Kidney disease is becoming a major concern with people around the world, with 14% of US adults estimated to have chronic kidney diseases and 10% of the population worldwide affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD). With this, we then begin to ask ourselves if we are safe from a possible kidney disease, and why are people having kidney diseases around the world. Before we start blaming one virus or bacteria, or possibly one microorganism or toxin, we need to first look at our lifestyle activities and the possibility of them causing kidney diseases.
When you hear kidney diseases, you might be forced to believe that the kidney alone will suffer but this is not true because kidney diseases can have detrimental effects on the heart, brain, immune system, and the bones. Kidney diseases can lead to failure of the kidney, where the person will require dialysis or a transplant to remain alive. So let's look at some of those daily activities and habits that you do without knowing that causes damage to the kidney.
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I know you come back from work feeling tired, you see i do feel very tired as well after a long day attending to different things and most times when I come back home I have this banging headache that looks like my brain is going to burst. This is usually common with days when I am in traffic for hours and then i get home late in the night.
Maybe that isn't your case, maybe yours is having to study so hard that you have this headache and pain all over your body and then you think that taking pain relievers will help with this case, and since the first time you took it and saw tremendous results, you have decided to take it on a daily basis without knowing that it has effects on your body, especially your kidneys.
While Analgesics an NSAIDs are effective for relieving pain, they can harm the kidney as they can lower blood flow to the kidneys causing inflammation and scaring the kidney tissues increasing the risk of sudden kidney failure. Not all pain can be handled with pain relieves, so it is good that while you do not go above the recommended amount of medications, you also visit a doctor for cases of chronic pain that deals with physical therapy, and other therapies.
Maybe yours isn't pain killer overdose, but excessive salt intake, you are also on the way to destroy your kidneys. While salt is good for maintaining fluid balance in the body, too much of it is bad leading to increased blood pressure causing increased work for the kidney when getting rid of fluid and sodium from the body. With high blood pressures, the blood vessels in the kidneys can be damaged making it difficult for the kidney to filter blood. This is one of the major cause of kidney damage and failure.
Another cause is ignoring your urination urges and I can say that so many people are guilty of this including myself. There was a day I was in a bus and a lady was telling me that she was feeling very pressed but because she didn't want to embarrass herself, she didn't ask to be excused. The journey was going to last about 1 hour, and she held the urine in her bladder for the 1 hour until she reached where she was going to. There is a high chance she was going to hold the urine until she got to her home because there was no public toilet around, and it was a public place only if she used one of the stores around but that is something very bad.
When you ignore urination, you cause urine to stay in the bladder longer than normal, if this stays for too long and very often, bacteria can start to grow there leading to Urinary Tract Infection which can be painful and annoying if not treated immediately, and can even lead diseases like Cystitis caused by E.coli which can lead to kidney damage over time.
People are always advised to rest properly for their health sake and the kidneys are part of them. When we sleep, the kidneys do not filter as much blood as it would when we are awake and the American Society of Nephrology says that people who sleep less than 5 hours a day are 65% likely to have kidney disease compared to those who sleep within 7 to 8 hours daily. While this is true, sleeping too much above 9 hours has been associated with increased risk of kidney diseases as well.
Safeguarding kidney health requires a multifaceted approach encompassing mindful medication use, moderation in salt consumption, prompt response to urinary urges, and prioritization of adequate sleep. By adopting healthier habits and lifestyle choices, we can mitigate the risk of kidney disease and promote lifelong kidney health.
Reference
https://www.cdc.gov/kidneydisease/publications-resources/ckd-national-facts.html
https://www.kidney.org/kidneydisease/global-facts-about-kidney-disease
https://www.nature.com/articles/nrneph.2017.52
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/kidney-disease
https://www.cdc.gov/kidneydisease/publications-resources/annual-report/ckd-related-health-problems.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4036662/
https://www.kidney.org/atoz/content/painmeds_analgesics
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6770596/
https://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/salthealth/salt-and-the-kidneys/
https://www.actiononsalt.org.uk/salthealth/factsheets/kidney/
https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/urologic-diseases/urinary-retention/definition-facts
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/conditionsandtreatments/cystitis
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9172065
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6411180/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10193690/
https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/238798-overview