Recovering Alcoholic

Shannonshepard00
Shannonshepard00 Posts: 1 Member
edited December 2023 in Food and Nutrition
I am a recovering alcoholic of 33 years of daily drinking. When I hit bottom, I almost died with severe kidney disfunction and liver damage, drinking over a fifth of vodka a day. As a woman, age 53, I have been clean for 6 months and I try to eat a well balanced diet. Any suggestions on how to improve kidney and liver health would be much appreciated. Thank You!
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Replies

  • nay0m3
    nay0m3 Posts: 178 Member
    Shannon--awesome for you!! This is great! I would recommend getting a physical with a primary care provider and have blood work done to help determine what your body may benefit from. I am not an expert at all so I lean on those who are. Hope this helps you also! Wishing you ALL of the best on this journey to be healthier! <3
  • Sinisterbarbie1
    Sinisterbarbie1 Posts: 711 Member
    Agree that you need to get bloodwork to determine whether you have liver damage and/or kidney damage before you start adjusting your diet to improve them. Cerfainly don’t start using diet supplements or cleanses or such things which are unregulated and may not contain the herbs or supplements you think they do, in the doses you want, or at all, and may contain other, harmful substances.
    The liver especially is fairly resilient and can repair itself to a degree once you are sober, unless you have cirrhosis. There are various foods and nutrients that kidney diets recommend avoiding (like potassium and protein) that are otherwise healthy. General healthy eating tips like limiting salt, simple carbohydrates and avoiding alcohol while eating a mix of whole foods and keeping your weight in recommended limits are likely to help generally.
    Congratulations on your sobriety! It is the best thing you can do for your health. I am also sober and couldn’t be happier.
  • Fongpei
    Fongpei Posts: 5 Member
    Congratulation on getting sober and wanting to get fit. I too was an alcoholic that came very close to damaging my liver. Get your blood work done and that will chart your course in recovery.

    In general, our bodies will try to replace the sugar in alcohol with anything glucose related. Took me close to 18 months to stop craving sugar.

    Next I went Keto and dropped 40lbs. Focused on removing anything processed, carb laden and sugary. It’s well worth the effort. Good luck to you and get to a AA meeting every day.

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