Ways to keep your kidneys healthy
Water helps get important nutrients to the kidneys and moves waste to the bladder in the form of urine.
If you do not drink enough water, the tiny filters inside your kidneys can get clogged up and lead to kidney stones and infections.
Even mild dehydration can damage your kidneys if it happens often enough.
Drinking around three litres of water a day is typically about right, but you might need more if you are sick or out in the heat.
Exercise
Just like a healthy diet, exercise helps to prevent conditions like diabetes and heart disease that can lead to kidney damage. But do not try to go from being a couch potato to becoming a gym rat in a day.
Too much exercise can also damage your kidneys if you are not ready for it. Work your way up to 30 to 60 minutes at least five days a week.
Start slow if you have not done it in a while, and check with your doctor first if you have health issues.
Get screened
It is important to know your risk for kidney disease. It is more likely if you or close relatives have heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes or if there is a family history of kidney failure. In these cases, your doctor might suggest specific kidney tests as part of your regular checkup.
The earlier you catch it, the easier it is to treat and sometimes even stop. So talk to a doctor now and get screened.
Be careful with alcohol
If you are healthy, a drink or two is not likely to hurt your kidneys. But binge drinking (having more than four drinks in less than two hours) can cause sudden, serious damage and possibly lead to long-term problems.
Note also that alcohol often can dehydrate you, which can keep your kidneys from working well and lead to weight gain, liver disease, high blood pressure and other conditions that put more stress on the kidneys.
Quit smoking
Smoking raises the risk of kidney cancer and damages blood vessels, which affects the kidneys by slowing blood flow to them.
Plus, smoking can affect certain drugs that treat high blood pressure. This is serious because uncontrolled high blood pressure is a leading cause of kidney disease.
Manage your diabetes and hypertension well
The two most common conditions that affect the kidneys are diabetes and high blood pressure. A healthy well-balanced diet and regular exercise can help keep both conditions under control.
With diabetes, it is also important to keep a close eye on your blood sugar and take insulin when you need it.
For high blood pressure, check your numbers regularly and take all medicines exactly as your doctor prescribes them.
The writer is a Dietician with LETS Consult (Dieticians, Diet foods, Diet books) & Author of the following books;
1. Eating to prevent and manage lifestyle diseases.
2. Live long by eating well – Vol. 1
3. Be your own dietician – Vol. 1
Tel/WhatsApp: 0595667197, Email: letsconsult@gmail.com, Website: www.letsabooks.com
