When Cristian Velasquez became seriously ill with kidney disease in his late twenties, life was turned upside down. Two kidney transplants and many years of dialysis later, his experience has helped shape Nyrami, a platform that gives people with kidney disease more knowledge and insight to take an active part in their own health.
By the Nyrami editorial teamPublished 29 September 2026Updated 2 October 20266 min read
For Cristian the story began in 2003, when he was diagnosed with glomerulonephritis and told that his kidneys were failing. The very next year the father of the family had to start life-sustaining dialysis, because his kidneys could no longer clean his blood well enough.
In haemodialysis the blood passes through a filter in a dialysis machine that removes waste products and excess fluid before the blood is returned to the body. The treatment replaces part of what the kidneys do, but it takes time and can be very hard on the body, with tiredness, drops in blood pressure and a need to recover after each session.
After almost three unbroken years of five-hour dialysis sessions three to four times a week, Cristian received a new kidney in 2006 and could finally put dialysis behind him.
But nine years later the transplanted kidney failed. In 2015 Cristian had to go back on dialysis. This time it would be six years of the time-consuming and exhausting treatment before he was given the chance of a new transplant. During those years he was also struck by kidney cancer twice.
Meanwhile, life went on outside the treatment room. Cristian was still a dad, a partner and a person who wanted to live as normally and actively as he could. One of the things he did to stay active during the dialysis years was to cook good, healthy food for his family. During the pandemic he also began growing his own potatoes.
For a kidney patient, potatoes are a good example of how complicated the relationship with food can become. Potatoes are healthy food for healthy people, but because they contain a lot of potassium they can be a problem for some people on dialysis.
To avoid a raised level of potassium in the blood, the simplest message could therefore have been: “Avoid potatoes.” But Cristian learned that the picture had more nuance. By understanding what food contains, keeping track of your own blood tests and learning how things like quantity and preparation affect what you take in, it can in some cases be possible to keep foods you value as part of your diet.
Soaking and boiling potatoes and certain other vegetables can, for example, reduce their potassium content. How much potassium each person can eat must still be adapted to their own illness, treatment and blood tests.
For Cristian, the potatoes therefore stood for something more than food. He grew them to keep himself active, and the knowledge he gained made it possible to find solutions rather than only limits. That way of thinking would later become central to Nyrami.
Living with serious kidney disease involves many choices that are made outside the hospital.
“What do I eat? How much do I drink? How much salt, potassium and phosphate am I getting? Am I getting enough protein and energy? What do my latest blood tests mean for what I should do right now?”
Nor are the answers necessarily the same through the whole course of the disease. The needs of a person with moderate kidney disease can be different from those of someone on dialysis. After a transplant the situation changes again.
What Cristian learned over the years was how important it is to understand why the advice changes. Because there is a great difference between being given a list of foods to limit, and understanding how food affects the body, what your own test results mean and which adjustments you can make.
Dialysis replaces important parts of what the kidneys do, but not everything healthy kidneys do continuously around the clock. Between treatments, fluid and waste products among other things can build up in the body. Diet and fluid intake therefore become an important part of the treatment for many dialysis patients.
At the same time, dialysis can be physically demanding. Good nutrition is not only about which substances to limit, but also about getting enough nourishment to keep up energy, muscle mass and the best possible physical function. That is why there is no single “kidney diet” that suits everyone.
Cristian's experience was that the more he understood about the disease and his own body, the better equipped he was to make good choices in everyday life.
In 2021 Cristian had his second kidney transplant. The difference from the years on dialysis was great. He got back freedom, energy and a daily life no longer ruled by several treatments a week.
“My first boat trip in eight years. Without being tied to a dialysis machine, or having to stay close to a hospital.”
The transplant still requires medication and follow-up, and looking after his health is still an important part of his life. Here diet continues to matter a great deal.
After a successful kidney transplant, many of the restrictions from the dialysis period can fall away. At the same time, a balanced diet, physical activity, a healthy weight and control of, among other things, blood pressure, blood sugar and blood lipids are important for long-term health.
For Cristian it is about looking after the chance he has been given, both his own health and the transplanted kidney. But also about the chance to use his own experience to help others.
Cristian's illness has also marked his family. His sons Marcus and Andreas grew up with a dad who was seriously ill with kidney disease, and have seen at close hand how dialysis, transplants and life with kidney disease affect everyday life.
Today Marcus is founder and chair of the board, and Andreas is COO, of Tech Norway, the technology company that developed Nyrami. Cristian works as a senior adviser in the company, which promotes innovative Norwegian start-ups of value to society through technology and marketing.
The family's experience of more than 20 years of kidney disease has helped to shape Nyrami, a platform to help people with kidney disease understand their own situation better and make it easier to make good choices in everyday life, alongside the treatment and the advice they get from healthcare professionals.
Nyrami builds on much of what Cristian himself has learned: It is easier to look after your own health when you understand it.
To know why a test result matters. To understand how food affects the body. To discover that a diet adapted to kidney disease need not only be about what is forbidden, but also about knowledge, adjustments and possibilities. Sometimes it can be as concrete as knowing how to prepare a potato.
In this way, what began with serious illness in one father has become something that can benefit far more people with kidney disease.
Turns the advice into something you can use in the shop and the kitchen: scan food and see potassium, phosphorus and salt assessed for you, and follow your numbers over time. Free on iPhone and Android.
No medicine cures chronic kidney disease, but several can slow it down: blood pressure medicines called ACE inhibitors or ARBs, SGLT2 inhibitors such as Forxiga and Jardiance, and in type 2 diabetes also finerenone and semaglutide. Other medicines, such as ibuprofen, must be used with care. Never change anything on your own.
A little alcohol now and then is rarely harmful to the kidneys on its own, but alcohol raises blood pressure, dehydrates the body and interacts with many medicines. With kidney disease it is therefore wise to drink little and rarely. If you are on dialysis, every drink counts towards your fluid limit.
If you have kidney disease, paracetamol (Paracet, Pinex, Panodil in Norway) is the safest painkiller you can buy without a prescription. Ibuprofen (Ibux), diclofenac (Voltaren), naproxen and other NSAIDs can lower kidney function and should be avoided as far as possible. If your eGFR is below 30, you should not use them. Ask a doctor or pharmacist before taking anything new.