do believe that you know starting a carnivore diet earlier would have been beneficial and would have would have staved off damage to late to later in my life um I actually so my transplant workup is I'm doing it at Mayo which is like a center of excellence which is one of the things that I've learned on this journey is that not all hospitals are the same um and and I've experienced that like into the southeast of the United States like South Carolina I hate to say this but South South Carolina hospitals are the worst like I would never do anything in South Carolina except like go because my arm was broken or something like that and I wouldn't do any sort of cancer treatment or anything like that so um I've been stepping it up I was like my first hospital I went to about my kidney stuff was um in South Carolina and then Virginia was night and day you know as far as quality care and then the mayor clinic in Florida is like the has been the next level and the nephologist that I met at the Mayo Clinic um I mean they are so on top of everything like he he looked at all my notes and basically gave me the best summary of my kidney disease life that anybody has ever done so I was thoroughly impressed with them and then he was like hey we actually have drugs now for IG theopathy so there there's actually there's actually drugs that um once they catch it and if you know you go and you have IG propery that it can be delayed for your entire life wow that's yeah yeah and and no one else told you that no one else told me that well they're new they've only been around for like the last five years the IGA is what they're saying five years you know had this five years ago so someone yeah that's unfortunate I saw I saw that um yeah i' I've definitely seen that as well you know doctors are not doctors are not doctors and hospitals are not hospitals are not hospitals see wide disparity in the treatment that people get there's a there's a good book about that actually from uh Dr Atul gandi who's professor of um surgery at Harvard and uh works at pram Women's Hospital in in Massachusetts and um so he wrote this book called better and it's basically the compare you know how to get better how to improve and comparing these different groups these treatment groups they treat the same thing ostensibly but they do it very differently and they get very different results and you you do have to to look into that um when I was at um Duke during my my final year Medical School my doing my sub internship there that was that was a center of excellence that was that year was ranked the number four Hospital in in America at the time which basically means it's you know going to be top five or 10 in the world and um it was fantastic it was absolutely fantastic you know we I was doing Plastics reconstructive Max facial surgery and we had all the cases that you know some came from South Carolina but came came from other rural areas uh in North Carolina as well and elsewhere because they were they were people that had some major traumas major issues and they went to one facility and they tried it and it didn't work and so you got bumped up to the next facility and they tried a reoperation and it didn't work and so sometimes it get bumped down the line until it got to us and we might be doing the fourth reoperation on something so it's just a massive scar tissue and damage and you know we were there for 16 hours just peeling through Scar Tissue but just like but the people there were so skilled and so experienced and so determined they just they were not going to leave until the job was done until until they got the result and so you know I I never actually saw a failed case that just like oh just throw our hands up and like yeah this just best we can do it's just not going to work I we just they made sure things happened and and got the result that was needed so it was um yeah it was it was quite a good experience there as well I'm glad that you found you know a center like that also yeah I would say to anybody that's like looking for a surgery or dealing with some sort of you know heavy medical situation to seek out a center of excellence because I mean one of the things that um I've also seen is just you know and this is in like uh the prostate cancer world is you have um this is in Virginia you have you know different doctors and like you know if you go to this one doctor and he just he's not up to dat with all of the new technology and the new types of surgeries and the new literature and all that stuff he he might just be selling prostate surgery the only one that he knows it's in his bag from like you know 2005 yeah so it's like there's that'ss out there and that's freaking scary because you know I mean you people don't know you know they're freaked out they they're going in they're like hey I've you know my you know prostate you know symptoms are up and I'm looking to get this surgery and like what do you know what do we do and he that's that's what he that's what this doctor does so that's like he doesn't tell you to go anywhere else or looking you know he's like I got I got this one and then so if you go to a center of excellence at least you know you're going to have more options and things like that yeah and and at least you know then if you if you're faced with certain options you can be you know fairly fairly certain that this is these are the available options it's not like there's something that they just don't know about and you know we saw that as well um had the you know family um member that was dealing with a cancer diagnosis and Seattle has you know centers of excellence and especially in Cancer Care and um but they you know had this sort of specific treatments that they had that weren't really going well and I happened to be at at Duke doing my saai at the time and I I spoke to them about this was was something that my department helped from a surgical standpoint I sort of asked them about that and they're like oh yeah we can we can get that on a meeting and we can talk about this and and the oncologist and and people were like yeah actually that there's there's actually other things that are available to to to this as well that even you know the people here in Seattle didn't know about even though you know Fred Hutchinson