Posts Tagged ‘kidney disease’

Coronary angiogram dangers are real. According to a Henry Ford Hospital study there is a risk of developing kidney damage from having this procedure. Women have a 60 percent higher risk of this happening.  Deciphering the reasons for this the researchers will be investigating why women develop radiocontrast-induced nephropathy (RCN) an adverse side effect that causes kidney dysfunction within 24 to 72 hours after administered an iodine contrast dye during the common heart imaging test.

Javier Neyra, M.D., an Internal Medicine resident at Henry Ford and study’s principal investigator has stated that a women’s size may be a factor. While researchers say further study is needed to explain the gender risk, they theorize that a woman’s size may be a factor, says Javier Neyra, M.D., an Internal Medicine resident at Henry Ford and the study’s principal investigator. “Because men and women patients receive the same amount of dye during a coronary angiogram, it’s possible the amount is just too much for a woman’s body to handle given her smaller size,” Dr. Neyra says. “Perhaps a woman’s height and weight ought to be factored into the dosage.”

In the Henry Ford study, researchers followed 1,211 patients who received a coronary angiogram from January 2008 to December 2009. Nearly 20 percent of women developed RCIN compared to 13.6 percent of men. Dr. Neyra says other contributing factors in the gender risk could be age,hormonal levels and other chronic conditions. “We just don’t know without further study,” he says.

The real problem isn’t that we aren’t sufficiently advanced in medical technology or phamacology to proceed with the procedures at the rate we are. The problem is that we are needing to take these tests at the rate we do.

With the reliance on pharmacology you can be sure that there will be some eye-popping statistics for unforeseen or unexpected side effects. It should be a foregone conclusion that a patient proceeds at their own risk.

RCN is the third-leading cause of hospital-acquired kidney damage in the United States, after surgery and hypertension. There is a big price for thinking that the medical procedures are safe. It is essential that we make lifestyle choices that make a difference in our health.

What makes kidney disease a growing menace is fact that there is no cure according to allopathic medicine. Meanwhile, the population of people undergoing dialysis is also exploding, and is projected to pass the 2 million mark worldwide by 2010, according to some studies.  

Kidney Disease

The leading cause of Kidney disease is diabetes. It accounts of 44% of new cases in 2005. The numbers are only on their way up. Nephropathy, kidney failure is a frequent complication of diabetes.

Obesity plays a role by raising blood pressure, and increasing insulin resistance. Both can stress your Kidney’s.

Stress is another factor since it raises blood pressure.

High cholesterol produces a fatty substance that can clog up your kidneys.

Urinary track infections can cause kidney problems.

Drug-Induced kidney Damage

There are prescription, and over-over-the-counter products that can cause kidney damage. This is a list of some of the medications that can cause problems.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NAIDs)

• Ibuprofen (example, Advil)
• Aspirin (example, Excedrin)
• Naproxen sodium (example, Aleve)
• Celecoxib (Celebrex)
• Acetaminophen (Tylenol, dose related)

High blood pressure medicines

• Hydralazine
• ACE inhibitors

Some Diuretics

Antibiotics

• Penicillin
• Sulfa drugs
• Cyclosporine

Preventing

Chronic Kidney disease (CKD) is the loss of kidney function. The number of people with kidney failure has doubled from 1990 to 2000. The annual cost of treating kidney failure is over $20 billion. A loss of kidney function ups the risk of heart attacks or strokes.

Prevention is not what the medical field calls for. They want regular checkups to see if you have signs of impaired kidney function. It is obvious that the kidneys are part of an overall picture of health. If the leading cause of this condition is either diabetes or high blood pressure, than you are dealing with something that is lifestyle related.

On the other hand if you are on some medications that can cause kidney failure it is an indicator that you have a host of health related problems. You prevent kidney failure the same way you prevent any chronic condition. By recognizing that changing what you do, will change what is happening within.

Naturally

Naturally it is hard to sell patients the idea of taking charge of their own health. There is dissent in the medical community that creates a climate of distrust. Combating a dangerous health problem with little else then diet, exercise, faith, and determination seems counterintuitive.

