Most of the time we take care of visible organs and tissues, like skin, nails, hair, eye, etc. We eat food which is pleasant to taste but difficult to digest, we live a sedentary lifestyle to comfort our body but bad for blood circulation, we drink beverages to appease our desire which is difficult for kidney to filter. We forget that much complicated invisible systems inside us are working 24 hours to keep us alive. For eg. the heart is pumping blood, kidney is filtering blood, blood is circulating oxygen to entire body, stomach is digesting the food and giving us energy, brain is signalling nerves to act in coordination, hormones and chemicals are released from the body and so on. And all these activities are synchronized to the T. In order to keep our internal organs healthy, one should try to understand how human body functions and this will make taking every next step easier.
Here is a general guide to live a healthier life and a healthier kidney.
- Early to bed and early to rise is a crucial proverb. Have early dinner by 8 pm and go to sleep by 10.30 pm. Sufficient sleep will automatically lead to waking up early in the morning.
- Drink one glass of water early morning to wake up the entire internal system. Unless restricted by the doctor during advanced kidney impairment, 10-15 glasses of water is recommended for hydrated body. Best way is to drink a glass of water every hour (use a timer alert if you are too preoccupied). Slow dehydration leads to several complications. Limit caffeinated drinks, sodas, colas, etc as it dehydrates the body excessively.
- Sunlight is a very powerful energizer for the body. Sunlight permeates skin and catalyzes production of vitamin D hormone through kidney and helps absorb calcium in the body. Apply light coconut oil or other oil in body and exercise/ walk/ sit (depending upon physical condition) under sunlight for 15-45 minutes. It has immense long term benefits.
- Take shower early during the day. Patients should take warm shower.
- Take light healthy breakfast. There is no harm in taking roti sabzi, poha, rice porridge or anything as long as total calorie count for the day as given by dietitian is followed. Take only one type of fruit on any single day. If you take apple on one day, dont take guava (amrood) the same day. choice for fruits is very limited for diabetic kidney patients. Consult dietitian for food chart for entire day and stay in touch with them because every stage of kidney disease progression requires change in dietary requirement of the body.
- If you are working, dont take excessive pressure at work. Peace of mind has a lot to do with entire physical well being. Dont be afraid to talk to your boss and work out a solution. You may take a pay cut and work half day if possible. Dont be afraid that you will be ostracized for having developed kidney problem. Fear rules out your possibility of well being. If nothing works out, quit and take a less stressful job even if the pay is low. In the long term everything irons out if you stay well and live long. Do things you like to do and whatever makes you cheerful. Forgive others and be peaceful. Dont entertain negativity. Dont take a debt burden which makes your life stressful, rather get rid of it. If you have family responsibilities, delegate or empower them to be on their own.
- Spend time on getting your finances in place so that you can take care of your medical bills. Nowadays there are many companies who offer medical facilities to kidney patients for expenses and dialysis.
- Connect with family, friends and other kidney patients for positive life. Avoid sympathy and seek help if required.
- Live in a clean and hygienic environment. Take steps to make your environment clean if need be. kidney patients should take all precautions to stay away from infections. Kidney patients should use separate eating utensils like plate,bowl, spoon, etc to avoid contamination from utensils used by multiple people.
- Drink water exactly as prescribed by the doctor. Keep measured water in one bottle and drink as per doctor’s advise. No one else should drink from that bottle or use it.
- Avoid eating in restaurants and processed food which are stored in departmental store shelves. Any stored food has preservatives which disturbs the sodium potassium balance of the body and creates pressure on kidney. Do not eat stale and stalked food as stale food may be infested with bacteria or fungus which normal body may digest but kidney patients may succumb to resulting in infection.
- Diabetic and hypertension patients should be very careful and follow strict discipline in diet and exercise.
- Do NOT take over the counter medicines without prescriptions by discussing with the neighborhood pharmacy storekeeper. Kidney patients should strictly avoid taking any kind of medicine without consultation of their doctor as it may have counterproductive effect in combination with their kidney medicines.
- Do NOT take pain killers without doctor’s advice, It is extremely dangerous to gulp in analgesics (for pain), antipyretics (for fever), antacids (for indigestion), etc without consulting doctor. Apparently it may not be harmful, as kidney is very strong and is able to filter out the toxins our body produces, but taking such medicines on our own rules out diagnosis of more severe complications inside the body, if at all, till it is too late.
- Smoking is injurious to health but how? When kidney filter toxins from blood, the blood pressure at that time determines release of chemicals from kidney which is further synthesized by chemicals released from lungs to balance blood pressure. Smoking reduces lung’s ability to release such hormones and increases cardiovascular as well as kidney failure risks. Smoking fills kidneys with heavy metals like cadmium and lead damages blood vessels.
Yoga and meditation play a powerful role in keeping our body and mind healthy. Including 30 minutes of yoga and meditation in our daily schedule and 45 minutes of walking can go a long way in keeping the body and mind healthy.