and cancer Carolines are you know excellent uh cancer Services um there was just some there's just something that this these guy knew about it's always a good idea to get second opinions and things like that because you just someone may have come across something else that works uh better or something else that that other people haven't you know and and if you um it's not it's not an it's you're not being rude to someone just by seeing if everybody agrees on this and going to another Center of Excellence or to a center of excellence in the first place and saying hey what do you think could be the exact same thing that you're that the other guy was um recommending but at least you know at least you have more information now and when it comes to your health there's no room to muck about like you just you just have to be your own Advocate as you said you have to take care of yourself you have to um you know you have to be your own cheerleader making sure you get the best care yeah yeah sounds like you're doing that too which is great I'm trying I mean the the my biggest fight right now is just with the dialysis clinic yeah you know they have you know on these machines these dialysis machines they have different fun they have different modes that do different things they have like one that just takes off fluid one that cleans your blood and then one that cleans your blood and takes off fluid and I found for me that like a little like a combination of the different ones are are best but they don't you know the doc it's a fight for the doctor the doctors want you to like stay in clean clean mode and you know run for a certain amount of hours and um so that's a constant constant battle and then the medication too like all of the medication that's given is given on like especially for the so the kidneys produce uh the EOP poetin hormone which basically triggers the the bones the bone maror to release red blood cells so when your kidneys are down like mine are now I have to I have to have exogenous you know hormone so I get that in a shot every two weeks and that is on based on an algorithm so for basically the first year that I was at this clinic in South Carolina see see the thing for me is I've been at a clinic when I was living in Virginia and then I've living in South Carolina so I've seen just the the S the good side and the bad side of the different of the different clinics but um yeah so the medication schedule is on an algorithm and basically what was happening is like every three months is I would get my hemoglobin up to a certain level and then they would cut the amount of medication based on the algorithm and then I would like all to like 8.2 and and I would basically feel like for a month because of that um and then I was like listen dude I gotta have you know more of this medication because I don't want to I don't want to slump down to like to low hemoglobin because it makes me feel like crap so you know that's that's some advocacy there it's like between the machine machine functioning medicate making sure I get the medication that I need and the thing is I feel like I'm the only one that says anything you know in my clinic everybody else is just kind of out of it it seems like um so that's been yeah that's been it's been that's been one of the biggest challenges yeah yeah I'm sorry to hear that that's um so I mean that yeah I me if you need it I why why why are they fighting with you about um doing things that work for you what are they just they just they just want this is the way they do it and that's it they're not getting input on on it's it's corporate it's um they they want people to run um a certain length of time and you know in a in a certain functionality on that machine so that they feel like they are um I like doing what they're supposed to South Carolina has been the most difficult like in Virginia they were like super cool they were like oh yeah whatever you whatever you need oh you're not feeling good because what what happens on the machine if I don't go into the the modes and the functionality that I like I get crazy cramps I get really bad like abdominal cramps and things like that so um so yeah it's it's um it's all about corporate like the corporate I guess the South Carolina Corporation is different than the Virginia um and I actually talked to a lawyer about like all of the things that I was kind of going through and he said I was like I mean do I have any like is there any chance for like a civil lawsuit here or anything like that he's like he's like unless you have damages and I was just and I was just like and I was like what he's like somebody needs to die basically for you to be able to sue these guys and have any sort of case against just the way you're being like treated and stuff like that hey everyone really happy to announce a new sponsor for the show for everybody down in Australia Stockman Stak who are delivering highquality grass-fed and finished pasture raised beef and other meats flash frozen and vacuum sealed tood door something that I've been enjoying a lot of myself recently as well they also have a great range of specialty items such as high fat keto mints and carnivore beef and organs mints with liver kidneys and beef heartart as well so use code cha today for free order of beef mints or another specialty gift along with your order at Stockman stakes. comom and I'll see you over there thanks guys yeah you would you would hope that it you know just being miserable and feeling sick all the time you know that's that I mean I don't know know why that wouldn't be considered damage you know the pain and suffering side of things you know you're you're you're suffering and you're in pain and and this is making your life more difficult whereas like if they just you know did this properly you know that that wouldn't happen um yeah yeah I guess the thing is according to them it's the way that I want to do it is improper okay comp compared to and I'm like I'm like this is I'm like this is might be improper but it makes me feel better yeah like I can get off I can get my treatment in I can get off the fluid I need to get off but like when I'm doing it how they want me to do it it's I don't get like as much fluid off and it's just it's a fight so is it do you know why that