Tag Archives: risk factors

Categories Kidney Diet, Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre

Kidney Disease and Packaged Foods

Nephrologists in India have concluded that one thing those with kidney disease should avoid is packaged foods. And needless to say, this precaution doesn’t just apply to India. Pre-packaged foods, full of preservatives and other chemicals, are prevalent all over the world. So this caution applies in many other countries as well.

Doctor K.C. Prakash, a senior consulting nephrologist for the Apollo Hospitals in India, reminds people of the bad effects from some of these extra chemicals in packaged food. He notes that one effect of eating a lot of this food is an increase of potassium in the body. Those suffering from chronic kidney disease or renal failure have less ability to eliminate potassium. Therefore, if they accumulate too much potassium, it could result in heart problems or outright heart failure.

Another problem with packaged food is that it tends to be much saltier than freshly cooked food. Extra salt is one thing that helps preserve these meals, after all, to extend their shelf life. Yet it’s a well-proven fact that too much salt can cause or worsen hypertension (high blood pressure), which also puts a strain on the kidneys.

There are other substances in these foods, such as phosphorus, that cause problems with other parts of the body. But for people in renal failure or even in the early stages of kidney disease, the salt and extra potassium alone should be enough to set off alarm bells. Checking labels to find the actual contents in packaged food can be a real eye-opener.

These cautions are helpful for both kidney patients and those with healthy kidneys. Eating fresh, healthy foods is almost always recommended for achieving or maintaining good health. This information about how packaged foods can affect people with kidney disease just provides one more reason.

(Further information: Times of India, December 29, 2010)

Categories Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre, Risk Factors

Lupus and Kidney Disease may be a Deadly Combination

Kidney disease is related to a great many other diseases and conditions, the most common being high blood pressure and heart and stroke problems. But another condition it’s often linked with is lupus. And for those who have both lupus and kidney disease, the prognosis is unfortunately not good.

Systemic lupus erathymatosus, usually just called lupus, causes damage to the skin, joints, brain, and also to the kidneys. In fact, according to an article on the HealthDay website (Kidney Disease Could Be More Deadly for Kids With Lupus, Friday December 17, 2010), about eighty percent of children with lupus also suffer kidney damage. But whether it’s adults or children who have end-stage kidney disease caused by lupus, all have a higher likelihood of death from any cause than those who have the same kidney problems stemming from a different source.

Researchers from both Johns Hopkins University and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia studied the cases of 98,000 children, and this conclusion is what the evidence suggested. Children were 2.4 times more likely to die, when suffering from kidney disease caused by lupus, than children whose disease was caused by something else. Adults had a slightly better record, yet they were still almost twice as many times more likely to die.

While many causes seemed to lead to death for people with kidney disease caused by lupus, the most common cause, according to the study, seemed to be cardiovascular disease and cardiac arrest. For this reason, the researchers suggest that patients with the lupus-kidney combination probably need extra monitoring for atherosclerosis, or the thickening of the walls of the arteries. And when kidney patients are also diagnosed with lupus, that should send up a red flag of warning, so doctors can be more alert to the increased risks of death.

The study, entitled Increased risk of death in pediatric and adult patients with ESRD secondary to lupus, is published in the January 2011 issue of the journal, Pediatric Nephrology.

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