Ep. 17: Renology — with Dr. Robin Rose, MD

Your kidneys quietly filter your entire blood supply and are deeply connected to your heart, brain, and gut — yet kidney decline is often dismissed until it’s severe. In this episode, Dr. Regina Druz talks with Dr. Robin Rose, a holistic family physician who, after surviving kidney cancer and advanced kidney disease herself, created ‘Renology’: a regenerative, root-cause approach she frames as kidney success, not kidney failure. They unpack what your GFR really means (and why ‘normal’ may not be good enough), the powerful kidney-heart connection, how protein and phosphorus affect both bones and arteries, the role of the gut, and the emerging world of peptides and bioregulators. The throughline is hopeful: caught early, kidney decline can often be slowed — and the same lifestyle steps protect your heart.

Watch on YouTube: A video version of this episode is available on the Own Your Heart Health YouTube channel. Subscribe to be notified of new episodes.

Episode Chapters

[00:00] Introduction & Meet Dr. Robin Rose
[01:37] A Circuitous Path: From Health-Food Chef to Physician
[05:30] Bringing the Two Worlds Together
[07:14] Her Own Diagnosis: Kidney Cancer & a GFR of 30
[09:30] What Is GFR (and What’s Really “Normal”)?
[13:00] The Kidney Is Connected to Everything
[17:40] Cystatin C, the Gut & Root Causes
[20:30] Reframing “Failure”: What Is Renology?
[25:00] Kidney Success: Mind, Diet & Regeneration
[28:00] Protein, Phosphorus & the Bone-Artery Paradox
[34:30] Peptides & Bioregulators 101
[43:00] Renology Peptides: The Book, the Practice & Closing

Transcript

[00:00] Introduction & Meet Dr. Robin Rose

Dr. Regina Druz (00:02): Welcome to Own Your Heart Health. I’m Dr. Regina Druz, your holistic cardiologist. This week we’ll dive into common heart health concerns, uncovering root causes and unpacking scientific discoveries and controversies. The information provided does not constitute medical advice. Please contact your healthcare practitioner before making any changes that may impact your health.

Dr. Regina Druz (00:40): Hello, everybody — this is the spring edition of Own Your Heart Health. Today I have a beautiful guest joining us from a gorgeous location: she’s in Hawaii, a place I’d love to visit someday. Her name is Dr. Robin Rose, and she has dedicated enormous time and effort to building something she calls Renology. Robin, tell us about yourself — and what is Renology, and why did you create it?

Dr. Robin Rose (01:10): Great questions. I’m family practice, with a specific interest in healthy kidneys. I took a circuitous route into medicine — in my early twenties I lived in India and worked alongside a village doctor, and I was struck by how sick people were and what it took to get healthy with almost no resources.

[01:37] A Circuitous Path: From Health-Food Chef to Physician

Dr. Robin Rose (01:37): Over time I studied gardening and medicinal plants, became a health-food chef, and ran a whole-grain bakery in New Jersey — this was the early seventies, before anyone knew what I was talking about. Eventually I went to nursing school, did a family nurse-practitioner program, and fell in love with lifestyle and prevention. But I wanted to know more, so I turned around and went to medical school at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where I was blessed to have Andrew Weil as a mentor, friend, and colleague in learning to think outside the conventional box. I love my conventional allopathic training — it’s gorgeous — but during med school my spouse relapsed with leukemia and died, and that loss pushed me to understand that what we offer in allopathic medicine is only part of the sentence.

Dr. Robin Rose (04:30): So I studied Chinese medicine, continued herbal studies, took a massage class for sanity, and started adjuncting my education with everything else. Classmates would borrow my notes and find I’d added the herbs and nutrients next to each topic. I did a wonderful family-practice residency in Santa Rosa, California — the most allopathic in-hospital training, yet the residents maintained an herb garden, and I was doing acupuncture and putting nutrients in patients’ IVs in the hospital. I never saw it as one or the other. Then I practiced for many years in Ashland, Oregon, in a community that wanted me to be exactly who I am.

