Visit The Doctor On A Regular Basis
People like to avoid doctors just like they avoid the dentist. They dont want to hear about what theyre doing wrong or fear getting bad news. Plus, lets face it, going to the doctor, setting up an appointment, and waiting around is a pain! We get it. But its important to keep up with regular doctor visits, especially if youre at risk for kidney disease.
The doctor can perform tests that will check whether or not the kidneys are functioning properly. WebMD says there is a blood test called GFR that checks how the kidneys filter and theres a urine test to check for the presence of the blood protein, albumin. People should not have albumin in their urine, and if it is there then the doctor can follow up with more tests to find out why. But when it comes to the kidneys, its better to know earlier than later.
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Nutrients To Be Aware Of
Keep in mind that there are plenty of other healthy options that will do your kidneys, and your body, plenty of good. If you do have chronic kidney disease, there are a few nutrients you should be aware of.
Your kidneys regulate potassium, which is why it’s so important to monitor how much you are eating on a regular basis. Your kidneys also have a role in red blood cell production, meaning that if they aren’t functioning correctly your count may be low. Eating iron-rich foods can help prevent this and help keep your energy levels up.
On the opposite side of the equation, salt can be your enemy. Too much salt can raise your blood pressure and make your heart and kidneys work too hard. Be careful about how much salt you use in cooking and also watch the salt content of pre-packaged foods like canned soups, frozen dinners, and boxed meals. Salt substitutes may also contain a lot of potassium, so try herbs to add flavor and give it some time. You can get used to eating less salt, but it does take six to eight weeks for your taste buds to get used to it.
Lastly, we mentioned phosphorus, but it is worth repeating. A low-phosphorus diet should include lots of fresh fruits and veggies, rice milk, corn and rice cereals, as well as lemonade and even ginger ale.
Ways To Keep Your Kidneys Healthy
Overview
Your kidneys are fist-sized organs located at the bottom of your rib cage, on both sides of your spine. They perform several functions.
Most importantly, they filter waste products, excess water, and other impurities from your blood. These waste products are stored in your bladder and later expelled through urine.
In addition, your kidneys regulate pH, salt, and potassium levels in your body. They also produce hormones that regulate blood pressure and control the production of red blood cells.
Your kidneys are also responsible for activating a form of vitamin D that helps your body absorb calcium for building bones and regulating muscle function.
Maintaining kidney health is important to your overall health and general well-being. By keeping your kidneys healthy, your body will filter and expel waste properly and produce hormones to help your body function properly.
Here are some tips to help keep your kidneys healthy.
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S To Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy
Start by asking your doctor for blood panel readings of your BUN and creatinine levels and your eGFR numbers.
| Test | |
| Kidney damage | Greater than 60 mg/min |
Scores from these tests tell you how strong your kidneys are now. Because kidney diseases can be symptom-free, you may not notice anything wrong before youve suffered irreparable damage. To prevent getting in that situation, I advise you to:
The Acid/alkaline Balance And Kidney Failure
While it may sound strange that its acid in foods that can put the nail in the coffin of your kidneys health, its easy to see why when you consider their function.
After all, your kidneys must process all waste from your body.
Theyre the final stop on the train where everything gets off. So if there are high levels of acid, your kidneys dont just deal with it, they can be irritated and then destroyed by it.
Thats why a team of researchers from UC San Francisco set out to examine the effects of acid-inducing diets on kidney disease progression.
The team analyzed information on 1486 adults with chronic kidney disease who were participating in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III .; And they followed all patients for an average of 14.2 years.
Their results?
The team found that higher levels of dietary acid were strongly linked with progression from kidney disease to full-blown kidney failure!
And patients who consumed high acid diets were a whopping three times more likely to develop kidney failure than patients who consumed low acid diets.
Yup, when it comes to your kidneys, acidic foods can take things from bad to worse.
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Best Foods For Kidney Health: Top 10 Foods That You Must Eat
Everyone knows that maintaining a kidneys health is very important for overall fitness. So how we should improve kidney health? The simple way to maintain a healthy kidney is by consuming particular foods that support kidney health. So here I had collected the best foods for kidney health for you, that everybody should consume.
If you want to avoid serious problems related to the kidney then you should follow a few basic tips and diet. Let me start with the basic function of the kidney.
To live a healthy life it is very important that each organ of your body is working properly. For example, your digestive system, heart, kidneys, liver, and respiratory system.
One of them is your excretory system which flushes out waste from the body. In the excretory system, kidneys play an important role in the excretory function of your body. Kidneys filter the waste product from the blood and flush out them via urine.
