How to nourish and protect the kidney?

The kidney is shaped like a broad bean and is located on the waist and back of the human body. It looks small but extremely important. It is like a garbage disposal station in the body. It constantly excrete water and toxins for the human body and regulates the acid-base balance in the body.

Due to the strong reserve capacity of the kidney, when the kidney is slightly damaged, the patient has no obvious clinical symptoms and the disease condition is easy to be ignored. However, renal tissue cells cannot regenerate after injury. When the kidney is seriously damaged, its reserve capacity decreases and the consequences are serious.

Nowadays, there are more and more patients with kidney diseases and they are showing a continuous growth trend. Friends often ask me such questions. Kidney diseases are so terrible, how should they be protected?

To protect the kidneys, can I do some what?

1. Timely detection and treatment of diseases inducing kidney damage:

    Infectious diseases such as skin infection, pharyngolaryngitis and tonsillitis need to be cured immediately. Antibiotics should be applied thoroughly and should not be discarded halfway. If eyelid or facial edema is found after 1-2 weeks of suffering from these diseases, urine should be tested immediately and changes in urine should be traced. Allergic diseases such as urticaria and anaphylactoid purpura should be traced.

2. Pay attention to the damage of systemic diseases to kidney: such as hypertension, diabetes, gout, etc., the primary disease should be actively controlled, urine should be tested regularly, kidney damage should be found at an early stage, and early treatment should be carried out.

3. Pay attention to the regularity and rationality of diet: Do not overeat. As you grow older, you must also control your diet. Do not overeat, have too much protein, do not smoke or drink too much.

4. Careful medication: Don’t take it indiscriminately without the doctor’s prescription, especially the use of antibiotics and analgesics. Follow the doctor’s advice and try to avoid using drugs that may damage the kidney. Also don’t eat herbal remedies indiscriminately, which misses the treatment opportunity and damages the kidney.

5. Drink plenty of water in an appropriate amount and do not hold your urine: Drink enough water every day and urinate at any time. Urinary tract is not easy to infect and suffer from stones.

6. Regular physical examination: measure blood pressure, body weight, urine volume and urine routine, renal function, blood sugar, etc.

7. Other: Pay attention to keep warm, do not catch cold, add clothes in time. Avoid contact with susceptible people, prevent colds and infections. Pay attention to physical exercise, choose suitable exercise methods and stick to exercise, so as to enhance physical fitness and improve immune resistance to diseases.

Taking several drugs at the same time will cause what harm?

Kidney is an important way to excrete drugs and their metabolites. The degree of nephrotoxicity of drugs is not only related to the toxicity of drugs, but also related to the distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs in the kidney.

Previous studies have shown that the incidence of adverse reactions of patients taking 1 ~ 5 drugs at the same time is 18.6%. The incidence of adverse reactions increased to 81.4% for those who used more than 5 drugs together. For example, the toxicity of antibiotics will be increased if some antibiotics are used simultaneously with diuretics. The application of anti-gastric acid drugs will reduce the absorption of chlorpromazine and tetracycline. Chloramphenicol combined with dicoumarins can enhance the curative effect and cause hemorrhage.

How to avoid the influence between drugs as much as possible?

When taking medicine everyday, especially for those who take many kinds of drugs every day, there are the following matters that need special attention:

First of all, most people do not know their kidney function. If you need to take a certain drug for a long time and do not know whether the drug will damage the kidney, you can do this:

    Consult relevant doctors: Specialists must know a lot more about drugs than we just look at the instructions. They are familiar with the interaction of commonly used drugs and will not abuse nephrotoxic drugs when it is not necessary. Penicillins, cephalosporins and other drugs are mainly excreted through the kidney, and doctors will be very careful when using them. In some cases, drugs will be used in reduced amounts.
    Remember the name of the drug: Many people may take drugs from different departments at the same time, which requires them to be considerate. Usually, doctors will ask you which drugs you are taking, while some people may only take their own drugs without paying attention to the name of the drug. Therefore, it is suggested that everyone should remember the name of the drug they take every day. Or, when dispensing drugs for parents and elders, ask the doctor more and tell him which drugs he is taking, so as to avoid the interaction of drugs to the greatest extent.
    Care about your kidney function: Every time a new drug is added, Pay attention to changes in your body, Timely detection of drug side effects. For example, taking diuretics may aggravate hyperuricemia, Causing gout attacks, urinary tract obstruction, etc. Therefore, when taking diuretics, one should pay attention to one’s renal function and observe whether one has the above-mentioned manifestations. Another example is that many drugs (sulfonamides, penicillins, especially semi-synthetic penicillin, etc.) may lead to acute allergic interstitial nephritis, and then acute renal failure.

Therefore, in the process of medication, one must pay attention to whether one has fever, rash, hematuria and other abnormal manifestations. Once found, one should seek medical treatment as soon as possible.

Kidneys and hearts are working 24 hours a day, extremely hard and delicate. Please treat your kidneys as well as your eyes.

Responsible Editor: Huang Lijia