KundanKidneyCare - Kundan Kidney Care Centre

A familiar method that doctors use to check for possible breast cancer turns out to be another way of checking the effects of kidney disease as well. Researchers have studied women receiving mammograms, and discovered that some of these effects manifest themselves in breast arteries. They show up in other arteries as well, but unless other parts of the body are similarly scanned, they won’t be noticed.

A happy coincidence — if you can properly call it that — is that women reach the age of needing mammograms at about the same time they would be manifesting kidney disease if they’re going to get it. Many of those who show calcification in the arteries will probably already know they have kidney problems. Yet in some cases, what shows on the mammogram may be their first hint.

Mammograms may not be the best diagnostic tools when it comes to kidney disease itself. There are many other more reliable tests for that. But these procedures can certainly help to keep track of some of the effects of the disease.

And more than that, having a fairly early indication of the calcification in the arteries can serve as a warning of a growing risk of cardiovascular disease. With this extra tool, doctors can be alerted and perhaps take steps to try to prevent things from going that far. In yet another example of the interconnectedness of the body’s systems, using a tool designed to detect one ailment may help in detecting or even preventing others.

(For more information, read Proven Method of Cancer Detection Found Effective in Kidney Disease, January 25, 2010)

Kidney Disease

New Evidence That Kidneys Can Be Regenerated

KundanKidneyCare June 4, 2015

It’s sometimes been a controversial claim: that diseased kidneys can be regenerated, and that those facing dialysis or even transplants because of kidney disease may one day be able to have their kidneys healed instead. Some branches of non-traditional or non-Western medicine have actually had good success treating and even regenerating diseased kidneys with carefully crafted herbal treatments. But certainly the Western style of allopathic medicine has often been reluctant to consider the possibility of regeneration and healing, let alone actually embrace the idea.

However, there is now evidence, coming from Western medical research itself, that kidneys can indeed be regenerated. A team working through Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of Pittsburgh have discovered stem cells in zebra fish kidneys that can be transplanted into other zebra fish to generate new nephrons.

These nephrons are the filtering structures inside kidneys. In humans, because stem cells disappear around the time of birth, people lose the ability to regenerate these structures. But the information derived from research with the zebra fish suggests that there are indeed ways to regenerate diseased kidneys. The research may suggest different ways than those used in herbal medicine, but these results at least opens a door to considering what hasn’t been considered before. Western medical practitioners may now begin to reconsider the claims made by their counterparts practising natural medical treatments.

This work with zebra fish is just one of the ways that stem cell research is revolutionizing the practice of medicine. And even though the research comes from the more Western, allopathic side of the medical equation, there really doesn’t need to be an either/or choice about it. With the wellbeing of the person with kidney disease being the goal of all treatment, any insight that improves their health and may eventually lead to a cure can be a welcome development.

(Further reading: Medical News Today, February 3, 2011; The New Zealand Herald, February 5, 2011)

Risk Factors

What Happens when Calcium and Phosphorus are Out of Balance

KundanKidneyCare June 4, 2015February 7, 2019

It’s been established that when a person has kidney disease, one of the big concerns becomes the balance of their electrolytes – that is, the electrically charged elements that move through the blood to help the body perform vital functions. Keeping the calcium and phosphorus balanced in the body becomes especially important, because these two electrolytes play a major role in building bones and teeth, and also in conveying energy throughout the body. So what happens if they do go out of balance? How does this imbalance manifest itself?

Diseased kidneys can’t get rid of excess phosphorus, nor can they activate Vitamin D, meaning calcium levels drop. The thyroid triggers more calcium both to bring those levels up and to balance the excess phosphorus. This extra calcium is often leeched from the bones, making them weaker. And calcium phosphate deposits, made from all this extra material, begin latching onto soft tissue, including in the arteries, heart, lungs, and joints. Eventually these deposits start to harden, creating health problems related to the lungs and heart.

When this situation gets severe, it isn’t only the cardiovascular system that’s in danger. The leeching of calcium can make bones more bendable, and in the advanced stages of kidney failure, the jaw in particular becomes rubbery. Meanwhile, calcium phosphate deposits in other soft tissue creates inflammation that is hard to treat. And with the extra parathyroid levels, electrical impulses can’t travel properly along the nerves. This can lead to a patient being dazed and unresponsive.

