Kidneys are one of the vital organs in the human body. Kidneys are bean-like organs about a fistful in size, located on either side of the body just below the rib cage. Kidneys are believed to be responsible for the removal of waste material, and excess water and detoxifying the body through urine. But keeping the important substances such as potassium, sodium and calcium in a balance. Like any other organ, kidneys should be taken care of as they drain harmful waste out of the body, failure to which can lead to serious health concerns.
6 TYPES OF MAJOR KIDNEY AILMENT
There are six common diseases of the kidney which are:
1. Chronic kidney disease(CKD)
2. Stones
3. Infections
4. Acute kidney injury
5. Cysts
6. Cancer
When kidneys can’t perform their work properly of cleaning the body the extremely painful process of dialysis makes life miserable for patients with kidney failure. So be careful and be cautious with your kidney. How with little care in your diet and change in your lifestyle you can minimize the risk of kidney failure. NSAIDs or non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs can cause kidney failure if administered for longer periods. Patients with normal kidneys are also advised to use NSAIDs as prescribed by the doctor and for a short while only. Other reasons are insulin resistance diabetes and blood pressure. Although insulin resistance diabetes is not known independently to cause CKD.
To understand what is kidney failure doctors have described that there are 5 stages of kidney deterioration for the understanding of a common person. First of all, we must realize what the functions of a kidney are.
MOST EFFECTIVE FUNCTIONS OF KIDNEY
The most important function of the kidney is the filtration of blood. It removes the intoxicated material from the blood and retracts the useful particles into the blood and makes our blood healthy and purified.
The second important task of the kidney is to work as a measure of water and other chemicals in the body. For example, if we have not drunk water for a long time the kidney automatically stops the passing of urine thereby preventing us from dehydration. On the other hand, if we have drunk excessive water or taken potassium and sodium than the required quantity, our kidneys throw out the excessive chemicals out from the body via urine.
Kidneys also convert vitamin D into helpful hormones.
Kidneys are responsible for maintaining pH levels in our bodies. Kidneys alkaline the excessive acidity of our body.
Kidneys retake the beneficial items from our meal and drinks back into our blood. 99% of sodium and water while 88% of potassium back into the body. Glucose and amino acids are completely absorbed by the kidney whereas Creatinine which is formed by muscle breakdown is completely discarded. This is the most critical function of the kidneys as creatinine and urea are toxic and are thrown out via urine.
FUNCTIONALITY TESTS OF A
KIDNEY
The best way for testing the function of the kidney is the GFR test. This is done by taking serum creatinine from the blood. The serum creatinine of a normal kidney is 0.6 MG/DL to 1.2 MG/DL. A GFR level of 60 or higher means kidneys are functioning normally, GFR below 60 and above 15 indicates kidney disease and GFR below 15 means kidneys have failed.
Now coming back to the five stages of kidney malfunctioning. As mentioned earlier these are only to show how kidneys can work in different conditions for the understanding of the common public.
These stages are classified by the level of GFR in kidney test.
STAGE 1
Under stage one the GFR is above 90 ml.
STAGE 2
Under stage 2 GFR is found to be between 89 to 60 ml.
Both of these stages are considered as normal as the level of GFR reduces with age. Another thing one must keep in mind when checking kidney health is urine. The colour of the urine is an important indicator of kidney health. If the kidneys are working properly the colour of urine shall be dark yellow and as it goes paler and paler and it becomes white it means that kidneys are not functioning well.
There would never be any kind of pain or problem felt but it can only be observe with the paler color of urine. Another important thing to be observed while passing urine is that if there are bubbles found in urine and these bubbles wither away after a few seconds it means the urine is normal but if the bubbles remain for a considerably longer time it means that protein is also excreting out ofbody along with urine. If you find any of the signs in your urine then immediately get a urine routine examination and consult a urologist.
STAGE 3
Now this stage is the starting point of worry. Here GFR is between 59ml to 30ml. This is the most common stage and about 74% of kidney patients are found to be suffering from this condition. But there is no curtains at yet. This condition is curable with little care in diet and change in your lifestyle and also it is quite reversible. This is the stage where one should seriously think about having a low carbohydrate diet and a keto diet. Otherwise, nothing can be done at stage 4 and stage 5.
STAGE 4
At this Stage 4 blood pressure started increasing silently. Phosphate increases as a result of which calcium started to decline in the body. When calcium goes down in the body a hormone called parathyroid produces a secretion to maintain the deficiency of calcium. At stage 4 another problem which might be felt is anaemia. The body does not produce blood because the kidney do not produce orthopaedin hormone. Another symptom of stage 4 is back pain without any explanation because of the loss of protein in the body. Stage 4 is the situation where one must consult your physician for kidney transplantation.
STAGE 5
Under stage five the conditions become worse. Patients find difficulty in breathing, feeling of nausea and bad taste in mouth. These conditions are not reversible.
So you have seen that the first reason for kidney failure is pain-killing medicines. The second is the consumption of sugar. The third is blood pressure. The combination of sugar and blood pressure is commonly known as insulin resistance.
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