Kidney Disease

Functions of Kidney :-

Your kidneys do these important jobs to keep your body healthy:

• Remove excess fluid from your blood to make urine. Your kidneys make about one to two quarts of urine a day.
• Balance important minerals in your blood, such as sodium, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium.
• Remove wastes from your blood. These wastes come from the breakdown of foods you eat and from normal muscle activity.
• Remove drugs and toxins from your body.
• Release hormones into your blood, which :
  1. control blood pressure.
  2. make red blood cells.
  3. keep your bones healthy.

Symptoms of chronic kidney disease :-

Most people do not have severe symptoms until the disease gets worse. However, you may:

• have less energy
• have trouble thinking clearly
• have a poor appetite
• have trouble sleeping
• have dry, itchy skin
• have muscle cramping at night
• have swollen feet and ankles
• have puffiness around your eyes, especially in the morning need to urinate more often, especially at night

Risk factors chronic kidney disease :-

Your doctor or clinic should check to see if you have any risk factors for CKD. These include :

• diabetes
• high blood pressure
• heart or blood vessel problems
• a family history of kidney failure
• being age 60 or older

Did you know…?

Having chronic kidney disease (CKD) increases your chance of early death.  This is because people with CKD are more likely to get heart and blood vessel disease.

• Heart disease is the number one cause of death among kidney patients.
• 1 in 9 American adults — has kidney disease — and most don’t know it.  Millions of others are at increased risk for getting CKD and the problems it causes.
• Your doctor should order 2 simple tests to see if you have CKD. High blood pressure and diabetes are the two leading causes of kidney disease.
• Early detection and treatment can slow or prevent the progression of kidney disease, and prevent problems like kidney failure, heart disease, and early death.

Chronic Renal Failure – Specialized Ayurvedic Treatment :

hronic kidney disease is defined as kidney damage or a decreased kidney glomerular filtration rate of less than 60, for 3 months or more, irrespective of the cause. This results in a progressive decline in kidney function, resulting in accumulation of toxic waste products, excess water, and salts, increased blood pressure, anemia and many other complex symptoms.

Chronic renal failure is divided into Stages I – V, out of which the first three stages are asymptomatic, and usually discovered incidentally, while doing routine blood tests. The management of chronic renal failure consists of treatment of the underlying cause if possible, aggressive treatment of high blood pressure and other symptoms, liquid and diet control, cessation of smoking, and finally, with end-stage disease, resorting to dialysis or a kidney transplant.

The Ayurvedic treatment of chronic renal failure is based on three principles:

1. Treating the damaged kidneys
2. treating the body tissues (dhatus) which make up the kidneys and
3. Treating the known cause.

The advantage of using Ayurvedic medicines in chronic renal failure is that in most patients, the kidney damage can be either partly or fully reversed, the frequency of dialysis can be reduced, and the increased risk of death from cardiovascular diseases can be significantly reduced. Thus, Ayurvedic medicines have the potential for an important therapeutic contribution in all the stages of this condition. For patients with chronic renal failure intending to take Ayurvedic treatment (or for that matter, any alternative treatment), the following points should be kept in mind: All patients should be under the regular supervision and treatment of a qualified and experienced Urologist. Ayurvedic medicines should be taken in the form of additional treatment, and should not replace other, regular treatment or dialysis. The attending Urologist should be informed of the decision to start Ayurvedic treatment.