Let me start today by saying again how proud I am of my husband and his adjusting to the new diet that I am being very guarded with. I may be driving him crazy he has not said anything but if my driving him a little crazy keeps him off dialysis for a little while longer than I am ok with that.
I have a friend who is a non-insulin dependent diabetic she controls hers through her food choices. She is always complaining that she is itchy but says that her sugar has been good so she does not know why. Well I think I have a good clue about that. I was just doing some research for this blog series and if you remember in my last blog I mentioned that one of the things we had to adjust was my husband’s intake of phosphorus. Phosphorus is found in dark sodas as well as dairy products like milk, yogurt and cheese. An elevated phosphorus level causes itching. Now I forgot to mention that my friend is a chronic diet dark cola drinker. She drinks it like it is water. She feels that it is ok because they are sugar free but I am having a feeling that this may be the whole reason for her itching.
She said that the itching drives her crazy and now I am calling her to tell her that first she should have a kidney function test done on her. She should see if she has an elevated phosphorus level. Maybe try to reduce the amount of dark colored sodas that she drinks and see if that helps. I just got off the phone with her and a while ago I suggested that she keep a record of what she is eating and when she gets itchy and as I was going down the list of foods high in phosphorus and they were all on her list of itchy foods.