Kidneys are responsible for balancing fluid, regulate blood pressure and electrolyte levels. If any problem arises in kidney function, then your body is not able to eliminate the waste and toxins from your blood.
Gradually the toxin levels increase in your body and you may face many health problems like kidney stones, heart disease, and abnormalities in blood pressure.
Ask Your Health Care Provider Questions
Ask your health care provider the following key questions about your kidney health during your next medical visit. The sooner you know you have kidney disease, the sooner you can get treatment to help protect your kidneys.
Key questions for your health care provider:
- What is my glomerular filtration rate ?
- What is my urine albumin result?
- What is my blood pressure?
- What is my blood glucose ?
- How often should I get my kidneys checked?
Other important questions:
- What should I do to keep my kidneys healthy?
- Do I need to be taking different medicines?
- Should I be more physically active?
- What kind of physical activity can I do?
- What can I eat?
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Plan Ahead To Manage Pain Flu Or Other Illness
Almost everyone gets sick once in a while. Your doctor or pharmacist can help you plan ahead to keep your kidneys safe until you get well. Prepare in advance so you know what to do if you have pain or a fever, diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting, which can lead to dehydration.
Before you get sick, ask your health care provider or pharmacist the following questions
- If I get sick, are there medicines I should not take while Im sick?
- If I need to stop medicines when Im sick, when can I restart them?
- What can I take or do to relieve a headache or other pain?
- What can I take to relieve a fever?
- If I have diarrhea or am vomiting, do I need to change how or when I take my blood pressure medicine?
Healing The Kidneys Naturally
There are many natural strategies for healing your kidneys. An anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle is critical. Following ketogenic guidelines can be very helpful.
Other strategies are consuming foods and herbs that support kidney health, intermittent fasting, hydration, gently massaging kidney reflex centers, supporting glutathione levels, and detoxing the kidneys with targeted supplementation. It is also important to test your oxalate levels and take steps to reduce these levels if they are high.
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How To Help Prevent Kidney Disease When You Have Diabetes
The kidneys are vital organs responsible for waste management, which is crucial for maintaining your body’s chemical balance and blood pressure. If you don’t take good care of your kidneys, you’re risking a slew of health problems, some of which could cause these organs to shut down altogether. Some of the most common kidney-linked diseases are;kidney stones,;urinary tract infections, and;hypertension.
How does diabetes affect the kidneys? Kidney disease and diabetes go hand in hand in fact, diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease, according to the National Institutes of Health . According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , more than 25.8 million Americans have diabetes, and the high blood sugar levels that go along with diabetes require the kidneys to work harder to filter out excess water and wastes.
Diabetic nephropathy is a serious kidney-related complication of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. It is also called diabetic kidney disease. Did you know that about 10 to 40 percent of people with diabetes will develop chronic kidney disease ? Early on, kidney disease with diabetes has no known symptoms. According to the Mayo Clinic, in later stages of kidney disease, the signs and symptoms include:
- Appetite loss
- Protein in the urine
- Swelling of feet, ankles, hands or eyes
To protect the kidneys, follow these simple steps.
How To Do A Kidney Cleanse To Boost Energy And Heal Your Adrenals
Surprisingly, most people tend to focus on doing a liver cleanse;and/or a;colon cleanse, while ignoring a kidney cleanse.;Those two cleanses are very important, but probably just as important, and one of the top three cleanses people should be doing on a regular basis, is a kidney cleanse.
A kidney cleanse is especially important if youve ever suffered with any type of infection, any type of fluid retention or any type of urinary tract infection or if you have any kidney stone symptoms.
In order to do a kidney cleanse, you need to eat the best herbs, fruits and vegetables for kidney health. So continue to learn exactly how to do a proper, safe and effective kidney cleanse.
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Be Careful With Alcohol
If youâre healthy, a drink or two isnât likely to hurt your kidneys. But binge drinking can cause sudden, serious damage and possibly lead to long-term problems. And alcohol often can dehydrate you, which can keep your kidneys from working well and lead to weight gain, liver disease, high blood pressure, and other conditions that put more stress on them.
Do Not Smoke Or Drink Too Much Alcohol
Try to;stop smoking completely and limit the amount of alcohol you drink.
Both men and women are advised not to drink more than 14;units of alcohol a week on a regular basis.
Drinking too much alcohol;and smoking;both raise your blood pressure. High blood pressure is one of the most common causes of kidney disease.
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What Are Nsaids Are They Safe To Take
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are a specific group of pain relievers. Some NSAIDs are available over the counter. This includes different brands of ibuprofen, naproxen sodium and ketoprofen.
