How to care for your kidney
When we eat food or breathe in air, our body also generates residual waste, pollutants, and toxins. If that waste accumulates, it creates inflammatory conditions and diseases. Your kidneys help flush out this excess waste and fluids. All the toxins and impurities from your environment go through your liver and get processed in your kidney. The residual waste then collects in the bladder to be expelled. Your kidney, bladder, and urethra are interconnected and comprise your overall kidney health.
Your kidney also regulates your pH levels. Some people get critically sick when their pH is out of balance, or they are highly acidic.
Your kidneys also balance your salt, potassium levels, and electrolytes.
Your kidneys produce hormones to regulate your blood pressure. When you have high blood pressure problems, you cannot stop by looking at just your systolic and diastolic pressure. You must assess your kidney function.
Your kidney also has the very important function of activating a part of your Vitamin D into a form that helps absorbs calcium into your bones. Just popping calcium and Vitamin D pills will not increase your levels if your kidney isn’t functioning right. Your kidneys play a role in improving your overall bone density and your bone matrix. They also regulate muscle function.
Simple and inexpensive ways to care for your kidneys
Pay attention to what you eat. Keep it clean.
What you feed your body goes into each one of your trillion cells. Every one of your trillion cells uses oxygen from the air that you breathe and nutrients from the food that you eat to keep this amazing machine going. If you feed yourself the wrong food, you will have the wrong results that come out in the form of inflammation, high acidic levels, and toxic residual cellular waste. So cut down on junk, ultra-processed foods, and trans fats. Keep your meals clean and balanced. When you put the right food in your body you enable it and your kidney to function better.
Stay hydrated
The easiest way to mess up your kidney is by being dehydrated. Even a 1% drop in hydration can create numerous problems in the human body. Most of us think that dehydration only happens when you are sweating buckets in the gym or running a marathon. Most of us are living and working out of air-conditioned environments and think why should we drink water if we do not get thirsty? Your kidney uses water as a medium to flush out uric acid and waste, and maintain your electrolytes and creatinine levels. If you have less water, your kidney cannot perform its basic function. So you got to stay hydrated.
At the same time don’t over-hydrate. Today people are drinking 7 to 8 liters of water. It is ridiculous because you are also flushing out most of your electrolytes and creating a bigger issue with your kidney and other vital organs. The quality of water matters. A lot of people get kidney disease because they consume poor quality or contaminated water with heavy trace minerals in it. Determine the parts per million (PPM) of your water. Ensure you install the right kind of water filter according to your location.
Move
If you are sedentary for long hours of the day, you will have issues with your kidney. Just ditch the couch and move. Simple exercises can help you maintain kidney health, whether walking, cycling, dancing, swimming, yoga asanas, etc. Keep that blood pumping and enhance its circulation by staying active.
Manage your blood pressure and diabetes
Please know that your blood pressure can cause severe kidney disease, and your kidney issues can also cause blood pressure problems. If you have fluctuating blood pressure problems, you need to get your kidney function tested.
Similarly, look at your diabetes or blood sugar levels. We live in times when people think it is okay to live with blood pressure and blood sugar issues. While some people are forced to live with it because they cannot do anything about their condition, there is a whole other population that only needs to change their lifestyle. Yes, by doing this, they can get off their diabetes and blood pressure medication provided they keep their doctors in the loop.
Do not want to induce fear in you but motivate you to change your health. If you have a combination of diabetes and high blood pressure, this is a cocktail recipe for disaster for your kidney.
Don’t just jump from one pill to another. Address your root cause. The world will always have a pill for everything. But when you only suppress your symptoms after a while, a patient living with blood pressure and diabetes suddenly gets chronic kidney disease. So, focus on managing and reversing these. Know more about reversing Type 2 diabetes here and high blood pressure here.
Look at your weight
If you have a large waistline or excess abdominal fat, it is a problem for your kidney. Work with slow weight loss. You don’t need a fad diet and exercise plans. Make a sustainable plan with your integrative expert and maintain discipline and consistency. You will be able to reduce it over time.
Smoking and chewing tobacco
These are the easiest way to mess up or deteriorate your kidney function. Cut it down or give it up.
Over-the-counter medications
People today are popping NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like candy. They take painkillers even when they are not prescribed these. Most kidney diseases happen because people pop over-the-counter drugs/medication and painkillers when they don’t need to. These might give you momentary relief but they are destroying your kidney in the long run. So take them only under the advice of your doctor. Always inform your doctor about how many NSAIDs or painkillers you have taken. These include your tylenols, advils, ibuprofens, and more.
Get your kidney checkups at least once a year
If you are healthy and fit, get your kidney function tests done once a year. If you are unfit, you might want to get these done twice a year. Look at your creatinine levels and other parameters to ensure you catch any abnormalities at the right time and take corrective measures. more