Trying to maintain a low phosphorus diet can help somewhat, but it’s sometimes hard to avoid foods containing milk, whole grains, peas, etc. We can also help you by providing drugs that serve as phosphate binders. So it’s very important for people with even slight kidney problems to consult and keep checking their electrolyte levels.

Kidney Diet

Special Diet Necessary for Early Stage Kidney Disease

KundanKidneyCare June 4, 2015

If you have been diagnosed with early stage kidney failure it is best to stay on a special diet that would help slow down the loss of kidney function. This special diet will consist of more starches and sweets to help you maintain weight and protect muscle tissue.

Although more fats and carbohydrates seem to look like an “unhealthy diet,” it will protect you from malnutrition when you’re at the initial stage of kidney failure. Following a special diet will also help control waste products in the blood during the later stages of kidney failure. A renal dietician recommended by your nephrologist can help you draw meal plans.

Protein, phosphorus and sodium intake need to be monitored and controlled at the early stage of the disease.

Large amounts of protein is found in poultry, meat, seafood, eggs, milk and cheese while smaller amounts are found in plant sources like cereals, breads, grains, fruits and vegetables.

Protein is a vital component in muscle building and repairing tissues. Unused protein becomes waste called “urea,” which an impaired kidney will have difficulty of eliminating. A build up of urea is toxic to the body which is why the protein intake of those in the first stage of kidney disease should be closely monitored.

Meanwhile, there is also a need to keep track of the phosphorus level in your blood since an impaired kidney has difficulties in cleansing high levels of phosphorus. A high level of phosphorus leads to calcium loss from the bones, making them weak and brittle. The right renal diet keeps track of your phosphorus intake.

The following foods have high phosphorus content: cocoa, beer and pop, nuts and peanut butter, milk, yogurt, yogurt, ice cream and pudding, dried beans and peas and lentils. To lower phosphorus intake it is recommended that you use milk substitutes and non-dairy creamers.

It is common knowledge that too much sodium or salt is bad for the health. This is the reason that even in preserving foods, salting is less likely to be recommended compared to drying or freezing. Too much consumption of sodium causes high blood pressure and kidney diseases. To stay on track avoid the consumption of the following: canned goods, fast foods, table salts, chips, soups and processed cheese, pickles, smoked and cured foods like spam, luncheon meat, ham and the all time breakfast favorite – bacon.

A low-protein diet means that higher calorie consumption is needed to maintain energy. A renal dietician may recommend the following: increased saturated fats such as olive oil and mayonnaise type salad dressings, sugar or sweets like jam or jelly, honey, marshmallows, jelly beans, gum drops, canned fruits and frozen fruits. Those who are diabetic or obese should consult with their dietician.

Altering your diet may be difficult but it is essential in slowing down the loss of kidney functions. It will also be beneficial in the later stages of the disease.*

Kidney Diet, Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre

Potassium and Sodium, Another Key Electrolyte Pair

KundanKidneyCare May 29, 2015

Potassium and Sodium form another electrolyte pair that relate to each other and face connected problems when affected by kidney disease. First of all, these two chemicals form a specific balance of fluids inside and outside of the cells of the body. Potassium is highly concentrated inside cells, while sodium is more highly concentrated outside.

While sodium regulates fluid levels throughout the body itself, the sodium-potassium inside-outside chemical balance of the cells is very important. This balance creates an electrically charged potential at the cell membrane. And it’s this electrical potential that is crucial to such things as heart function, muscle contraction, and the transmission of nerve impulses. If these chemicals are thrown out of balance, it’s clear that people could suffer anything from heart problems to weak muscles or even nerve problems.

The kidneys serve a vital function in keeping these electrolytes balanced, excreting excess amounts so the body stays regulated. But what happens if there is more of a particular chemical in the body than the kidney can possibly eliminate? We see this question coming more and more to the forefront as the North American diet, in particular, is increasingly swamped with sodium. Excess sodium can lead to fluid retention, high blood pressure, and kidneys that become so overworked that they start to falter or even fail.

