Meet Your Kidneys Part 3

Be a Good Plumber and Help Out Your Kidneys

This is the third installment of a 3 part series about knowing your kidneys. Part 2 dealt with common symptoms and signs of kidney problems and it also gave an overview of the usual kidney diseases. Part 1 talked about the importance of your kidneys and explained a little about renal physiology and anatomy. Click on their respective links to check them out.

Part 1: Know How Your Waterworks Work (click here)
Part 2: Your Kidneys Get Sick Too You Know (click here)

How can you take good care of your kidneys? First, let me ask you this, did you even think about your kidneys? Ever? Most people never think about this precious pair of organs. They only think about them when something goes wrong. That's the time when they start caring for their kidneys. Why wait for that time? Why not start now? You can take good care of your kidneys by observing and practicing the following tips:

1. Minimize stress. Let's be honest, we can't absolutely eliminate stress from our lives. We can certainly minimize it. When you're constantly under stress, your body releases tremendous amounts of hormones (epinephrine, glucagon, cortisol). These hormones affect your blood pressure by increasing it. Prolonged high blood pressure damages the blood vessels including the ones in your kidneys. As time passes by, this chronic exposure leads to thickening and narrowing of the blood vessels in your kidneys. This makes them filter a lot less fluid. As a consequence, waste accumulates in the blood. To prevent damage to your kidneys, learn some relaxation techniques like meditation and yoga, so you can manage your stress a lot better.
2. Get your blood sugar under control. Most of us know that if you have diabetes, both of your kidneys are among the main targets of this “not-so-sweet” disease. If you're diagnosed with diabetes, make sure you stay within the boundaries of the diet advised or prescribed to you by your physician, to prevent diabetes related health issues. For example, if you have longstanding diabetes and you develop diabetic nephropathy, (progressive kidney disease due to longstanding diabetes) the changes are irreversible. At the start of diabetes, excessive sugar intake overworks the filtering systems in your kidneys. With diabetes, as time passes by, more sugar bombards these filtering systems and make them leaky. Precious proteins and red blood cells will then escape and end up in your urine. On the other hand, if you don't have diabetes, try to stay away from too much candy and chocolate.
3. Maintain normal blood pressure. As mentioned above, persistently elevated blood pressure narrows and thickens the walls of kidney arteries making them unable to perform their filtering function well. Once the blood vessels in your kidneys are damaged, their ability to remove wastes and excess fluids from your body is weakened. Just imagine that excess fluid not being eliminated. It adds a lot of burden to the cardiovascular system (heart and blood vessels), increasing your blood pressure and the cycle continues. If this continues, the kidneys will eventually fail and dialysis or even transplant may be necessary.
4. Eat well, eat healthy. You are what you eat as they say.... Eat lots of fresh, whole foods and avoid processed foods . Healthy foods bring nutrients like vitamins, minerals and antioxidants to feed and protect the body from disease. Processed foods are not nutrient dense and cause damage to all the cells of your body. The more healthy foods you eat, the more your body will crave them. Healthy foods bring a feeling of freshness and energy for hours after you’ve eaten. Processed foods do not. Which would you choose...!
5. Cut back on the salt. In order for the kidneys to perform its function of removing excess water from your blood, there needs to be a delicate balance of sodium and potassium within its collecting tubules. The excess salt you eat will eventually make its way to your blood. When it reaches the kidneys, the delicate balance is disturbed. This reduces the function of the kidneys and leads to higher blood pressure.
6. Quit smoking. There is no easier way to say it. Quit smoking. There it is again. It's important to understand that smoking can accelerate existing chronic kidney disease. Smoking increases blood pressure and damages arteries not just in your kidneys, but throughout the entire cardiovascular system as well. Smoking is also a risk factor for renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer). The relationship is dose dependent, meaning the more you smoke the greater chances of developing kidney cancer.
7. Lose excess weight. Obesity puts you at risk for hypertension and diabetes, which in turn puts your kidneys at risk - and so the cycle to continues.
8. Drink up, not alcohol, but water. Water prevents dehydration. It ensures that there's enough fluid in your system to keep circulating and eliminating wastes via the kidneys. Alcohol, on the other hand, has a negative impact on the function of the kidneys. This will be extremely magnified in the presence of an ongoing liver problem. People who suffer from alcoholism have impaired ability to maintain homeostasis (i.e. the ability to maintain constant internal stability in response to internal and external environmental changes). They have electrolyte imbalances and experience impairment in fluid regulation. As a result, these people are vulnerable to a host of kidney (and liver) diseases because of the build-up of wastes.

Alternative Therapy for Some Kidney Problems

Want to know some alternative treatments for some kidney symptoms? Please bear in mind that some kidney diseases are really serious and demand the attention of conventional medicine. The following treatments or herbal medicines are enumerated to supplement conventional therapy. Make sure you ask a qualified naturopaths before diving in. Just like medicines prescribed by your doctor, you need to know what interactions there are when taking herbs.

Dandelion. This flowering herb is also known as Taraxacum officinale (scientific name). Would you believe that some consider it a weed? It has medicinal and culinary values! In some countries, the dandelion flowers and leaves are used as a diuretic. Dandelion can alleviate symptoms of high blood pressure like nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness. It does this by increasing the excretion of excess water. In addition, it is can increase your appetite, improve your digestion and is considered a great spring tonic. As if the leaves and flowers weren’t medicinal enough, the roots of the dandelion are used to optimize liver function.

Couch Grass - also known botanically as Agropyron repens, couchgrass has been used since 25 AD to assist with kidney health. Also considered by many as a weed this helpful herb has diuretic and antiseptic properties, increases urine production and helps with urinary tract infections. The root can be roasted and used as a coffee substitute once ground.

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Green tea - Camellia sinensis is a very well know tea and populates the shelves of pretty much every supermarket these days. We drink it because we know it’s good for us and has antioxidant properties. Well, that’s what they say in the in all the health magazines...right? Well it’s true, in fact green tea is a plant that is great at “multi-tasking” and has a positive effect not just on the kidney’s but on lots of other important organs and systems in the body, like the prostate, ovaries, breasts, colon, liver, brain, cholesterol, and cardiovascular system.....No wonder it’s so popular!!

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Juniper berries - Juniperus communis. Such a cute name, Juniper. Just for the record, they’re not like strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, and take 2-3 years to ripen. Juniper berries act as a diuretic, thereby decreasing fluid overload conditions. It eliminates excess fluid via its action on the kidneys. Other uses for the cone include as flavouring for gin and as a spice in European dishes.

So now you have some ways to keep your kidneys happy and healthy. ...which will ultimately have a flow on effect to the rest of the body....Great job!! Keep up the good work.

Part 1: Know How Your Waterworks Work (click here)
Part 2: Your Kidneys Get Sick Too You Know (click here)