[05:30] Bringing the Two Worlds Together

Dr. Regina Druz (06:16): It’s interesting — you defy the usual paradigm. Most physicians start with conventional training and only later, often after personal health issues or burnout, expand into integrative and functional medicine. You went in reverse: you were always drawn to the holistic, natural approach, and you added allopathic training to supplement it. You essentially became the physician-consultant you were looking for.

Dr. Robin Rose (07:02): Exactly — I used to say I needed a physician consultant as a nurse practitioner, so I just became one.

[07:14] Her Own Diagnosis: Kidney Cancer & a GFR of 30

Dr. Robin Rose (07:14): To bring the story forward: after decades practicing in Oregon, with plenty of stress and plenty of miracles, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. I came out of that trauma having moved to Hawaii — and found that my GFR was about 30, which is really scary.

Dr. Robin Rose (08:00): There I was with roughly 25% kidney function, feeling terrible, and getting no useful help. I even saw a cardiologist who chided me — ‘repeat after me: I don’t have kidney disease’ — while I felt like I was in a horror movie. So I sat in my corner of the world and started looking things up: my potassium wasn’t normal — what does that have to do with kidneys? That began the journey.

Dr. Regina Druz (09:04): Hi everyone, it’s Dr. Regina here. I know there are contradictory opinions about nutrition for heart health and longevity — the discussion gets heated and confusing. Some push low-fat, low-cholesterol; others are fans of a ketogenic diet; and there are many voices urging vegan or vegetarian eating. To cut through the clutter, my team and I created Holistic Heart University: on-demand courses, nutrition and lifestyle resources, and supplement guidance to make healthy choices for your heart easier to understand. I’m especially proud of our open office hours and the Q&A feature where you can put us in the hot seat. Head to the show notes for the link and use promo code OWNER20 for 20% off our annual subscription. I’ll see you in office hours.

[09:30] What Is GFR (and What’s Really “Normal”)?

Dr. Robin Rose (09:30): Let’s stop there, because not everyone knows what GFR is. It’s the glomerular filtration rate — a made-up but useful number estimating how well your kidneys filter. Optimal is around 120. So Robin was at about 25 function and feeling awful.

Dr. Regina Druz (10:00): Right — and it’s a simple, standard lab on every report, calculated from creatinine. It reflects how well the glomeruli — think of them as the kidney’s filtration bowls — are doing their job: filtering toxins, regulating minerals, and making urine. The kidney is the gatekeeper of what stays and what goes.

Dr. Robin Rose (11:55): As for the numbers: alarm is different from concern. Thirty was an alarm for me, because the next conversation was about installing tubing for dialysis — which I refused; I said, teach me what to do so I can get better. The party line was ‘you don’t get better,’ and that’s exactly why I do this work. Labs often say a GFR above 60 is ‘normal,’ and I’m here to say that’s no longer good enough. In primary care we can start thinking preventively much earlier. When you drop into the 70s and 80s, pay attention — that vulnerability may be why someone has high blood pressure, or prostate problems. Filtration means deciding what to keep and what to clear; when it falters, you start keeping things that make you sick and losing things you need.

[13:00] The Kidney Is Connected to Everything

Dr. Robin Rose (13:42): I have a joke: the kidney bone’s connected to the brain bone, and the brain bone and kidney bone are connected to the heart bone — it’s all talking, because all of your blood circulates through the kidney.

Dr. Regina Druz (15:15): Exactly — it’s our filtration system. In cardiology we’re very mindful of the kidney, for two reasons. First, certain acute, hospital-level cardiac conditions almost always cause kidney injury, and kidney problems make cardiac conditions worse. Second, there’s a shared risk-factor pool: high blood pressure, diabetes, even prediabetes raise the risk of both heart and kidney disease, because the damage is vascular. Setting aside the less common primary kidney diseases, the typical kidney problem starts with the same preventable risk factors as every chronic disease — hypertension, insulin resistance and diabetes, sedentary living, toxic exposures, ultra-processed food. In cardiology we estimate vascular age from things like a calcium score; do you see eGFR as a kind of ‘kidney age’ — a marker of how fast the kidney is aging?

