Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) Treatment in Ayurveda

Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR): Glomeruli is part of the renal system in the body. Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) is the rate at which fluid filtered by the kidney passes through it, taking out waste and extra water. It is checked by the creatinine levels in the blood as per age, gender, body type. If GFR is low that means kidneys are not functioning well. The sooner the problem is detected the better it is as in early stages there is a better chance of slowing or stopping the progression. The doctor may also check for eGFR if you have signs of kidney problems.

Those Signs are:

Having problem in peeing, pain during peeing
Less pee or more pee
Frothy, blood-colored or deep yellow pee
Pain in back
Puffiness around eyes, wrist or belly or ankles

In normal times GFR at different ages is to be recorded and compared on medical grounds on the following basis

Functions of GFR: Why we need to keep in order?

Glomeruli is part of the renal system. 20% of plasma that comes to glomeruli moves out or is sent to Bowman's capsule by the glomeruli for filtration and re-absorption by peritubular capillaries. It helps in secretion of urine from the blood plasma that enters into it every minute. Urine formation is very important for the clearance of waste material from the body. If these toxins are not cleared, the person may die of toxicity after having a lot of pathological conditions.

So we need to have urine processed out of our body and GFR is a big contributor to that mechanism. So if something wrong happens with the GFR it means something is wrong with the kidneys, which leads to the development of the waste product in the body and our kidneys are not able to excrete them. So urine formation is a result of 3 mechanisms filtration, reabsorption, and secretion. Whereas the excretion is a result of secretion + filtration -re-absorption.

GFR is dependent on 2 processes:

Net filtration process ( NFP)
Filtration coefficient (KF)

These are the two primary levers that are operated which change the Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR), Whenever GFR is changed up or down, either of the two levers or both have changed.

Any pathological issue or physiological conditions of the body will change NFP and or KF and will affect GFR.

KF is out of the question for day to day changes for GFR. But it is NFP too. There are 3 things which we have to focus on to know changes in GFR. We have 1 million glomeruli in each kidney, so in total, we have 2 million glomeruli working for us every minute to secret waste in the form of urine from our body. KF depends upon the surface area and permeability or hydraulic pressure.

In case of high blood pressure, when excess blood is pumped by heart every minute it exerts more pressure on the glomerular basement membrane to pass excess of plasma and hence the basement membrane gets filled with a lot of trashy substances that create damage to the membrane. That trash also damages the channels which were being used here for filtration. So the surface area is gone, the thickness is increased and conductivity is reduced. So hypertension is another example where there is a huge impact on permeability.

What is Chronic Renal Failure?

Say if there are 1 million nephrons working but due to failure there are reduced to 500000 i.e. half million are left now, so the surface area is only half left. Normally there are 2 types of disruptions here,

where a part is destroyed
When fully Surface Area gets finished

Women are at more risk than men. 50% of people with diabetes will have renal function affected.

How many people in the world are affected by the disease?

It is a grave concern as there are no symptoms of renal failure until it becomes chronic. People suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, continuous occurrences of infections, injury to the kidney, and women are more prone to recurrent infections because they have a shorter urethra. There can be many reasons for kidney failure and only regular checkup of blood and urine can help to detect it early. Between 8-10% of the adult population has some form of kidney damage and millions die prematurely of complications related to chronic kidney disease.

Tips and Tricks to keep Renal health in control

Sadly there is no cure, but the good news is that it can control the situation by slowing the progression of the disease and hence avoid the serious conditions from developing.

The most important is to understand the importance of diet and medication. In early stages, if proper care is taken and proper diet is maintained, then this can be controlled.

The permanent treatment is dialysis or transplant. But when the problem has progressed and it has reached a stage of kidney failure, regular dialysis is done to remove toxins from the body, which is very time consuming and the patient needs to revisit the hospital on a regular schedule.

In extreme cases, the kidney transplant is advised by the doctor that depends upon the availability of the kidney of the compatible blood group.

Herbal Remedies

Ayurveda has various herbal extracts which when administered to the patient along with the diet helps to heal the disease. These herbs help the body to clean the toxins and help keep blood flow regulated. The kidneys are healthy when the heart is healthy, the afferent or efferent arteriole, the Bowman's capsule, and the health of glomeruli are maintained. The basement membrane health is good to ensure the filtration of toxins.

The herbs we have chosen focusing all the symptoms and functions that get affected by the malfunction. All are focused on your overall health and create balances of hormones and fluids in the body.