Manipal Hospital Varthur Road

Hello,

I am Dr. Garima Aggarwal, a consultant nephrologist and renal transplant physician. As a kidney disease expert, today I want to discuss with you how do you know, you may be suffering from kidney disease. Some of the most common signs of kidney disease are, number one, having a reduced amount of urine, have you noticed lately that from the amount of fluid you are taking in the urine you are passing may be less. number two having an abnormal type of urine. Have you noticed that the urine is too dark or is red in color, or is too floaty, have soap-like bubbles in it. Number 3, having an abnormal stream of urine. Like the pressure which you used to pass urine may not be there or you feel the need to go to urinate every few hours or very frequently during the day or night. Number 4, noticing swelling in your body. By the end of the day if you feel that your feet are swollen or have people told you that your face is swollen, especially around the eyes. Number 5, feeling breathless. If you feel, by doing a routine activity you feel like you are out of breath, or especially when you lay down at night, you feel that you are out of breath and you need to sit to catch your breath. Number 6, have you recently been diagnosed with blood pressure or even if you were a hypertensive patient, have you noticed that recently on the same medicines your blood pressure if going higher and you are requiring more and more medicines to control it. Number 6, are you a diabetic for a long time who has noticed an erratic sugar control especially if you have noticed that the sugar is going down very frequently and you are having episodes of low blood sugar. number 8, do you have a family history of kidney disease, in your siblings, in your parents, in your grandparents if that is the case you need to be checked. Number 9 in a routine health checkup, have you been told that your urea or your creatinine, or your uric acid or your potassium are abnormal, or when you got your ultrasound done for an unrelated purpose, you were told that there is some damage in your kidneys. If you have noticed any of these signs and symptoms in yourself or in your family members, I urge you go see a nephrologist and get the required tests done. I wish you good health and good kidney health.

Thank you.

Hello,

My name is Dr. Garima Aggarwal, I am a consultant nephrologist and renal transplant physician. As a kidney doctor, the most often question I get asked is, how do I protect my kidneys from damage? People who have seen patients with kidney diseases in their family often ask me ki what can we do to protect our kidneys? So, today I thought I will discuss that with you. Some of the golden rules to protect your kidneys are number one, control your blood sugar. Dekhiye, diabetes is one of the leading causes of kidney failures around the world. It is especially important for diabetics to control their blood sugar. Diabetics who have a control blood sugar over time are able to prevent kidney damage from happening. On the other hand, those who aren’t careful may go into accelerated kidney damage. Second, control your blood pressure. It is very important for people to know that blood pressure does not have any signs and symptoms, many people come to us get diagnosed with hypertension and they say they didn’t feel anything. Because by the time you start feeling the changes for blood pressure, it may already be too late. If you are above 30, I recommend regular blood pressure checks, we should all target a blood pressure less than 120 by 80 millimeters of mercury, whether you are hypertensive or not. If you are and your blood pressure is higher than that then please do lifestyle changes and take appropriate medicines from your physician.

Third, regular exercise. See, exercise is not only important to lose weight, but it is also important to keep your heart and fitness good. If your heart and general body fitness are good, your kidney health will also be good. Fourth, lose weight If you are obese. Obesity causes added stress on the kidneys. So it is important for you to have your BMI and your weight under control. So, if you are morbidly obese, over obese, you are overweight, then do whatever is necessary, do the changes in your diet and exercise so you can reduce your weight and this way you would be reducing the burden on your kidneys as well. Number five, reduce the salt intake. See, we don’t realize that a lot of the common food, that we eat nowadays, junk food, packaged food is very high in sodium and salt content, that’s why we should go back to the older ideas eating healthy and fresh. When you eat home-cooked meals, normally your salt intake will come down. A high salt, a population that eats a high salt is known to have a higher burden of hypertension and kidney disease.

So, high salt also puts a load on the kidney, so decrease your salt intake. Generally, eat healthy. A fresh diet, a healthy diet, is known to help your general health as well as your kidney health. Maintain a good amount of fluid intake. It’s not like you should drink too much fluid or too little fluid, a good amount of fluid intake for an adult would be around 2 to 3 liters of water per day, so you can ensure regular urination. You are passing urine all during the day and you are well hydrated. A well-hyderated kidney is a healthy kidney. Do not smoke. Smoking and tobacco use is an independent risk factor for kidney disease. It’s I know we all relate to smoking with lungs and smoking with the common diseases we know, but besides that smoking has a direct detrimental effect on the kidney. So if you smoke, please stop smoking. Do not take over the counter pills. This is the biggest bane for the Indian population that we nephrologists face. Over the counter painkillers, antibiotics, some natal medicines are all known to cause kidney damage. Even some of the fitness supplements, that bodybuilders use, are all known cause to harm to your kidney. So please avoid anything and if you are taking any drugs, please ensure from your doctor that if it is safe for you and then only take it. Don’t take over the counter uncontrolled medicines without proper prescription.

Thank You!