It takes tenacity to go against the prevailing logic. Modern medicine offers unpalatable choices. Promising that drugs are and will be the answer leaves us adrift at sea. We wait for a rescue ship to reach us in the nick of time.   

The promised cures are in the pipelines, years away. Research has shown that weight loss helps ward off decline in kidney function. A new study has found that exercise extends the lives of people with kidney disease.

Another interesting fact is that people with kidney disease have conditions not directly related to kidney problems. They in fact usually have compromised health due to other factors.

The dangers is modern medicine doesn’t recognize its limits. They have been wrong for so long that that they have trouble shifting focus. Getting hooked to a machine is not the same as empowering yourself and taking charge of your own health.

Kidney exhaustion is a term that describes a decline in kidney function. It is linked to a diet high in sodium and artificially sweetened drinks. This is according to two papers being presented at the American Society of Nephorology’s annual meeting in San Diego, California.

Julie Lin MD, MPH, FASN and Gary Curhan, MD, ScD, FASN of Brigham and Women’s Hospital studied more than 3,000 women participating in the Nurses’ Health Study to identify the impact of sodium and sweetened drinks on kidney function.  “There are currently limited data on the role of diet in kidney disease,” said Dr. Lin. “While more study is needed, our research suggests that higher sodium and artificially sweetened soda intake are associated with greater rate of decline in kidney function.”

All it takes is two or more diet sodas a day to double the risk of kidney function decline. Recent studies, showed that women who drank two or more diet sodas a day had a 30% drop in kidney function. “Thirty percent is considered significant” says researcher Julie Lin, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a staff physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The participants in the study had well-preserved Kidney function at the start of the study. The median age of the study participants was 67.

The research group looked at the cumulative average beverage intake, from food questionnaires completed in 1984, 1986, and 1990. The women in the study answered how many times they drank the beverages. Anywhere from less than once a month, one to four times a month, two to six times weekly, once daily but less that twice, or twice a day or more were what was asked. Then they compared kidney function of the women in 1989 and 2000. What they found was that 11.4% or 372 women had a kidney function decline of 30% or more with drinking two or more artificially sweetened sodas a day.

All other factors such as age, high blood pressure, diabetes, and physical activity were taken into account. Most researches know that a high sodium intake is hard on the kidneys. Some 20 million Americans have evidence of chronic kidney disease, and kidney disease diagnoses have doubled.

Now if a herb had this sort of adverse affect it would be pulled from the market. In the world of big business, we ask the senior vice president of science policy for the American Beverage Association to review the study finding. So Maureen Storey, senior vice president said in a prepared statement “Its important to remember that this is an abstract presented at an annual meeting.” It needs further scrutiny by researches.

She allowed that kidney disease is serious but that diabetes and high blood pressure account for the majority of kidney disease cases, “not consumption of diet soda.”  To even try to answer this is will be a waste of time. The ingredients in diet soda are toxic. There is nothing in it that resembles nutrition to vitalize and energize our cells.

It is true that the participants were older and might have been consuming diet drinks over a long period of time. The ticking time bomb is in our children’s systems, they are starting at a much younger age to cosumne these substances. The call is for more studies that depend on more than questionnaires. Lets spend more time and money on studies to reassure those that drink the chemical concoction, that they can do it with impunity.

The facts are that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has listed Kidney disease on the top 10 list for disease that take the most lives. It is know that kidney disease plays a major role in hypertension and diabetes. Diet soda not only affects kidney function it has been implicated in many conditions.

What is important to note this was an 11 year study of more than 3,000 women participants of the Nurses Health study. We have a disease that kills people every year. Kidney disease accounts for a large portion of hospitalizations. What we need to know is that kidney exhaustion is another way of saying that the kidneys do not have the reserves to work properly. Weaker kidneys means weaker immunity, the only thing that is smart to do is to create a healthier lifestyle. It is a threat to a country already experiencing an epidemic of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and auto-immune disease. Artificial sweeteners has been implicated in many of these conditions. We do not need more proof we need these substances banned.