How To Help Keep Your Kidneys Healthy
How To Help Keep Your Kidneys Healthy
While most people are aware of conditions of the heart and lungs, for example, kidney diseases aren’t as widely talked about. However, kidney illnesses can be life-threatening and can drastically affect the patient’s everyday quality of life.
While no-one can guarantee that you won’t develop kidney disease, there are some simple ways to reduce the risk. Read on for ways in which you can keep your kidneys healthier for longer. Some tips on how to keep your kidneys healthy.
Keep active
Maintaining a good level of fitness helps keep down your blood pressure and, therefore, decreases the chance of developing chronic kidney disease. Keeping active is important for all areas of your health and even twenty minutes of exercise per day can make a huge difference. Taking regular exercise needn’t be a chore. Why not take the whole family for a brisk walk this evening, instead of watching a film? Or take up cycling at the weekends? Even using the stairs rather than the elevator at work can drastically increase your activity levels and help to keep your kidneys healthy.
Control your blood sugar levels
Around half of the people with diabetes go on to develop kidney disease, so it’s vital for diabetic people to regularly attend appointments to test their kidneys. Diabetes-induced kidney damage can be prevented or lessened, providing it’s picked up early. If in doubt, consult a pharmacist or doctor for advice about controlling your sugar levels.
A healthy diet and weight
Eating a healthy balanced diet and remaining within the recommended weight bracket for your age, sex and height can help prevent heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses linked to chronic kidney disease. Try to avoid too many saturated fats and sugary drinks. Instead, eat as much raw food as you can. This can include fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc.
Keep up fluids
There is much conflicting advice about the amount of water you should drink each day. However, three or four pints is a sensible starting point for most people. Drinking enough fluids helps your kidneys to clear out toxins, sodium, and urea from your body. In turn, this reduces the chance of developing kidney disease. The optimum amount of fluids that a person should drink depends on various factors such as gender, health conditions, climate, exercise, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. Therefore, always consult a professional for guidance.
Give up smoking
As well as leading to many other health conditions, smoking reduces the blood flow to the kidneys. Kidneys need sufficient blood in order to function, so any reduction or slowing of the flow is potentially dangerous. Smoking also doubles your risk of developing kidney cancer. If you’re not a smoker, it’s advisable not to take it up. If, on the other hand, you have a smoking habit, and you’d like to quit, contact your doctor or pharmacist to find out what support they can offer you.
Kidneys are vital to our bodies, so it’s important that we take care of them as best we can. Kidney disease drastically impacts on quality of life and can be life-threatening or limiting. By following the simple pieces of advice in this article, you can reduce your chances of chronic kidney disease.
Featured Photo by Blubel on Unsplash
