The kidney is an important body organ. The kidney can be described as a pair of beans shaped organ that is found below the ribs on the left and right side of the human body.
The primary function of the human kidney is to expel excess fluids and toxic waste products from the body. The excess fluids and toxic waste products the kidney flush from the body is flushed out through the urine.
The kidney basically helps in filtering toxins out of our body through urine. No human being can live without a kidney, and having a kidney problem is one of the worst things that can happen to anyone.
However, every day we indulge in unhealthy lifestyle habits that, harm our kidney and put us at great risk of developing kidney diseases.
Here Are 4 Common Lifestyle Habits That Put Our Kidneys At Risk Of Disease.
1. Not Drinking Enough Water: many people are completely unaware of the importance of drinking enough water.
The primary function of the kidney is to, remove excess fluids and toxic waste from the body, so it needs enough water to be able to flush out toxic waste like sodium from the body system.
Also, drinking enough water can prevent you from getting painful kidney problems like kidney stones. Studies have shown that at least 100 Nigerians suffer from kidney stones every year.
There is no specific quantity of water that you should drink every day however, it is important to drink water whenever you feel the need to. Also, drink water after exercise or when the weather is hot even if, you do not feel thirsty.
Photo: Kidney stones. Imagine how painful it will be to pass this out in your urine.
NOTE: there is a difference between, drinking enough water and drinking too much water. It is important to drink enough water but never drink excess water because the logic of “too much of everything is bad” also applies to the kidney.
Drinking excess water will give your kidneys more work thereby stressing them out which might be dangerous.
Although there is no specific quantity of water that is considered adequate, it is recommended that you should take at least 1 and a half litre of water a day as an adult.
2. Taking Too Much Pain Medications (Painkillers): painkillers are drugs used to temporarily stop pain or manage fever. Painkillers are one of the most common medications, almost every household have one or more types of painkillers that can be reached by everybody.
Painkillers are probably also, one of the most abused medications that people take at their own discretion and without a doctor’s prescription. You have a headache, back pain, menstrual pain the next thing is to buy an over the counter NSAIDs and take them immediately.
NSAIDs stands for, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), are the kinds of painkillers we usually take all the time but, what we do not realize is that these NSAIDs reduces blood flow to the kidney which can have an adverse effect on the kidney it also, can stop the kidney from functioning properly.
Taking Painkillers all the time, without the direction of a health professional can lead to dangerous kidney problems including, kidney failure.
3. Over Dependence On Processed Food (Eating a Lot Of Can Food): the maximum amount of sodium that we should consume a day is, 2300 milligrams.
However, studies have shown that we consume much more than that a day. And most of the excess sodium we consume comes from canned foods, processed foods and packaged foods that contain high levels of sodium.
Too much sodium is harmful to our body system and therefore, it is the function of the kidney to flush the excess sodium in our body system, but having too much sodium in the body stresses the kidney and in the long run, the stressed-out kidney can develop problems.
4. Smoking: from the time I was young I have always heard things like, “smoking kills” but it has still not stopped people from smoking.
Many people believe that smoking can only cause lung and heart problems. But contrary to that belief, smoking can also cause kidney problems as well.
Smoking can significantly increase the risk of getting, renal cell carcinoma or in simple terms, cancer of the kidney. Smoking can also, reduce the flow of blood to the kidney which can result in different kinds of kidney diseases.
NOTE: although the kidney is an organ of its own when it breaks down, it can cause a chain reaction which may lead to other organs like, the heart and liver developing problems.
Because when one organ is diseased, it stresses the other organs and if care is not taken, it can result in the breakdown of other organs.
NOTE: most of the lifestyles mentioned here are lifestyles habits that we can change so it is better to make some lifestyle changes than to be sorry.
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