Know More About Your Kidneys In Detail!

Hello,

Friends, I am Dr. Sunil Prakash, head of nephrology and renal transplant service. Today I am going to tell you something about kidneys, which is a major organ in our body. We all have two kidneys, one on each side of our spine and they are of the size of a fist in the shape of beans and they are very hard-working organs. 24*7 they are working, even while we are sleeping. The important function of kidneys is to excrete all the waste products of our bodies. So they are basically very efficient cleaners, just like as we clean our skin from outside, they clean the body from inside and throw all the waste products of our body like acids, excess water, salt, potassium, and other protein weight down products like nitrogen, urea, creatinine, and indos, etc.. So if these kidneys get damaged or working become affected, it is very easy to understand that all these toxins will remain inside our body and our body will suffer. So first and foremost thing we have to remember is that our kidneys are mostly affected by diabetes which is high blood sugar, high blood pressure, hypertension, and obesity, other causes may be due to inflammation of the kidneys or by lifestyles. Kidneys are also intimately connected to the heart so the diseases of the heart will affect the kidneys and vice versa, we call it cardiorenal syndrome. To know more about kidneys, as I said first they do the cleaning jobs, they throw the acid, salt and excess water from our body, so if they are not functioning well the salt and water will collect in our body, we will have anemia, will become obese and will have high blood pressure. And the other functions of the kidneys are to make blood, so if our kidneys are not functioning well they will not produce blood, so the blood will be less in the body and the patient will become anemic.

So these patients have high blood pressure, have anemia they have big hearts, and they have weak bones because kidneys also produce active vitamin D and in the weak kidneys it is not there, so your bones are also weak. So it produces bone pains, these are some of the important functions of the kidneys. So, now what happens if the kidneys fail? If the kidney damages diagnosed earlier, we have 5 stages of the kidney, stage one, two, three, four, and five. Stage one, two, three if you can diagnose it early, we can manage it very well by diet, salt, fluid, manipulation by living the right kind of lifestyle, by taking proper medications of blood pressure and sugar and other elements. And we can stop the kidney diseases very very satisfactorily. But unfortunately in India people don’t believe in going for medical check-up and sometimes the disease has run its course and we get more of the patient in stage 5, which is a stage of advanced kidney disease, it is also called as end-stage renal disease, in which only three things will help, first is dialysis, dialysis people have all wrong notions about dialysis, they feel that dialysis is death, it is not so, it is that if one starts dialysis on time, one can live satisfactorily on dialysis for 10-15 years and lead a normal lifestyle and complete one’s family responsibility. Dialysis can be done at a hospital, it’s called blood hemodialysis and sometimes hemodialysis now can also be done at home it is called home hemodialysis.

The second dialysis is by the abdomen route, it is called the water dialysis or peritoneal dialysis. This the patient can do himself with the help of his attendant at the privacy of his home. So both these dialysis are very effective. And the third modality of treatment is transplants, we all must have heard about the transplants. What is a transplant? Kidney transplant is an act in which we operate and put the kidney in the patient so that the kidney takes over the function of his damaged kidneys and the patient recovers and he can lead a normal life. But the caveat here is that because it is not a self of the body it is some foreign protein to the body so the body's immune system tries to reject it, tries to damage it. To prevent the rejection of that transplanted kidney, one has to take Immuno suppressive strong medicines life-long. Although doses of these medicines are gradually reduced, they have to be taken life-long. If you take these medicines regularly, the kidneys will function well and the person can live very satisfactorily in a normal way for the next 10,15, 20 years. This is a kidney transplant. The problem with kidney transplant today and that is why it always comes in the very grey and black shade is the unwanted commerce attached to it. Rich people want to buy kidneys from the poor, this is organ prostitution. Now we have very strong laws by Indian parliament which is called HOTA(human organ transplant issue act) in which the kidneys can not be bought or sold for money. One can take kidneys from one’s relative out of love and compassion. Even friends can give, but it has to be an altruistic basis. One can not sell one’s kidney. So, one can, if unfortunately, somebody has damaged kidneys, he can get the kidneys from his relatives, or from his altruistic friends. The other most important way of doing kidney transplants is through brain-dead people. Now, these brain dead people are those unfortunate people who may have a road accident and have irreversible brain damage. If they a irreversible brain damage, although their heart may be bitten for some time but I tell you, if the brain has damaged irreversibly, the heart will stop in a day or two, so in this golden window of 24 to 48 hours if the family of that person is willing to donate the organs of the dying person, he or she can save the lives of 8 people by organs, by donating heart, kidneys, liver, pancreas, intestine, other tissues, eyes, and cornea, etc. In western countries, in developed nations, it is a routine thing for people to donate their organs before dying, but unfortunately in India in other parts of the world it has not taken of in a way it should have, although some good work is coming on from south India but in northern parts of India this is still in very very infancy, people have wrong prejudices about it and not willing to donate kidneys. Friends, in a situation where the brain has died, in a matter of a day or two our body will become dust, from dust thou will return from where we came. In this golden hours, we can save lives of so many people, we can bring joy to so many people, even once we are gone, our organs will live through them, our heart will go on, our kidneys will go on and I believe this is the biggest act of altruism, biggest act of charity one can do. Friends, don’t take your organs to the heavens, heaven knows that we need them here. I believe that it is the duty of all responsible citizens of society, press, and other people to encourage and foster brain-dead cadaveric transplantation because that is only the way forward. It will not only give life to so many people but it will also prevent the exploitation of the poor by commercialization and exploitation by selling and buying kidneys.

Thank You!