Objective: Chronic kidney diseases (CKDs) characterized by progressive loss of kidney function impart significant burden on the patients. Besides physical disabilities, CKD affects the mental health and quality of life of the patients. Recent studies suggest the need for interdisciplinary patient-centric care in the management of CKD.
Methods: The present study introduced patient-centric holistic integrative therapies (YNBLI) in a 64-year-old female diagnosed with CKD in 2021, who presented with breathlessness, fatigue, loss of appetite, and anxiety. She is a known case of type 2 diabetes, hypertension and osteoarthritis of knee. She was advised for dialysis by her nephrologists', however, she was reluctant to undergo dialysis due to anxiety about the side effects and lifelong dependency on dialysis. She initially underwent a 10-day YNBLI program at our inpatient setting followed by adhering to the home-based YNBLI for 16 weeks.
Results: She showed significant improvement in the kidney function, hemoglobin levels, quality of life and symptoms with no adverse events. The improvements were consistent throughout the 16 weeks after discharge.
Discussion: This study presents the effective use of patient-centric holistic integrative therapies (YNBLI) as an adjuvant in the management of CKD. Future studies are warranted to substantiate these findings.
Keywords: chronic kidney disease; glomerular filtration rate; integrative medicine; kidney function; naturopathy.