Naturopathic Remedies for Kidney Disease: How Dr. Henderson’s Own Diagnosis is Helping Others January 17, 2019 by Kylie Karley Twenty six years ago, in 1993, Dr. Jenna Henderson’s life was forever altered by her focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) diagnosis. Rather than breaking her down, her shocking Nephrotic Syndrome battle gave her a burst of motivation to promote change. After years of experimenting with mainstream medicine, Henderson turned to natural supplements to try and reverse her kidney damage. “FSGS can be an incredibly persistent condition. When you’re not getting the results you hoped for, you have to dig deeper, research more and try new things,” Henderson explained. Struggling to find answers at first, she was able to scrape together research and discover alternative medicine that worked. In the midst of battling her own kidney disease, Henderson enrolled into naturopathic medical school. “The naturopathic practice grew out of my experience and search for answers,” Henderson said. Now, she’s helping patients of all ages explore natural options to manage their prognosis. “Some kidney patients are afraid that they will have to stop their prescription medications if they look to natural medicine, but this is not the case. Often times we can decrease the need for medication and gradually step down from some prescriptions one at a time, which is a long-term goal for many,” Henderson said. She is taking things a step further and hoping to help even more people affected by Nephrotic Syndrome, by speaking at NephCure’s Nephrotic Syndrome Family Wellness Day on January 20th in Los Angeles, Ca. There she plans to speak with individuals about the ever-evolving research for glomerular diseases. “We’re going to look at novel agents that help reduce proteinuria. We’re also going to consider why do kidney patients feel cold easily and why do so many of us have insomnia,” Henderson stated. Henderson hopes after hearing from her at the Family Wellness Day, patients and families walk away knowing the importance of staying optimistic when it comes to new developments in medicine. “There’s information out now I wish someone had told me about in 1993, but you try to make things better for the next patient. Certainly, my journey was much easier than my cousin’s facing kidney problems in the ‘80s,” Henderson said. If you would like to hear more from Dr. Henderson at her Nephrotic Syndrome Family Wellness Day presentation, you can register for the free event here. For those who are not located in Southern California, Dr. Henderson advises visiting her website and contacting her there. To see a livestream of Dr. Henderson’s presentation as well as her slides on Natural Medicine and Kidney Disease, click here.