would be like if if there's a m if there's a setting for it to do both at the same time is it like they want you want it longer so they can build more or something like that or or what do you think that is or they just they just don't believe you that you feel like crap I don't know if it's about billing or it's just about the um the goals and the um guidelines of the corporation you know I think they want every I think they want every patient to basically fall under um their guidelines that they've set forth so I don't necessarily B blame the like the PA and the nurses there I think it's coming from like above right so they're having to they're having to they don't want to have that fight with above so yeah it's probably limited on on the different dialysis uh clinics that are in your area probably probably so you can't really shop around yeah no you can't but if I need to like I was like it's kind of funny that we're talking about this but I was actually thinking about like oh maybe I'll go to Virginia you know for a couple weeks and you know get dialysis up there and like get myself like feeling better because um it's just it's just been a struggle here yeah yeah that's a shame can you do that is it do you have like yeah you can go and like you can go and you can transfer so like my parents live in Tampa so I can I'll go down there they're a little bit more cool Clinic down there and then also Virginia is I have family up there so I go up I can go up there for like a couple weeks and you know yeah get treatment yeah so is Mayo down in Tampa then is that where you go see them in Jack it's in Jacksonville Jacksonville okay yeah yeah and so yeah that might that might be an option obious viously if you have you know work and commitments in South Carolina that can't do that forever but yeah yeah hopefully you can figure something out to get a get a better situation because obviously you know it doesn't sound like that's giving you the the treatment no doesn't give me the warm happy feeling but what does is that I'm close like with the work up of this of this lady at the end of February and okay potential transplant in March I'm just kind of trying to be patient and you know hang on yeah yeah yeah and then is is the Mayo Clinic going to be doing the transplant down in Florida or where is that going to happen yeah yeah the Mayo yeah okay perfect yeah so you're getting that I mean they I mean so the so I'm on the list at uh UVA and at uh mayo and then I was gonna do wake farest which is you know super close to to Duke but one of the things that that I've noticed is just man the professionalism at Mayo is inan insane they actually put a stint also in your um in your I guess it's your I don't think it's your yearr I think it's like the urer that maybe that connects down to the Ure but they put an extra stint um in there for uh healing that that UVA doesn't do so like just a few little techniques and things that you see offered at a center of excellence that you don't necessarily see at at just another hospital yeah sometimes you see it at at other hospitals like Center for excellence they do everything that's that's well they do a lot of things that are that are the best to get the best treatment for someone where other hospitals they might do this just good enough treatment it's like that's good enough and you don't you don't need it need it you're not going to die just do this and um you know and uh yeah I think that they doing the right thing is is the right thing as opposed to just ah it's good enough yeah like Mayo they did like infectious disease testing um and remember I was telling you when we were talking I don't know how long it's been but I was having like some dried blood kind of come up like in my lungs and you were like yeah you know get a CT check it out and I did it didn't show anything but that's recently gotten worse so I've actually had more like um like cherry red blood kind of come in and stuff like that so Mayo's like hey we'll get you down here as soon as possible for like a pulmonary you know exam so uh but they took me off the list temporarily because they want to they want to check it out and make sure that it's you know coming from the kidney disease and not you know they're not going to transplant you if you've got like something else going on like a cancer or Ms or something yeah well hopefully it's hopefully it's nothing I mean I I suppose if you're getting fluid overloaded that can get into your lungs and you can get um a bit of uh bleeding from that usually it's not like Frank red blood but more like a pinky sort of um sputum and things like that but um yeah it's um yeah it is it is it's funny man I um I was eating some I was eating eggs and I cut out eggs and it's got the and the the red has gone way down so I think I have a immune reaction to the to eggs yeah well you know you have having these sort of autoimmune issues in general probably good to just cut out everything except you know the red meat and water and just just not mock about you know and um yeah that's where that's that's where I am yeah all right man well I I really hope that things well it sounds like things are getting better you know you you're you know going from not being able to use your hands and being in a wheelchair to where you are now is obviously massive Improvement and there's a slide at the end of the tunnel for kidney transplants so um really wish you the best for that and I hope that that that goes really well yeah well thank you so much for telling your story I I know it's it's not always easy to to talk about very personal things but um I really appreciate you coming on and and telling everybody this and hopefully this makes sense to somebody else who's seeing this and it helps them out in some way and I'm sure it will uh because there are a lot of people out there that are that are suffering so thank you very much for for sharing your story yeah of course and then if the people that hear it maybe they know someone that's on dialysis yeah and that can help them yeah especially like diabetic uh patients that are on dialysis because that's diabetes is is completely reversible type two diabetes is completely reversible and with just simple very simple lifestyle changes and even type one is is very