How To Keep Your Kidneys Healthy

A person has two kidneys. Most people are born with two kidneys but some are born with a single kidney. But if a single kidney remains strong and healthy, it can sustain a whole life. Our lifestyle sometimes causes damage to our kidneys. Even if one leads a healthy lifestyle, he/she can suffer from kidney diseases. High blood pressure, diabetes and pain-relieving medicines have a visible effect on the kidneys.

But the biggest problem is many people do not know many things about their kidneys. Because of this, many kidney patients visit hospitals when their kidney becomes untreatable. Lately, the number of kidney patients has increased. 

Various reasons can be attributed to such a sharp increase. The first reason is that dialysis facilities are provided free of cost in the country. Lately, the technology of testing has reached every village. As a result, more patients are seen due to early diagnosis. Many of them are found suffering from kidney ailments accidentally while getting tested for other diseases. On the other hand, an unhealthy lifestyle is also a factor. Our bad eating habits lack physical activities such as walking, and working and failure to drink enough water often lead to kidney diseases. 

Asymptomatic Diseases

If you do not sleep well during the night it will harm the body. Similarly, we often crave to eat more. However, we often fail to eat our meals on time and sleep at bedtime, We like to eat more and not eat on time, do not sleep at bedtime and fail to consume enough water. In cities and towns, people visit restaurants where they eat fast and junk foods which causes many problems in due time. It is generally believed that if a person makes a habit of eating foods that are available at fast-food joints, she/he is likely to suffer from various diseases. Our lifestyle has deteriorated due to a lack of discipline in leading our life and failure to maintain healthy eating behaviour.

We do not walk for long hours as our grandparents had done in the past. Though they had no choice but to walk, it has helped them healthily lead lives. Moving on cars and motorcycles has become a way of life for many city and town dwellers and they appear to have forgotten to walk. Secondly, in a country like ours which has so many reservoirs and an abundance of water, many residents have still been struggling to get enough drinking water as they are not available for all of them.

We have forgotten about drinking water and stopped exercising regularly. Even if they do not walk daily due to an unhealthy environment and poor road conditions, they should at least participate in Yoga. It would have been better to do Yoga exercises for an hour in the morning. Baba Ram Dev did miracles by spreading Yoga and Pranayama. So Yoga and Pranayama are good for your health. However, instead of engaging ourselves in Baba Ram Dev 

introduced Pranayam Yoga, we prefer to go to Patanjali-run stores for buying flour, toothpaste, soap and other items. We do not know how to adopt a healthy and simple lifestyle and follow a diet properly.

Above all people feel relaxed and safe if they have no symptoms, which often invites big problems for them. You have to adopt a healthy lifestyle while undergoing health checkups at regular intervals.

Vulnerable Groups

Out of a population of about 30 million, three million people have kidney problems, 300,000 are not aware of the early damage, and 30,000 have badly damaged kidneys. Every year, 3,000 people will die if they do not get dialysis and kidney transplantation. The disease, of any type, does not spare a person no matter which age group he belongs to or whether he/she is rich,  poor or from a village or city. From school-going children to people of all age groups, they have to undergo urine tests once every year.

Many Nepali patients suffering from kidney failure are lucky these days as they can get dialysis services in their cities. But others have to visit other cities to receive dialysis and treatment

According to a study conducted at the National Kidney Centre, 60 per cent of dialysis recipients are from the tribal and poor or lower-middle-class groups. It is the lower middle-class people who found themselves in trouble now as kidney-related treatment and medicines are pricey. The upper middle class do not have a problem, let alone the people with high incomes.

The poor people can feel relieved today as the Government of Nepal has provided free dialysis services. Two decades ago, due to a lack of money, there was a situation of losing relatives due to the availability of dialysis services. At that time there were a lot of people who could not save family members, but today that is not the case. However, the problem now is the number of patients is increasing with each passing day.

The limited number of dialysis machines has to provide dialysis facilities to unlimited patients. The government started providing dialysis facilities, but we encountered providing dialysis services due to constraints in getting transportation, medicines, and hospitalisation. For patients, these services are not affordable in long run.

Ways To Remain Healthy

To keep your kidney healthy, start the day with a glass of water to keep your body healthy. Drink two to three litres of water a day so that you can urinate two to three litres of urine. How much water you drink and how much urine you urinate are important. The other thing is how many steps you walk. Walk 10,000 steps a day or involve in regular physical exercise. Pay attention to what you're eating. Think about whether food that you are eating is healthy or not. Don't eat things that contain sugar and spices. Smoking or drinking alcohol is not good for your health. Smoking and alcohol make a lot of people seriously sick. These people want to stop these habits only when it becomes too late. Take care of yourself thoughtfully before it is late. Handle your health with utmost care.

It doesn't take long to go from a healthy to unhealthy life if you care less about your health. If you do not want to be sick you should not use cigarettes, tobacco, or alcohol. Meanwhile, painkillers give a kick to the kidneys, so be careful. Keep blood pressure and diabetes at the appropriate level. If you drink plenty of water, exercise, do not smoke, do not use tobacco, eat healthy food, sleep on time, wake up early, and keep blood pressure and diabetes under control, your kidneys will remain healthy as it was.

You also need to undergo urine and creatinine in the blood checkup once a year. If there is no increase in creatinine in the blood, then it shows that the kidneys are not damaged. Urine tests will show kidney disease very early.

A health check-up once a year will infuse confidence in you to live and work in the normal way. If you feel something amiss, then timely treatment saves you from suffering from kidney failure. Everybody should take care of their kidneys. If kidneys are healthy then Nepal will be healthy too.

(Senior Kidney Specialist Dr. Kafle is Executive Director, The National  Kidney Centre)