How to Take Care of Your Kidneys
Your Kidneys act as a filtering agent that separate and remove harmful substances in your body. Don’t take these small bean-shaped organs for granted. A kidney problem may result to many complications. Here are some things you can do to take care of your kidneys.
Kidney Functions
Removes harmful substances in the body
Monitors and maintains blood composition
Maintains water in the body
Monitors and regulates blood pressure
Helps in the production of red blood cells
monitors and maintains calcium levels
Tips
Exercise. Having a regular exercise routine not only maintains weight but also helps control your blood pressure. Hypertension will damage your kidneys if it’s left untreated.
Avoid caffeine. Soda, tea and coffee contain caffeine. These substances dehydrate the body. When your are dehydrated, your kidney’s workload doubles as it tries to compensate with the insufficient amount of water in your body.
Drink lots of water. Make sure to drink enough water so you don’t get dehydrated.
Monitor your blood pressure. Just like when you’re dehydrated, your kidneys work harder when your blood pressure is high. Keeping your blood pressure under control is one way of taking care of your kidneys.
Eat healthy. Traditionally, a low-calcium diet is recommended to avoid developing kidney stones,which are also called as oxalate or phosphate stones. It’s said that to protect your kidney, following a low-protein and low salt diet is better.
If you’re diabetic, keeping your blood sugar level within the normal range doesn’t only manage diabetes but also helps keep your kidneys healthy.
Manage stress. Your kidney reacts to everything that your body undergoes. Stress affects your bodily function. When on part of your body isn’t functioning well, the kidney will work harder to compensate with this malfunction.
Limit your intake of over the counter drugs. These medications, if taken inappropriately will affect kidney functions.
Don’t take illegal drugs. Toxins and harmful chemicals are filtered out of your body. Taking harmful substances will eventually affect your kidneys.
Kidney Cleanse. There are numerous ways to detoxify. One way is through water and juice therapy. Drink more water or juice than the usual required amount without food. This is done for a certain period of time. When planning on having a kidney cleanse, it’s important that you discuss the procedure with your doctor. You can also use herbs to detoxify. Some herbs used for kidney cleanse are parsley, hydrangea root, and ginger root.
Facts
If you don’t take care of your kidneys, you’ll be at risk of getting any of the kidney diseases. Here is a list of some kidney diseases.
Kidney stones cause obstruction, leading to the inability of your kidneys to filter substances properly. One of the symptoms of this condition is flank pain.
Acute kidney failure is the sudden malfunctioning of your kidneys. This can be caused by several factors. One of which is a urinary tract obstruction.
Acute nephritic syndrome causes inflammation of one or more structures of your kidneys.
Nephrotic Syndrome. One of the signs of this condition is proteinuria. This means that protein is present in your urine.
End-stage renal disease is the total destruction of your kidneys. This usually happens when an underlying kidney problem was not treated properly or in time.