What causes Kidney Disease and How to Prevent it

Kidney Disease is a medical condition in which the patient faces gradual loss of kidney function. Symptoms of this disease are often not understood and the person keeps living the same life without any treatment. He/she knows that only when Kidney Failure has happened in the final stages of this disease. At that moment doctors either recommend dialysis or kidney transplant. To prevent such things from happening it is better to take care of your health and get some knowledge about the causes of Kidney Disease and how you can prevent it from happening.

What causes Kidney Disease ?

• High Blood Pressure and Diabetes are themselves responsible for more than 60% cases of Kidney Disease.
• High Blood Pressure against the arterial walls affect the functioning of Kidney. Blood Pressure is a factor that helps kidneys in filtration of blood. Excess pressure of blood in kidneys reduces their working capability.
• High Blood Sugar level in Diabetes damages different organs including Kidneys due to neuropathy and atherosclerosis. Neuropathy is damage of nerves due to high blood sugar, which can affect most of the organs but kidney and eyes are most prone to it. Atherosclerosis is damage to arteries due to blood sugar, which can affect kidneys very badly if the sugar level remains high for long duration.
• Some medicines used to treat other diseases like hypertension, cancer and AIDS can cause Kidney Disease especially when you ignore the side effects of these medicines. 25% of all kidney failure cases can be attributed to such medicines.
• Stones in kidney can also damage the filtering units of kidney, which is a major reason of Kidney Disease in kidney stone patients.
• Repeated Urinary Track Infections can sometimes lead the bacteria to Kidneys which can damage the and cause Kidney Disease.
• In some babies urinary track is not wide enough, which exerts pressure on kidneys and cause kidney damage.
• Polycystic kidney disease is an inherited disease in which large cysts are formed in kidneys which damages the surrounding tissues.
• Enlarged prostate gland in men can obstruct the urinary track and cause kidney disease.
• Inflammation can occur in kidney due to Glomerulonephritis (a group of diseases). It injures glomeruli, which is a part of kidney that filters the blood. It is the third most popular cause of kidney damage.

How to prevent Kidney Disease ?

Living with a healthy lifestyle can prevent Kidney Disease. All the preventive measures mentioned below are part of a living a healthy life. Just adopting them in life can save you from Kidney Disease.

• Keep your blood sugar in check. If you have diabetes then you should plan your diet chart accordingly.
• Always try to keep your resting blood pressure near 120/80 . Low salt and low fat diet can help you with that.
• Make exercise a regular habit. Spare at least 30 minutes daily for that.
• Keep your weight according to your height. Being overweight increases your risk of kidney disease.
• Do not smoke / use tobacco.
• Limit your alcohol intake.

Note: Kidney Disease can result in Kidney Failure, where both kidneys stop functioning, if you don't treat it on time. Kidney Disease can be undone with lifestyle changes and proper treatment.