How to Keep Kidney Healthy and prevent its Failure?

The kidneys, two bean-shaped vital organs, play a crucial role in hemoregulation in our body. Our kidneys are a wonderful sophisticated machine, each subdivision is dedicated to some vital functioning. It helps to regulate blood pressure, body temperature and also get rid of waste from the body in the form of urine. Also, kidneys convert a precursor of vitamin D to its active form, calcitriol; and synthesize the hormones renin and erythropoietin.

There are two kidneys in our body which both work together. If one kidney stops working, the other one takes it to load. Things go on well when two work together but the complications arise when both the kidneys stop working. This is end-stage renal kidney failure.

Every year, 2nd Thursday of March is observed as the World Kidney Day. The first time, the World kidney day was observed in 2006. The celebration was initiated by the joint committee of “International Society of Nephrology and International Federation of Kidney Foundations” and every year it is celebrated with a different theme. In 2018, the theme of this day was dedicated to raising awareness of women and health of their kidney, coincidentally both world kidney day and International women day fell on the same date. This year, Thursday, March 14, 2019, shall be observed as World Kidney Day with the theme Kidney Health for Everyone Everywhere, calls for raising globally, the awareness for prevention and early treatment of kidney disease.

Various themes of World Kidney Day

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2006 was “Are your kidneys OK?”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2007 was “CKD: Common, harmful and treatable”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2008 was “Your amazing kidneys!”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2009 was “Protect your kidneys: Keep your pressure down”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2010 was “Protect your kidneys: Control diabetes”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2011 was “Protect your kidneys: Save your heart”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2012 was “Donate – Kidneys for Life – Receive”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2013 was “Kidneys for Life – Stop Kidney Attack!”

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2014 was “Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) anageinageing.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2015 was “Kidney Health for All”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2016 was “Kidney Disease & Children: Act Early to Prevent It”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2017 was “Kidney Disease & Obesity. Healthy Lifestyle for Healthy Kidneys”.

• The theme of World Kidney Day 2018 is “Kidneys & Women’s Health: Include, Value, Empower”

What Happens when Kidney Stops Working?

1. When the kidney stops working, it does not remove extra water and toxins from the body. They keep on collecting inside the body and mix with blood. The condition is known as Uremia.
2. Kidney also removes a high level of Creatinine from the body through urine and if stops working, the Creatinine level increases inside the body which is again a very serious condition.
3. Water and fuel retention can cause swelling in our hands or feet. The body becomes lethargic and tired all the time. The weakness happens as the body is not getting pure oxygen.
4. If the timely diagnosis of the kidney failure is not done and the right treatment is not given on time, chances are that the patient may go into a coma.
5. Under extreme conditions, untreated kidney disorder may cause death too.

How to Keep your Kidney Healthy?

Kidney fails when all other treatments do not respond. It is always important to give prompt importance to any symptoms you feel initially.

Few things you can do for your Kidney health

• Quit Smoking as it is one of the many reasons behind those factors that trigger kidney failure
• Follow a low protein diet
• Drink a lot of but not beyond its limit
• Cholesterol level should be maintained in the blood
• Control Blood Pressure
• Control Blood Sugar
• Follow a ha healthy lifestyle and do some sort of exercise and meditation

Treatment of Kidney Failure

It is very difficult to make kidney working again When a kidney fails depending upon the nature of the other failure, two types of procedure are performed; Dialysis and Transplantation

• Dialysis
  Dialysis is the procedure in which blood is sent through a filter to remove waste products. As the kidney has stopped working and cannot remove its waster product itself so it needs to be gone through this procedure. There are two commonly used forms of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.
• Hemodialysis
  In this form of dialysis, blood is passed through a filter and the cleaned blood is returned back to the body. This type of dialysis is done in a hospital or clinic and takes around 3 to 4 hours of the proceeding. This is done for three times per week.
• Peritoneal Dialysis
  This type of dialysis can be done by the patient at home process, the catheter is put into the abdomen of the patient that absorbs all the waste product from the blood. The collected waste is drained away after some time. A fresh bag is again dripped into the abdomen. Peritoneal Dialysis is also of two types: Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis and Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis.

Transplantation of Kidney

Luckily kidney is an organ that can be transplanted to the body of a patient. But the condition of the kidney from the donor should be good and match with the body. Your body needs to be monitored for a few days as if it’s responding well to the newly placed kidney; the doctors might give you medicines after transplantation to avoid infection.

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Kidney Health, Transplantation, Kidney Day & Themes