[17:40] Cystatin C, the Gut & Root Causes

Dr. Robin Rose (17:44): It’s a useful but imperfect number — lots of things influence it, and in older, very muscular, or very lean people it can mislead. There’s another test, cystatin C, that’s a bit more accurate. But primary care sees the first run of vague complaints — ‘I’m tired, not sleeping well, irritable, my gut’s off, I’m achy’ — which could be a hundred things. So we look at how you’re sleeping, what you’re drinking and eating, and the toxins under your sinks and in your garage. The literature supports that all of those affect the kidney, so even without fancy testing you can build a self-program. And over a decade of deep-diving, I’ve found a lot of it starts in the gut: if there’s dysbiosis — scrambled gut bugs — start with something easy, like fermented foods. My husband is in the kitchen making sauerkraut from forty pounds of cabbage right now.

[20:30] Reframing “Failure”: What Is Renology?

Dr. Robin Rose (20:35): You recently wrote a beautiful book called Renology Peptides. So what is Renology? My integrative oncologist — fierce woman — told me, ‘don’t say failure; you are not in kidney failure.’ I thought, what does the word ‘failure’ do to your brain? So, half tongue-in-cheek, I decided I wanted success, not failure. And when the nephrology community said nobody understands the word ‘renal’ anymore and they’d stop using it, I said, cool — I’m taking it. Renology is the art and clinical science of kidney success: turning vicious cycles into precious cycles. I’m not a ‘kidney warrior’ — I’m more of a kidney peacenik. I want the inflamed, agitated things to calm down, and I want people to know you can succeed with your kidneys at any stage, though I tend to work earlier, because that’s primary care.

Dr. Regina Druz (23:02): Hi everyone, it’s Dr. Regina here. Many of my colleagues and I are seeing patients arrive with self-ordered blood tests. When this trend started, I thought it would help — who doesn’t want more access to their health data? But too often self-ordered labs lead to more confusion and frustration: patients come in with a pile of results and are no better off. That’s why we created HeartWell Toolkits — a curated collection of at-home blood and genetic markers focused on heart and brain health that gives you the data you need to make informed, actionable decisions. You can order them at the shop on holisticheartcenters.com — the link is in the show notes. Use code TESTING10 for 10% off and free shipping.

[25:00] Kidney Success: Mind, Diet & Regeneration

Dr. Regina Druz (25:11): In cardiology we have the same problem with ‘heart failure’ — patients hate hearing it, so we reframe toward ‘heart success,’ meaning that even if function isn’t fully normal, doing the right things gets you to a good place. What does kidney success mean to you?

Dr. Robin Rose (25:44): First, how do you feel? Then, what’s the terrain, and what can be done — and there’s a lot. Regenerative medicine excites me. But before any of it, the mental-emotional piece is regenerative: am I chronically thinking negatively, badmouthing myself, treating myself and others poorly, eating unwisely, sleeping badly, making excuses? ‘Kidney success’ lands on the limbic system far better than ‘kidney failure.’ Without that foundation, most strategies don’t work.

Dr. Regina Druz (26:50): I couldn’t agree more. After nearly 25 years in cardiology, the single biggest influence on daily behavior is how we handle stress — psychological, emotional, and physical. In functional medicine, the very center of the matrix is mental, emotional, and spiritual health. If that core isn’t addressed, it almost doesn’t matter what lifestyle changes or fancy tests you add — you won’t be successful.

[28:00] Protein, Phosphorus & the Bone-Artery Paradox

Dr. Robin Rose (28:13): Diet is huge. In conventional medicine, sadly, people in stage two — GFR 60 to 90 — are usually told not to worry; I was told not to worry when I was really sick. For myself, I found Jenna Henderson, a naturopath devoted to kidney medicine. I’d been vegan for years, started eating meat when I met my husband, then got kidney disease — so I went back to tofu. Even in conventional settings, plant-based protein is becoming an enormous conversation in kidney care. Plant-based doesn’t mean never; it means have meat now and then, or less of it.

Dr. Regina Druz (31:37): I’ll share a case. A data-driven engineer patient, now 80, relied heavily on animal protein to build muscle. Over a year or two his eGFR fell from the 70s to 57. I asked him to nearly eliminate animal protein briefly, then reintroduce tiny amounts — maybe four ounces, no more than three times a week — and his GFR rebounded and has stayed stable. So why is protein load, especially animal protein, hard on the kidneys, and is it true for everyone?

Dr. Robin Rose (32:02): Nothing’s true for everyone, but two things matter: nitrogen, which is part of protein, and phosphorus. Phosphorus is my pet topic in cardiorenal health: when the kidney tubules get confused and retain phosphorus instead of excreting it, the body pulls calcium out of bone and deposits it in the arteries — osteoporosis on one hand, atherosclerosis on the other. And you absorb about 80% of the phosphorus from animal foods, but only about half from plant foods like tofu or lentils. Animal foods do provide carnitine and carnosine, so nothing’s perfect — you adapt and watch these things. I devote a whole chapter to carnosine, which is wonderful for kidney, diabetes, heart, and the immune system.

[34:30] Peptides & Bioregulators 101

Dr. Robin Rose (34:37): Let’s define peptides and bioregulators for listeners. Our bodies are made of proteins, and our DNA encodes how to make them — but with age and damage, some proteins stop being made. A peptide is a small piece of a protein; chemists learned to take the active piece and offer it as medicine. Insulin is a peptide; so is semaglutide. By common definition a peptide is roughly 2 to 50 amino acids. Bioregulators are much smaller — about 2 to 4 amino acids — so tiny they can enter the cell and even the nucleus, where they help repair breakages in DNA so the body resumes making the proteins it needs. Carnosine is one example — it reaches the nucleus and helps remove epigenetic damage.

Dr. Robin Rose (40:00): How do you decide which peptide or bioregulator to use? First, the low-hanging fruit — lifestyle, toxins, diet, stress — which you can largely self-assess. Then each case is unique. I recently spoke with a man whose kidney function fell sharply and who also had prostate issues for years that no one had connected — kidney, bladder, and prostate are linked — so I’d address all of it. There are organ-specific bioregulators: Pielotax for the kidney, Bonothyrk for the parathyroid and the calcium-phosphorus problem, thymus peptides for immune support, and blood-vessel bioregulators — and most of us over about 45 are at risk for blood-vessel issues. These are mostly Russian-origin short peptides; the names are a mouthful.

Dr. Regina Druz (42:22): In cardiology we have some experience with related ideas — the TACT chelation trial produced unexpectedly positive cardiovascular results, and I screen many patients for oxidative stress and toxic exposures. I’d add a caution for listeners: many peptide bioregulators are not FDA-approved and should only be used under the guidance of a knowledgeable clinician.

[43:00] Renology Peptides: The Book, the Practice & Closing

Dr. Robin Rose (43:05): Who is your book for — professionals or patients? I didn’t water it down, because I really want doctors to start thinking about this; the neglect alarms me. So a physician can use it as a text — it’s nearly 800 pages, so if you don’t read it you can use it as exercise equipment — and patients tell me they’re reading and benefiting too. There’s a normal-range trap with phosphorus, for instance: mid-range and below is what I want for kidney health, because damage accumulates before you’re ever flagged ‘abnormal.’