At the same time, if the kidneys aren’t able to function at full strength, and can no longer eliminate potassium in the way they are supposed to, people can begin to experience a condition known as hyperkalemia. This promotes further buildup of fluid in the body, but its worst effects have to do with the heart. It may result in a weak or irregular heartbeat, and a difficulty controlling the muscles. At its worst, it can lead to problems with breathing, weakness, or cardiac arrest. But like so many conditions related to kidney function, it often shows no symptoms at all until the kidneys are already severely compromised.

Doctors need to be careful in trying to rebalance sodium and potassium. When patients receive diuretics that promote urination, to remove excess sodium, they sometimes experience depleted potassium, which creates further nerve, heart, and muscle problems. Yet a lack of balance can damage the kidneys – and damaged kidneys can throw the balance even further out. It’s far better to eat a healthy diet and promote kidney health to begin with, than scramble to try to fix these electrolyte imbalances after they arise.

Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre, Risk Factors

Calcium, Phosphorus, and the Kidneys

KundanKidneyCare May 28, 2015

Electrolytes float through the blood and perform various functions in people’s bodies. Calcium, Sodium, and Potassium, for example, work together to help the muscles of the body contract. And the work of some of these electrically charged substances is controlled or at least affected by the kidneys.

This means that when the kidneys are diseased, the electrolytes may also function in an unhealthy way. Serious problems can arise that might, at first, seem unrelated to the kidneys at all. But to understand how these issues develop, we first need to know how electrolytes function when everything works properly.

Let’s take a look at two electrolytes – calcium and phosphorus – which often work together, each substance relying on the kidneys to keep it in balance with the other. The first function of the two is probably obvious: to help build up bones and teeth. Almost everyone knows that calcium is good for building bones, but few are aware that phosphorus is just as important. In fact, while about ninety-nine percent of the calcium in the body is concentrated in the bones, as much as eighty-five percent of the body’s phosphorus may also be found there.
In addition, phosphorus plays a major role in transferring energy throughout in the body. Calcium and phosphorus together help keep cells in good order, and regulate nerve function. Remember calcium’s role in helping muscles to contract? This would not be possible without phosphorus working right alongside it. The two electrolytes are equal partners.

The kidney helps keep phosphorus levels balanced by inducing the production of D vitamins, which in turn help the body excrete excess phosphorus. But as kidney disease progresses, the kidney becomes unable to trigger the Vitamin D. And that’s when the happy partnership of calcium and phosphorus becomes a nightmare instead. We’ll examine what happens under these circumstances with our next look at kidneys and the electrolytes.

Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre, Risk Factors

Introduction to Electrolytes: Part 1

KundanKidneyCare May 27, 2015

One topic that frequently comes up in connection with kidney disease is electrolytes. They play an important role in the body, and relate particularly to kidney malfunction. But what are they, and what do they actually do? We will explore this topic in several installments, to try to explain how electrolytes work, and why their levels are important to monitor when you have impaired kidneys.

Electrolytes are substances that are electrically charged, or ionized. Because of this charge, they can carry electrical impulses along the nerves and muscles. These substances are, in fact, what make most parts of the body function at all. And if they aren’t present in proper levels, or certain types are out of balance, the body begins to suffer the consequences.
So for example, you may have some electrolytes carried along in the blood, and they would pass through membranes and cell walls into muscle tissue, to transmit impulses that make the tissue contract. Muscle contraction depends on the presence of three electrolytes in particular: Calcium (Ca²⁺), Sodium (Na⁺), and Potassium (K⁺), with the plus or minus values indicating what sorts of ions they are. Lower the levels of these three too much, or put them out of balance, and muscle function suffers.

So how does this relate to kidney disease? The kidneys play a major role in regulating fluids (which contain electrolytes) in the body. So when the kidneys are impaired or fail, this often throws out the balance, or results in a surfeit of some electrolytes. If this problem isn’t addressed, other parts of the body can be affected in serious ways, some of them potentially fatal.

In the next few installments, we’ll discuss specific types of electrolyte problems that are most closely associated with kidney disease. We’ll look at symptoms, but we’ll also try to discover ways to restore electrolyte levels and return to a safer, more healthy balance.

Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre

Raising Kidney Patient Hemoglobin Levels Can be Risky

KundanKidneyCare May 26, 2015

It’s well-known that Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) reduces the ability of the kidneys to help make red blood cells. As a result, people with diseased kidneys can often become anemic. And since red blood cells carry oxygen through the body, this may then lead to oxygen starvation, causing all sorts of symptoms from shortness of breath to cardiovascular problems.

For this reason, doctors have always been encouraged to use stimulating agents to help raise the hemoglobin levels of kidney patients. But the latest guideline offered by Great Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) adds a cautionary note about the levels of hemoglobin doctors should aim for. The reason, they say, is that in this case, there can actually be too much of a good thing.

Anemic kidney patients obviously receive considerable benefit from having their hemoglobin levels brought back up. But according to NICE researchers, there is a specified upper limit above which these levels should not go. If hemoglobin rises above them, rather than experiencing even greater health benefits, these patients could face certain new risks. Such risks might include strokes or blood clots.

The new guidelines released by NICE on February 9, 2011, address many issues about managing anemia in kidney patients. For example, doctors need to take into account how active the patients might be in their daily work. They might also accept slightly higher than recommended levels of hemoglobin if no other factors suggest a risk of cardiovascular problems.

But on the whole, the NICE guidelines recommend that physicians stay pretty much within the suggested upper and lower hemoglobin levels. Doctors need to take into account the conditions their patients have already developed and risks they know already exist; Keeping these in mind, they must then should monitor their hemoglobin treatments to ensure new health risks are not introduced into the lives of the patients.

(National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, on the new Guidelines, February 9, 2011)

Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre, Risk Factors

Mammograms and Kidney Disease Detection

KundanKidneyCare May 25, 2015

What some mammograms show is deposits of calcium left in the arteries. This calcification is a typical result of kidney disease, and if it increases, it can lead to cardiovascular disease as well. The progress of the calcium deposits can be studied over the months and years, as doctors assess the possible risks to the heart and lungs.
A happy coincidence — if you can properly call it that — is that women reach the age of needing mammograms at about the same time they would be manifesting kidney disease if they’re going to get it. Many of those who show calcification in the arteries will probably already know they have kidney problems. Yet in some cases, what shows on the mammogram may be their first hint.

(For more information, read Proven Method of Cancer Detection Found Effective in Kidney Disease, January 25, 2010)

Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre

Tips for Getting That Recommended Exercise

KundanKidneyCare May 20, 2015

So you are a kidney patient and your doctor advises you to get some exercise, to keep as fit as possible and help your condition as much as you can. You’re planning on bike rides, three or four times a week. Naturally you know that you can’t overdo it, but what sorts of things should you keep in mind as you get started?

If you are on dialysis, you may work at a lower level than otherwise, but there is still much you can do. All kidney patients should begin with gradual stretching to warm up. Dialysis in particular can create possible thigh problems, so ease slowly into your exercise session. After you’ve increased your pace for a while, slow down again and ease out of the session just as carefully.
Exercise every other day, three times a week, in the morning if possible, though evening will also do. The main thing is to avoid the hottest part of the day. Be sure not to exercise just before bedtime, or you might not sleep that well. Give yourself at least an hour to wind down afterwards. And if you don’t feel completely normal an hour after exercising — whenever you do it — then you’re working yourself too hard.

Those in the know suggest that if you are exercising so hard that you’re unable to talk with someone while you do it, you’re overdoing things. Always monitor your own condition during the exercising, and after it’s over. Walking, swimming, and cycling are good exercises, and you can even lift weights, if you start small and slowly work up to higher levels.

Having kidney disease does not mean you must stop everything. In fact, that will only lessen your body’s strength and make it less able to cope with the disease. If you exercise in a way that doesn’t push too hard, your general health will only benefit.

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Author Archives: KundanKidneyCare

Mammograms and Kidney Disease Detection

New Evidence That Kidneys Can Be Regenerated

What Happens when Calcium and Phosphorus are Out of Balance

Special Diet Necessary for Early Stage Kidney Disease

Potassium and Sodium, Another Key Electrolyte Pair

Calcium, Phosphorus, and the Kidneys

Introduction to Electrolytes: Part 1

Raising Kidney Patient Hemoglobin Levels Can be Risky

Mammograms and Kidney Disease Detection

Tips for Getting That Recommended Exercise