Our kidneys are two bean-shaped organs on either side of the body found in your lower back. They act as a filter to waste products from blood in order to maintain the body’s balance of acids, bases, and many other chemicals like electrolytes in our blood and tissues. These waste products, along with excess fluid, are then converted into urine and passed out of the body.
Our kidneys’s well function help in eliminating byproducts of foods or medicine that our body do not need.
With healthy kidneys, our body can maintain body fluids at normal levels, and well control blood pressure and the production of red blood cells.
For 1/3 of elderly, their kidney function remain steady throughout life. But, for the rest, kidney well performance starts to decline around the age of 35, sometimes worsening quickly in later years with increasing structural and hormonal changes.
Our kidneys have an ability to meet the demand of our body, there is a built-in reserve of kidney function, even as we age.
However, older kidneys will not be as resilient as younger ones it they have been stressed. This will lead to a higher risk of fluid imbalances, build-up of waste products, and other more serious consequences in later years.
When our kidneys do not perform well, doese of medications must be reduced since our body can accumulate overdose levels easier if they cannot get rid of drugs efficiently like before.
The Most Common Types of Kidney Diseases
If our kidneys are not functioning well, we are likely to face problems requiring medical attention. These problems may include:
- Fluid and electrolyte imbalance – e.g., too much or too little sodium, potassium, or water in your body
- Build up of waste products in your body
- Loss of protein through your kidneys
- High blood pressure from too much fluid in your body
- Anemia, or low blood counts
- Brittle bones.
If these problems become severe enough or don’t recover, you may end up needing dialysis (use of a machine to wash out your blood).
KIDNEY INFECTION
Kidney infection is another area we should be aware of. A kidney infection is a painful, unpleasant illness that usually happens when bacteria and germs travel up from your bladder into one or both of your kidneys, and multiple.
Kidney infection doesn’t usually pose a serious threat to your health if treated promptly, but it can make you feel very unwell. And, if a kidney infection isn’t treated, it can get worse and cause permanent kidney damage.
Often the symptoms come on quickly, within a few hours, and they can make you feel feverish, shivery, sick and with a pain in your back or side
As kidneys are important to our overall health, we should look after them more carefully. Drinking water and taking some simple foods below can help care for our kidneys.
- Drinking extra water helps your kidneys be able to flush those germs and bacteria out of your body, taking the bug along with it.
- In case of burning urination, lemon juice assorted with sugar and water should be given 2 to 3 times a day.
- Asparagus, cucumber, celery, garlic, parsley are favorable vegetables for the treatment of kidney disease. Papaya fruit has healing effect on kidneys.
- A patient agony from kidney problem should eat potatoes. It contain lots of sodium and very little of potassium.
- Too much of potassium causes excessive secretion of salt from the kidneys.
-Intake of protein should be abridged to forty grams per day. Breakdown of protein in food produces more waste crop that are to be eliminate by the kidneys.
- This puts extreme strain on the already weakened kidneys. So moderate intake of protein protects kidneys
