10 Habits That Damage Your Kidneys
The bean-shaped twins running the show for us, also called kidneys, are of vital importance - even though the heart
and brain take the cake most times.
Of their many functions, the main one is blood filtration. The many others include maintaining our body's fluid balance, regulating balance of the electrolytes and urination.
When the kidney fails to excrete the waste from the body, it affects the kidneys and its functioning. Your body starts swelling up.
When this condition is left untreated, it leads to kidney failure, for which the only option is kidney transplant.
We need to be careful about what we eat, as whatever we eat has its effect on the kidneys. Kidneys might measure up to the size of a fist each, but their importance is immeasurable.
Hence, any potential damage or harm-causing activity will most definitely be bitter. Here are ten things that one can avoid to prevent kidney damage.
Habits That Damage Your Kidneys:
1. Not Enough Hydration:
Intake of water has been proven to be the elixir for many problems, and one such is for good kidney health. As mentioned above, kidneys help in maintaining the body's fluid balance, it does so by flushing out unwanted toxins and sodium with an appropriate water intake.
This helps reduce the probability of kidney stones and a possible failure of the kidneys later on.
2. Excessive Meat Consumption:
Animal protein generates high amounts of acid which is very harmful for the kidneys to process, leading to a condition called acidosis (where the kidneys cannot eliminate the excess acids efficiently), excessive intake of the same might lead to serious troubles.
Animal protein should always be balanced with an intake of greens and fresh fruits. Again, it's all about the balance and regulation.
3. Smoking:
Generally, smoking is associated with damaging the lungs or heart directly, but it also has an impact on the health of your kidneys. This is because, smoking leaves a lot of protein in the urine, which is a red flag for your kidneys' health.
4. Alcohol:
Anything above three to four drinks a day increases the chances of developing chronic kidney disease. Plus, the combination of tobacco and alcohol increases the same chances by five-fold of developing the same.
5. Processed Food:
High in minerals like phosphorous and sodium, processed food of all sorts are directly harmful for the kidneys. This will effect the ability of the kidneys to maintain the balance in fluids and electrolytes.
6. Sleep Deprivation:
Due to many reasons, we tend to slack and not give our body the rest it needs, much less it deserves. As the general recommendations go, one should get a good sleep of 6 to 8 hours for the body to be prepped for another day.
During the sleeping bracket, the body does a lot of work - the most important of all being renewal of organ tissues. Depriving one's body of this vital activity will lead to the degeneration of kidneys, increase in blood pressure and deterioration of general health.
7. Overdose Of Salt:
Salt is full of sodium and high sodium intake can directly lead to a spike in the blood pressure levels. Blood filtration then becomes dysfunctional and gradually degrades the kidneys too.
8. For The Love Of Sugar Rush:
Foods that lack in sugar, we add the extra bit and compensate, and the foods that are already sweet, we give in to our cravings anyway. A little excess sugar has never done any good. It leads to increase in blood pressure and the very obvious diabetes, which directly effects the functionality of the kidneys.
9. Lack Of Exercise:
Exercise has always had only positive effects on the human body, and it only proves the same stronger when the benefits of it are spoken about on each organ. Likewise, for kidneys too, it helps flush out toxins and in regulating the fluid balance throughout the system by upping the metabolism and vigour.
10. Delaying The Urge To Urinate:
Most times, we feel the urge to urinate needs to be clubbed with another work or an errand - and to that effect, we suppress the same. And sometimes, for hours together. This is one of the most terrible things to do, as it increases urine pressure in the kidneys and leads to renal failure.
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