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Your kidneys are essential for your survival and there’s a lot more to this beautiful but highly underrated organ than just being a mere exhaust!
Click on the links below to learn about your in-built master biochemist (Kidneys), ways to keep them in great health and dispell common myths surrounding kidney diseases.
Creatine Supplements Kidney
Creatine Supplements are a common performance-enhancing agent. It is also rather popular with fitness enthusiasts, athletes and professional bodybuilders these days. But a growing number of Creatine consumers are also concerned about if these supplements could damage kidneys.
Now, anything kidney tingles our neurons immediately! So we decided to address these concerns with today’s article.
Infections that cause kidney damage
In these times of the COVID-19 pandemic, several realizations came to the fore. One of them was how unaware, a big chunk of our society is, on how several infections irrespective of where they initially start, can cause kidney damage. Something that resulted in the death of many patients with COVID-19 – a respiratory illness.
So we at Team ATK decided to get to work and compile a comprehensive list of all infectious diseases which can potentially cause kidney damage, even if the initial infection starts elsewhere. Continue reading “Infections that cause kidney damage”
Medicines damage kidneys
Whatever we eat, drink or inject into our body circulates via blood through our kidneys. This tenet holds true for medicines as well.
All of you know that prescription medicines come with specific dose instructions. These comply with dosing protocols found “safe & effective” after rigorous clinical trials for that drug. The purpose of such fixed dosing is to ensure maximum benefit from the drug & minimize the chances of harmful side effects.
If such medicines are not taken following your healthcare provider’s instructions, or if it is an illegal substance, it can end up harming your kidneys!
Technically, such medicines are termed “Nephrotoxic”.
This article aims to provide an overview of which drugs can cause nephrotoxicity (kidney damage), when and how, plus how to protect yourself against it. Continue reading “Medicines can damage kidneys: Understanding Drug-induced Nephrotoxicity”
Herd Immunity is gaining a lot of attention these days, as a potentially viable strategy to curb the highly contagious COVID-19 pandemic.
But do you correctly understand what Herd Immunity is? How does it work? Is it viable for COVID-19? What is the best way to achieve Herd Immunity against it – Natural infection or Vaccination?
Vaccines are necessary to boost our immune power to effectively ward-off specific infections. They form a crucial part of medically preparing all patients of Chronic Kidney Disease for a kidney transplant surgery as well.
However, patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), those with Kidney Failure on Dialysis or Kidney Transplant recipients have a weaker immune system. Since vaccines are basically made of weakened germs or its parts, vaccinating this subset of patients requires caution and clinical supervision.
Continue reading “Vaccines & Kidney Patients: A Comprehensive Guide”
Amidst all the enthusiastic talk of developing a Vaccine to fight-off COVID19 (the new coronavirus) and the World Immunization Week (24th-30th April) silently passing by, we at Team ATK felt it’s appropriate to help you gain a basic insight on Vaccines and their utility & limitations in kidney patients.
After all, vaccines form a crucial part of medically preparing all patients of Chronic Kidney Disease for a transplant surgery. Add to that, the fact that SOME vaccines are UNSAFE for transplant recipients, and this topic becomes all the more significant.
So, let’s begin then, shall we?
COVID-19 (the new Coronavirus) has made its way to 185 countries (at the time of writing this article). It is highly contagious, a completely new viral strain that had caught us all off-guard and is of particular concern to anyone with a weak immune system.
A sizeable chunk of Kidney Patients has poor immunity. Continue reading “COVID-19: A-Z Guide for Kidney Patients”
Restricting your daily intake of Sodium, Potassium, Phosphorus, Protein & Fat in your food is the cornerstone of a Renal Diet Plan. Renal Dietitians are trained to help kidney patients identify which nutrients to restrict or increase in their daily diets, and by how much, based on our individual kidney health status. This means you will need to adjust your food & condiment portions to remain within your daily nutrient allowance. So how do you go about it? Continue reading “3 Must-have tools for a “Low Sodium” Renal Diet”
Hygiene is an important consideration for everything that enters your body, whether you eat it, drink it, breathe it or inject it. This is more so if a major, essential organ of the body like your kidneys are unwell. That’s because, in normal health, kidneys efficiently eliminate ALL excess metabolic wastes and impurities in blood via urine. But Chronic Kidney Disease progressively diminishes this blood-cleansing ability of kidneys as well as blunts our body’s immune defences with time.
💡 So what are the best practices to keep your kidney kitchen hygienic?
💡 Which are the must-have equipment/utility items that you should consider stocking-up your kitchen with, to turn it into a “Kidney-Fortress”?
These are what this article has discussed today. Continue reading “Ensuring Hygiene in a Kidney-friendly Kitchen”
Kidney friendly
What business does someone trained as a physician-scientist have, talking about “Tools necessary for a Kidney-friendly kitchen”, you may ask?
Well, it’s my own decade-long Experience navigating life as a Kidney Warrior (currently post-kidney transplant) and the frustrating lack of organized information on this matter in the medical literature or public domain, that has motivated me to help fellow members in the Kidney Community in this regard.
As soon as you are diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, dietary modifications take the centre-stage Continue reading “Kidney-Friendly Kitchen: The must-have tools!”