manageable and controllable and you can get just perfectly level uh blood sugar levels and Insulin dosages are not a a question anymore and you stop getting all the damage from too much insulin or too much blood sugar or too little blood sugar and and getting hypoglycemic so it's something that that can really help uh so yeah so if anybody does know anybody like that please do share it with them um Brandon thank you so much um where can people find you follow you and support you yeah so um my Instagram is really the only thing that I have it's uh coce Ki at uh Co sorry it's kiore dos D so it's Coy dos and uh thank you doc I mean you've been doing so much in this in this field for so long and you like I said you were one of the you were the first one that I kind of started with and join the group and um I don't know where I'd be without you and your Direction with Carnival and so I really just appreciate you I know you do a lot for this community and you know thank you well thanks man and you're very welcome I'm glad that well I'm really glad this this this helped you and that you're doing as well as you are and and yeah just hope that things just get better and better and just hopefully more and more people come to this you know it's like I don't I don't get anything out of this except like the satisfaction of of people getting better you know and like I may get ads from you know YouTube but who cares cares like you know the main the main thing is is uh just people are getting better and um and it's free you know there's no you don't need supplements you don't need to buy anything you know just just spend your money on meat and um you know it's like yeah there's so many things that people have to spend on you know this different medication or this or that or whatever it's like you just spend that on meat and you know you be you you You' break you know you you'd be spending less and be getting more for it so um yeah hopefully this is this just keeps moving I think it will I think that that more and more people are coming to it and that as evidenced by the fact you just keep getting these these hit pieces you know coming out more and more oh red meat's going to kill you oh watch out for this carnivore diet you know someone who was eating you know nine pounds of cheese a day you know they got some weird things on their hands I it's like yeah well don't eat nine pounds of cheese a day maybe start with that you know and U so so so ridiculous and you know these are the same people you know all the vegans are all saying using this little this that's a real it's not a case report but it's interesting pictures 150 words or less it's not even a full case report it's just like yeah this guy did a says he did a carnivore diet says he ate 6 to9 pounds of cheese meat and and eggs or whatever a day um and lost weight and um but got this like you know fatty deposits on his palms and things like that and so all these vegans are say oh my God look at this this is the consequences of a carnivore die literally you know if this was so common it wouldn't be in the freaky weird crazy picture category of jamama and um you know and these are all the people that are saying well all these all these benefits from carnivore they're just anecdotal millions of of positive anecdotes and then they're taking this but that's all anecdotal but then there's this one guy who has you know eating saying he's eating nine pounds of cheese and meat a day um and losing weight um that uh that his weird hand changes well that's just indicative of just everybody whoever tries carnivore and they're just like going off about how significant that is this one case and yet the millions of people doing this and getting improvements that's anecdotal um it just you can see you can see the con and they're just con artists they're just trying to make money in on the on the vegan propaganda they're getting paid to say this stuff you know they're and they're you know selling different you know whatevers and they make a lot of money pushing the whole vegan agenda and whether they get paid by you know corporations or not you know they make a lot of money pushing this nonsense and and I guarantee you that most of them aren't vegan themselves like you know Simon Hill has openly said he eats eggs and other sorts of things and he probably eats a lot more than that too so he's saying that you can be look at me I'm a shining example of veganism like sorry buddy you're not vegan you know you talk about how you're not vegan how you eat eggs and your book you talk about how much you like oysters and things like that so you know don't go around telling people that you're an example of healthy veganism when you're not a damn vegan you know like and and then using you know these one-off examples that are probably not true um because no no one's eating nine pounds of meat and cheese a day and if you are you shouldn't be and you know and uh and saying that this is this is a typical example of people going carnivore it's just it's just a complete nonsense so you know I think that that's just a clear sign that you know we're winning with this and and they're getting desperate and just trying to as hard as they can to just U you know talk trash about it but it's not working um and um because this does work and so you know yeah so hopefully people see this and and and get further inspiration absolutely great well thanks man really appreciate it and um thank you everybody for watching I hope you uh enjoyed that please do uh leave a comment like And subscribe if you haven't already follow Brandon on Instagram at coore dos kiore D and see more of him there and please do share this with anyone you think could be helped by it thank you all very much we'll see you next time hey guys thank you very much for taking the time out to listen to what I had to say if you like it then please like And subscribe to my YouTube channel and podcast and if you're on YouTube then please hit that little bell and subscribe and that'll let you know anytime I have a new video out which should be every week if not more and if you can share this with your friends that would help me get the word out and let me know that you like what I'm doing thanks again guys
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