This Is What You Need To Keep Your Kidneys Healthy!

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Last Updated on December 5, 2020

Kidneys… You probably know that there are two of them, that they have a funny bean-shape, that they filter your blood, and that you can survive with just one. And you’re right. But there’s more to it.

The kidneys are located below the ribs and behind the belly, and its size is usually compared to the size of a fist. Here’s how they work:

When the blood arrives at the kidney through the renal arteries, a series of different processes start to take place. Besides filtering the blood and removing toxins, the kidneys are also responsible for controlling the body’s fluid balance and levels of electrolytes, reabsorb sodium, water, glucose, amino acids, and glucose, convert vitamin D into calcitriol and synthesize other proteins.

The blood then leaves the kidneys into the renal veins, while the waste gets turned into urine and leaves the kidney through a different exit – the ureter, that will proceed to carry it to the bladder.

Now that you are aware of the importance of the kidneys for body function, it’s also important to know what can cause damage to your kidneys and what you can do to prevent that.

How to keep your kidneys healthy?

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As with every other vital organ of the body, it is a very good idea to do everything you can to preserve your kidney’s health and prevent some serious diseases that can impact your lifestyle. Here are a few tips:

* Monitor your blood pressure:
Besides increasing the risk of stroke and heart attack, high blood pressure can also lead to kidney damage. In fact, it is one of its most common causes. You should regularly check your blood pressure because it is a silent condition – it doesn’t have any symptoms. If your blood pressure is constantly high, you should consider a major lifestyle change.

*Monitor your blood sugar level:
Just like hypertension, diabetes could also seriously damage your kidneys. That happens because when blood sugar levels are too high, kidneys start to filter a greater volume of blood, putting a lot of stress on them. Eventually, they may start to fail. Even if you don’t have diabetes, you should regularly check your blood sugar levels. High blood sugar levels combined with high blood pressure will endanger the functioning of the kidneys.

*Exercising and healthy diet:
The benefits of physical activity extend to the kidneys as well, mostly because being active will reduce your blood pressure and help keep it at ideal levels.
In turn, a healthy diet will certainly help you prevent diabetes and heart disease, conditions that are heavily associated with kidney malfunction. You need to make sure that you drink enough water and that your daily salt intake is within recommended values. Besides these tips, there are a few specific healthy food choices that can help your kidneys: fatty fish (omega-3 which helps reducing fat levels in the blood and control blood pressure), apples (reduces high blood sugar and cholesterol levels), and sweet potatoes (being high in potassium can help balance sodium levels). Similarly, there are some foods to avoid, such as red meat and foods that are rich in phosphorus.
This combination of eating healthy and exercising regularly will help you achieve and/or keep a healthy weight. Remember that being overweight causes high blood pressure, which in turn influences your kidney’s health.

*Quit smoking and drinking too much:
There are dozens of reasons to stop smoking (or to never develop the habit of smoking in the first place), and your kidney’s health is one of them. Besides increasing blood pressure, smoking can also affect the medication used to lower blood pressure and is the main cause of kidney cancer. From apps like “Smoke-Free” to nicotine patches, there are many options out there to help you stop smoking. Talk to your doctor and ask him to help you out. The same applies to the overconsumption of alcoholic beverages.

*Be careful with your regular medication:
There are a lot of medicines that can cause kidney damage if used over an extended period. You should always carefully listen to your doctor’s recommendations and be extremely cautious when taking self-medication. Ibuprofen, for example, if taken in large doses and over a long period, it can damage your kidneys.

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There are a handful of common kidney conditions that you have probably already heard of. We will discuss what some of those conditions are, what complications they bring, and what the recommended treatment is.

* Kidney stones:
This is one of the most common kidney disorders. Also known as nephrolithiasis, kidney stones are formed when minerals in urine form large chunks of crystals that end up blocking urine flow. This causes severe pain in the lower back region and/or abdomen. The majority of kidney stones pass on their own with the help of medical expulsive therapy and pain killers. However, in some cases, kidney stone removal implies surgical intervention. High urine calcium levels, obesity, some medications and not drinking enough water are some of its risk factors.

*Kidney failure:
It happens when only 15% or less of your kidney is considered to be functioning normally. There are two types of kidney failure: acute and chronic kidney failure. The first develops rapidly, may be caused by dehydration, drug overdose, blockage in the urinary tract, or other injuries to the kidney, and most of the time can be treated. Chronic kidney failure develops slowly and can be caused by diabetes, hypertension or a series of genetic diseases. In these cases, treatment is done by recurring to what’s called “renal replacement therapy:” that includes hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or even a kidney transplant. Apart from being extremely serious, this disease implies a radical change in your lifestyle. Hemodialysis, for example, is a treatment that lasts for up to 5 hours and is required to be done at least 3 times a week.

*Pyelonephritis:
It is the inflammation of the kidney caused by a bacterial infection (usually the E. coli bacteria). You should always quickly treat urinary tract infections before the bacteria travel up the ureter and get to your kidneys. Blood in pee, fever, vomiting, and lower back pain are some of its symptoms – you may also experience them together with the symptoms of a urinary tract infection (constant urge to pee, burning sensation when peeing, etc). Treatment is generally done through the use of antibiotics.

*Diabetic nephropathy:
As we have already mentioned, high blood sugar levels can put your kidneys through a lot of stress and eventually lead to the chronic loss of kidney function. People who suffer from this condition start to develop nocturia – when one wakes up several times during the night to urinate. Then come other symptoms such as headaches, tiredness, nausea, vomiting, itchy skin and leg swelling. Treatment aims to slow down the deterioration of the kidneys (the most common is the use of ACE inhibitor medications to reduce proteinuria levels) and attenuate other related complications that may arise.

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