Kidneys - How To Protect Them From Being Damaged?

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!