NSAIDs are usually safe for occasional use when taken as directed, but if you have known decreased kidney function, they should be avoided. These medications should only be used under a doctor’s care by patients with kidney disease, heart disease, high blood pressure or liver disease or by people who are over 65 or who take diuretic medications. NSAIDs may cause an increased risk of sudden kidney failure and even progressive kidney damage.
When Things Go Wrong
A little more than 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 20 show evidence of kidney disease. Some forms of kidney disease are progressive, meaning the disease gets worse over time. When your kidneys can no longer remove waste from blood, they fail.
Waste buildup in your body can cause serious problems and lead to death. To remedy this, your blood would have to be filtered artificially through dialysis, or you would need a kidney transplant.
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Kidney Health: Best Foods And Natural Remedies
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs that perform important functions in our bodies. Each kidney acts as a filter, helping the body get rid of waste products and excess fluid. The kidneys balance your bodys electrolytes and acidity, help control blood pressure, and produce hormones.; In this article, you will discover the major causes of kidney problems and the best foods and natural remedies to heal your kidneys.
Your kidneys can become damaged in various ways. Kidney problems include kidney stones, acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease , and end-stage renal failure. Chronic kidney disease is the gradual loss of kidney function. The two main causes of chronic kidney disease are diabetes and high blood pressure.
Treatments And Medicines For Kidney Disease
Your kidneys are vital organs. This means that you cannot survive without them. When your kidneys don’t work the way they should, they allow waste and water to flow back into your blood stream instead of sending them out through your urine. This causes waste and water to build up in your body.
Learn more about treatments and medicines related to kidney disease.
If you are a caregiver, click below for useful advice. You are not alone.
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Tips To Protect Your Kidneys And Keep Them Healthy
Every thirty minutes, your kidneys filter all of the blood in your body, removing toxins from the blood, excreting them in urine, and preventing damage to all of your organs. Your kidneys also regulate the alkaline/acid balance in your body, preventing you from becoming dangerously acidic.
Regulating acid and toxins is dangerous work. Your kidneys are vulnerable to toxic overload if you dont protect them.
There are three types of serious kidney disease acute renal failure, chronic kidney disease, and end stage renal disease.
Acute renal failure ;is when your kidneys abruptly stop working because of an injury or ingesting toxic substances. ARF may respond well to treatment, if the kidneys are not severely damaged.
When kidneys gradually lose the ability to function, it is typically due to;chronic kidney disease or CKD, the most common type of kidney ailment. Often, there are no symptoms of CKD until the condition has advanced. Then patients may experience numbness or swelling in the hands and feet, frequent urination, nausea, anemia, and poor appetite.
Finally,;end stage renal disease ;is a serious condition in which there is no or very little kidney function remaining, and the damage to the kidney is permanent. At this point, a patient is looking at daily dialysis sessions or a kidney transplant.
Ready for some good news? Kidney diseases are largely preventable. And there are ten steps you can take to keep your kidneys healthy and strong.
Factors That Can Add Up To Cause Harm
When you get sick from something like the flu or diarrhea, or have trouble drinking enough fluids, the blood pressure in your body may decrease. As a result, the pressure in your kidneys can be low, too.
In most cases, healthy kidneys can protect themselves. However, if you keep taking your blood pressure medicines when youre dehydrated or have low blood pressure, your kidneys might have a hard time protecting themselves. The pressure within your kidneys might drop so low that your kidneys wont filter normally.
If youre dehydrated, NSAIDs can also keep your kidneys from protecting themselves. As a result, taking NSAIDs when youre sick and dehydrated can cause kidney injury.
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The Kidneys Serve A Multitude Of Essential Functions Within The Body
The kidneys clean waste and excess water from the blood, produce urine and help control blood pressure by regulating electrolytes. The kidneys also adjust pH, filter proteins and remove toxins that have been packaged for removal by the liver.
Another role of the kidneys is to produce a variety of hormones. The two main hormones the kidneys secrete are vitamin D and erythropoietin. Vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption, maintenance of healthy bones, and regulation of the immune system. Erythropoietin activates the production of red blood cells to maintain healthy oxygen levels in the body.
Your kidneys are constantly at work. Every day, the kidneys process over two hundred quarts of blood and sift out over two quarts of waste products and water. Healthy kidneys filter through approximately half a cup of blood a minute to remove waste, excess water and produce urine. The urine then flows from your kidneys to your bladder. Your bladder, kidneys, and ureters are all a part of your urinary tract. ;
The waste removal process the kidneys perform is vital, without it there would be a build-up of toxins in the bloodstream and lymph fluid. This could potentially poison the body and lead to tissue damage. The toxins, excess water, uncontrolled pH, blood pressure, and electrolytes can also put enormous strain on the blood vessels and heart.