Treatment Options for Kidney Disease

Medication

Just like most medical issues, taking medication can alleviate the pain and suppress symptoms.

Drugs are available to help with: 

• Swelling 
• High blood pressure 
• Anemia
• Cholesterol levels
• Bone strength

These drugs are all benificial and can prolong kidney function. Frequent check ups with doctors are recommened to evaluate the stability and function of the kidneys.

Lifestyle Changes 

Lifestyle decisions can be detrimental to our health. Here are a few things that can help your kidney condition:

Diet 

It goes without saying that a good well balanced diet is good for your overall health. Limiting your consumption of phosphate, potassium, and sodium can be benefical and help to improve your kidney function. For more information about which diet is right for you refer to a dietician.

Smoking

Smoking can be very detrimental to your kidneys. Smoling can increase your risk of kidney cancer. It also damages your heart and blood vessels, which results in low blood flow to the kidneys, which damages them overtime.

Exercise 

Regular exercise is good for general health. There are health benifits all across the board. Healthy vessels are more likely to survive with disease.

Alcohol Consuption

Exsessive and regular alcohol consuption can both lead to kidney problems. It is important to watch the amount of alcohol consumed to protect kidney function. Kidneys have the important job of filtering out toxic substances, alcohol being one of them. Heavy drinkers make the kidneys work harder, putting a lot of load and stress on them, which leads to kidney damage and malfunction. 

For cases that escalate to kidney failure

Dialysis

Dialysis is a procedure that takes the place of your kidneys if they aren't working properly by removing waste products from your blood. There are 2 types of dialysis:

Hemodialysis:  Where your blood is pumped out of your body into an artificial kidney, filtered, and then recirulated into your body. Your blood goes in dirty, and it comes out clean and healthy

Peritonel Dialysis: Uses the inside lining of the abdomen as a natural filter with cleaning fluids being pumped into the body via catheder 

Both of these cleanse and remove waste and toxins from the blood stream. Each session lasts for 3-4 hours and happens several times a week (depending on the funtionality of the patients kidney)

Dialysis is not a cure for kidney failure, it is merely a process of prolonging life for those who suffer from kidney failure> The majority of people who go on dialysis are on dialysis until they are able to recieve a new kidney.

Kidney Transplant

A kidney transplant is a surgery which removes the patients faulty kidney, and replaces it with one that is healthy, from either a living or deceased donor. Kidney transplants saves thousands of lives yearly. In 2019, 24,273 kidney transplants were performed. If the proceedure goes well, it can give people the opportunity to live the life they did prior to kidney disease.