Dr. Robin Rose (45:13): I like that you don’t jump straight to peptides — you dial in lifestyle, nutrition, and stress first. My approach is inconsistent on purpose, because each story is unique. I’m the annoying doctor asking ‘what are you eating, what are you doing?’ I love Cronometer — track for a week or two and you learn a lot about yourself, including how much protein you’re really eating (aim for roughly 0.6 to 0.8 grams per kilogram of optimal body weight — and remember rice, broccoli, and carrots have protein too). Then I might add a nitric-oxide or blood-vessel support, and sometimes very gentle changes have people feeling noticeably better in a month.

Dr. Robin Rose (48:38): If there’s one message for listeners, it’s don’t wait. Be the early bird: admit you’re not feeling as good as you’d like, ask what you can change, and if someone tells you ‘you can’t get better,’ find someone who will work with you until you do.

Dr. Regina Druz (49:03): Beautifully said. How can people find your book and reach you?

Dr. Robin Rose (49:15): It’s available exclusively on our website — I opted out of Amazon — at renologyiskidneysuccess.com, where you can also contact me and read my blogs on fun topics like cardamom, lavender, lab work, and coffee. I’ve also started a new practice, Renology Associates, with my practice partner Daniel, a functional cardiologist.

Dr. Regina Druz (50:29): I love Daniel — he’s one of my counterparts; there are a few of us out here. Robin, this has been a pleasure. One thing I’ve learned in almost 25 years: I always ask patients what the goal is — disease management, or health optimization and disease reversal? In an acute heart attack you must do disease management: place the stent, save the heart. But once that window passes, that’s when we introduce optimization and reversal. It’s a different mindset, and it’s the heart of what we both do. Folks, visit renologyiskidneysuccess.com to find Dr. Robin Rose, her wisdom, and her book. And maybe one day I’ll see you in Hawaii — pink and purple are my colors for that lei.

Dr. Regina Druz (53:55): To the professionals listening: if you’re thinking of launching a cardiometabolic or integrative cardiology program in your practice, we can help. Holistic Heart Centers helps physicians expand into hybrid or concierge services — head to the show notes and click the application link; your intro call is entirely free. Ready to schedule a practice review? Use code DOC10 for 10% off our Practice Power Hour, a 60-minute coaching session. Thank you for tuning in to Own Your Heart Health with Dr. Regina Druz. This podcast is powered by Holistic Heart Centers. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review us on your favorite platform, and visit holisticheartcenters.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel. See you next week.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GFR, and what number should concern me?

GFR — glomerular filtration rate — is a standard, calculated lab value (based on creatinine) that estimates how well your kidneys filter, by gauging the work of the glomeruli, the kidney’s tiny filtration units. Optimal is around 120. Labs often label anything above 60 as ‘normal,’ but Dr. Rose argues that’s no longer good enough: she starts paying attention once the GFR drifts into the 70s and 80s, because that early vulnerability can show up elsewhere — as high blood pressure or prostate problems, for example. A GFR around 30 is a true alarm. She also notes GFR is useful but imperfect — muscle mass and body size can skew it — so a cystatin C test can add accuracy. The encouraging message is that early decline is exactly when lifestyle steps can help most. This is educational information; interpret your own labs with your clinician.

How are the kidneys and the heart connected?

Very closely. As Dr. Rose puts it, all of your blood circulates through the kidney, so ‘it’s all talking.’ Dr. Druz explains the cardiology view: acute, severe heart conditions almost always injure the kidneys, and kidney problems in turn worsen heart conditions. Beyond that, the heart and kidneys share a common pool of risk factors — high blood pressure, insulin resistance and diabetes, sedentary living, toxic exposures, and ultra-processed foods — because the underlying damage is vascular. A striking example they discuss: when failing kidney tubules retain phosphorus, the body can pull calcium from bone and deposit it in arteries, contributing to both osteoporosis and atherosclerosis at once. The practical upshot is that protecting your kidneys and protecting your heart involve many of the same steps. Always work with a qualified clinician on your individual situation.

Does eating protein harm your kidneys?

