In 5 months, my phosphate dropped from an 11 to a 4.5. It wasn’t just eating plant-based cheese or eliminating high phosphate foods from my diet. We do go out to eat occasionally and you can’t control what’s in the meals, to a certain extent. That’s where the “binders” come in.
Binders, or Calcium Acetate, is a medication that is given to help pull phosphate out of the food that you eat.
Based on your phosphate test results, the doctor can prescribe a certain number of pills to be taken with each meal.
I am currently taking 4 pills with each meal. It’s hard to remember to take them but I’ve now put pills in separate bottles, and I have them where I eat my breakfast, lunch and dinner. I also put some in my purse and try to remember to take them when I eat out (that one is not as easy).
Taking the binders has helped drop my test results. Phosphate is in almost everything we eat. I just wish I had known about phosphate much sooner and had asked to have been tested before dialysis.
One last note, I started with Calcium Acetate tablets. They were big and hard to swallow. The pill version is much easier to swallow and not as daunting when you must take 4.