Don’t be blind to kidney disease, learn what you need to do!

Did you know 90% of kidney function can be lost without experiencing any symptoms?

This Week is Kidney Health Week (5th-11th March) and the message to Australian’s this year is ‘Don’t be blind to kidney disease’. In other words, don’t wait until you feel sick, take the initiative and learn the risk factors and find out if you’re the 1 in 3 at risk, before it’s too late.

Click here to take the quiz to see if you are at risk of kidney disease.

Our kidneys function is to remove excess water and waste products from the body. They also produce hormones that help form red blood cells, their job being that they carry oxygen around the body and removes carbon dioxide. With a loss of these functions, it can result in kidney disease. Other health conditions can also contribute to kidney disease; high blood pressure, blood vessel disease and Diabetes to name a few. Your kidneys play an important role in the daily workings of your body, so it makes good sense to take good care of them.

So what can you do to help your kidneys? We asked Angelique, our Exercise Physiologist and Helen, our Acupuncturist and this is what they said.

1. Stop smoking
2. Eat wisely
3. Drink lots of water
4. Limit alcohol
5. Reduce stress and enjoy life
6. Treat kidney stones and UTI’s quickly
7. Exercise; Exercise has been shown to improve muscle strength & function, decrease blood pressure and improve aerobic fitness in people with kidney disease. It is recommended to complete an exercise program that combines strength and cardio for a minimum of 150 minutes per week (30-mins x 5 days). These programs are formulated and delivered by an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, who understands possible complications with other comorbidities (diabetes) associated with Kidney disease/failure.
8. Acupuncture; In TCM, we don’t just treat the kidney by itself, we treat the kidney meridian by making sure that there’s enough oxygen and blood flow via the meridian to nourish the organ to eliminate disease. In other words, we are helping the kidney by unblocking the kidney pathways around the body and holistically keeping the overall body healthy to prevent kidney disease occurring in the first place. By keeping the kidney meridian free flowing it can help with the following; autoimmune diseases, fertility both male and female, brain activity, memory, lower back pain, knee pain, frequent urination, bone density, hair loss, and overall balance and wellbeing. Looking at the kidneys just by themselves, acupuncture can help promote better water flow, therefore eliminating excess water retention which can cause edema and excreting all the waste products and toxic build-up in the body.

If you have any questions we are here to help. Please call us on 9553 9823 🙂

 Written by Helen Efstathiou – Acupuncturist and Angelique Houridis – Exercise Physiologist