It depends on the person and the type and amount of protein, according to Dr. Rose — ‘nothing is true for everyone.’ Two issues stand out for the kidneys: nitrogen (part of all protein) and phosphorus. Crucially, you absorb roughly 80% of the phosphorus in animal foods but only about half of it from plant foods like tofu and lentils, which is part of why plant-based protein is increasingly emphasized in kidney care. Dr. Druz shares a case in which reducing a patient’s animal protein to small amounts a few times a week helped his GFR rebound. ‘Plant-based’ doesn’t mean never — it means less, and more often from plants. A commonly cited target is roughly 0.6–0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of optimal body weight, and tracking intake (with a tool like Cronometer) can be eye-opening. Any dietary change for kidney disease should be individualized with your physician.

What are peptides and bioregulators?

Peptides are small pieces of proteins — chemists isolate an active fragment and use it therapeutically. Familiar examples include insulin and semaglutide; by common definition a peptide is roughly 2 to 50 amino acids. Bioregulators are much smaller still (about 2 to 4 amino acids), small enough to enter the cell and even the nucleus, where, Dr. Rose explains, they may help repair DNA damage so the body resumes making proteins it needs — an epigenetic-repair idea. She uses organ-specific bioregulators (for example, Pielotax for the kidney and Bonothyrk for the parathyroid), many of Russian origin, alongside compounds like carnosine. Both physicians emphasize that lifestyle, nutrition, and stress come first, and Dr. Druz adds an important caution: many peptide bioregulators are not FDA-approved and should only be used under the guidance of a knowledgeable clinician. This episode is educational and not a recommendation to start any therapy.

Show Notes & Resources

Guest: Dr. Robin Rose, MD

Dr. Robin Rose is a holistic and functional family physician who trained at the University of Arizona under Dr. Andrew Weil, after an earlier career as a health-food chef and family nurse practitioner. She practiced integrative family medicine for decades in Ashland, Oregon. After surviving kidney cancer and advanced chronic kidney disease herself, she developed ‘Renology’ — a regenerative, root-cause approach she frames as ‘kidney success, not kidney failure’ — and authored Renology Peptides: Kidney Success with Bioregulator Peptides, a nearly 800-page clinical reference. Now based in Hawaii, she co-founded the practice Renology Associates.

Renology — Kidney Success: renologyiskidneysuccess.com

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Renology Peptides: Kidney Success with Bioregulator Peptides — Dr. Rose’s ~800-page clinical reference (available at renologyiskidneysuccess.com)
Renology / Renology Associates — Dr. Rose’s practice, blog, and resources
eGFR and cystatin C — kidney-function blood tests (cystatin C can be more accurate in very muscular or very lean people)
Cronometer — a food-tracking app to estimate your protein and nutrient intake
Plant-based protein for kidney health — phosphorus absorption is ~80% from animal foods vs. roughly half from plant foods
Peptide bioregulators discussed — e.g., Pielotax (kidney), Bonothyrk (parathyroid), and thymus peptides (immune); largely Russian-origin short-chain peptides (many not FDA-approved)
Carnosine — a peptide discussed for kidney, vascular, metabolic, and immune support
TACT trial — chelation therapy and cardiovascular outcomes (referenced)
Jenna Henderson — a naturopath focused on kidney health (referenced)
Holistic Heart University — on-demand courses and resources (use code OWNER20 for 20% off annual)
HeartWell Toolkits — at-home heart and brain health lab panels (use code TESTING10 for 10% off and free shipping)
For clinicians: Practice Power Hour coaching with Holistic Heart Centers (use code DOC10 for 10% off)

Holistic Heart Centers

holisticheartcenters.com
HeartWell.ai — AI-powered cardiovascular risk assessment
Address: 55 Bryant Avenue, Suite #6, Roslyn, NY 11576
Phone: 877-511-5166
YouTube: @reginadruzmd
Instagram: @dr.reginadruz
Podcast: Own Your Heart Health — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major platforms

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