Preventing CKD

You are more likely to develop CKD if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or a family history of Kidney failure. But you can protect your kidneys by managing health conditions that cause kidney damage. Read on to know what you can do and what you should not.

Make healthy food choices

Choose foods that are healthy for your heart and your entire body: fresh fruits, fresh or frozen vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat or fat-free dairy products. Eat healthy meals, and cut back on salt and added sugars. Aim for less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium each day. Try to have less than 10 percent of your daily calories come from added sugars.

Tips for making healthy food choices

Cook with a mix of spices instead of salt.
Try baking or broiling meat, chicken, and fish instead of frying.
Serve foods without gravy or added fats.
Try to choose foods with little or no added sugar.
Gradually work your way down from whole milk to 2 percent milk until you’re drinking and cooking with fat-free (skim) or low-fat milk and milk products.
Eat foods made from whole grains—such as whole wheat, brown rice, oats, and whole-grain corn. Use whole-grain bread for toast and sandwiches; substitute brown rice for white rice for home-cooked meals and when dining out.
Read food labels. Choose foods low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars.
Slow down at snack time. Eating a bag of low-fat popcorn takes longer than eating a slice of cake. Peel and eat an orange instead of drinking orange juice.
Try keeping a written record of what you eat for a week. It can help you see when you tend to overeat or eat foods high in fat or calories.

Research has shown that the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating plan may help you lower your blood pressure. If you have diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease, you may want to locate and work with a dietitian to create a meal plan that meets your needs.

DASH eating

Be active. Make it a routine.

You don't have to buy a gym membership for this. You can do Yoga, walk, run, jog, swim, cycle, play some sort of sport that makes you physically active. You don't need a six pack, be active for at least 30 minutes or more on most days. If you are not active now, ask your health care provider about the types and amounts of physical activity that are right for you. Whatever it takes, just be active!

Aim for a healthy weight

Indians start fasting with the drop of a hat. You have to understand that only through fasting you can not achieve a healthy weight. Your body will invariably suffer from mal-nutrition.

To reach and stay at a healthy weight over a long period of time, you must focus on your overall health and lifestyle habits, not just on what you eat. Successful weight-loss programs should promote healthy behaviors that help you lose weight safely, that you can stick with every day, and that help you keep the weight off.

Safe and successful weight-loss programs should include :

Lifestyle modification advice promoting healthy eating and physical activity. Keeping a food and activity journal for monitoring.
Information related to stress management, adequate sleep time and drawbacks of weight loss medicines.
A steady plan for healthy weight loss

Get enough sleep

Aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. If you have trouble sleeping, take steps to improve your sleep habits.

You might be sleep deficient if you often feel like you could doze off while:

Sitting and reading or watching TV
Sitting still in a public place, such as a movie theater, meeting, or classroom
Riding in a car for an hour without stopping
Sitting and talking to someone
Sitting quietly after lunch
Sitting in traffic for a few minutes

If any of the above applies to you, talk to your doctor.

Stop smoking

Any amount of emphasis is less for this issue. You have to stop smoking or using tobacco products to live a healthy life. There is no alternative. If you can't quit by yourself, talk to your doctor and seek professional help. Smoking damages your entire body. It doesn't make you cool or smart but just the other way round.

Limit alcohol intake

Drinking too much alcohol can increase your blood pressure and add extra calories, which can lead to weight gain. If you drink alcohol, limit yourself to one drink per day if you are a woman and two drinks per day if you are a man.

One drink is:

12 ounces of beer
5 ounces of wine
1.5 ounces of liquor

Explore stress-reducing activities

Learning how to manage stress, relax, and cope with problems can improve emotional and physical health. Physical activity can help reduce stress, as can mind and body practices such as meditation, yoga, or tai chi

Manage other diseases

If you have diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart disease, the best way to protect your kidneys from damage is to -

Keep blood glucose numbers close to your goal. Checking your blood glucose, or blood sugar, level is an important way to manage your diabetes. Your health care team may want you to test your blood glucose one or more times a day.

Keep your blood pressure numbers close to your goal. The blood pressure goal for most people with diabetes is below 140/90 mm Hg.

Take all your medicines as prescribed.

Talk with your health care provider about certain blood pressure medicines, called ACE inhibitors and ARBs, which may protect your kidneys. The names of these medicines end in –pril or –sartan.

Be careful about the daily use of over-the-counter pain medications. Regular use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and naproxen, can damage your kidneys.

To help prevent heart attacks and stroke, keep your cholesterol levels in the target range. There are two kinds of cholesterol in your blood: LDL and HDL. LDL or “bad” cholesterol can build up and clog your blood vessels, which can cause a heart attack or stroke. HDL or “good” cholesterol helps remove the “bad” cholesterol from your blood vessels. A cholesterol test also may measure another type of blood fat called triglycerides.

Avoid
Pain killers

Long term use of over-the-counter pain killers may shed harmful effect on kidney tissues and structure damaging the kidneys. Pain killers can also reduce the blood flow to the kidneys. You must tell your doctor about the pain medicines that you take either regularly or occasionally. Depending upon your condition, your doctor can help you manage pain.

Ask questions

Knowledge is power, reluctance is death. The more you know about your body, mind and health conditions, the more careful and respectful you can be towards your life. Don't be afraid to ask questions to your doctor. To start with you may ask the following -

What should I do to keep my kidneys healthy?
Do I need to be taking different medicines?
Should I be more physically active?
What kind of physical activity can I do?
What can I eat?
Am I at a healthy weight?
Do I need to talk with a dietitian to get help with meal planning?
Should I be taking ACE inhibitors or ARBs for my kidneys?
What happens if I have kidney disease?