Kidney Health Pt. 1

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The kidneys are part of the urinary tract. This pair of organs sits on either side of the abdomen and filters toxins from the blood, regulates acid, maintain water balance in the body by excreting urine, and makes a hormone to keep your bones healthy. Kidney disease is referred to as renal disease. Unfortunately, chronic kidney diseases and kidney failure have become commonplace due, in part, to the increased number of people with diabetes and hypertension. Kidney disease, kidney stones, and cancer of the kidneys are the primary dysfunctions of this organ.

When someone has hypertension, it can damage the blood vessels in the kidneys. These blood vessels are needed as part of the body's toxin and waste filtering process, so when they're damaged, the kidneys are unable to eliminate toxins. If the kidneys fail, a temporary solution is dialysis, but a transplant is the only real treatment.

Diabetes causes a similar problem. When the body's blood sugar levels stay too high, glucose in the blood can act as a poison to the system, and the poison will damage the filtering tubes inside the kidneys, thus making the kidneys unable to filter the toxins and wastes properly.

Kidney stones are generally not a sign of kidney disease. Usually kidney stones indicate a dietary issue--a person is not drinking enough water, ingesting too much salt, or having some type of dietary issue where you're ingesting too much of something that is causing the formation of a kidney stone. A number of conditions can lead to kidney stones:

Gout results in an increased amount of uric acid in the urine and can lead to the formation of uric acid stones.

Hypercalciuria (high calcium in the urine) is an inherited condition in which too much calcium is absorbed from food and excreted into the urine where it may form calcium phosphate or calcium oxalate stones.

Other conditions associated with an increased risk of kidney stones include hyperparathyroidism, kidney diseases such as renal tubular acidosis, and cystinuria and hyperoxaluria.

People with inflammatory bowel disease or who have had an intestinal bypass or ostomy surgery are also more likely to develop kidney stones.

Some medications also raise the risk of kidney stones. These medications include some diuretics, calcium-containing antacids, and the protease inhibitor Crixivan (indinavir), which is used to treat HIV infection.

Most kidney stones are formed by calcium deposits which aren't diluted enough to be flushed from the system. When these calcium deposits attach to each other, they become stuck in the narrow ureter tubes which connect the kidneys and the bladder. Stuck together, they cause severe pain and can block the flow of urine.

In about 80 percent of kidney stones, the stone is made of calcium. These can be dissolved in several ways. Obviously, drinking water is essential to keeping your kidneys healthy. Even if you form a stone, drinking water can help flush it out.

Note: Some statements in this article may not be approved by the FDA. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice.