Fuming and fretting will do you no good but increase your blood pressure levels, making you hypertensive. Hypertension can impact your cardio activities and neural functions and damage your kidneys.
Hypertension and its impact on kidneys is often compared to the chicken and egg story. Nobody exactly knows whether the kidney problem can cause high blood pressure or it is vice versa.
Kidneys are like a filter for removing excessive waste and fluid from our blood to make it pure. Good health of the blood vessels is essential for the proper functioning of the kidneys. Hypertension results in constant high blood pressure, which can damage our blood vessels that can further cause various types of kidney problems. The situation can worsen in the case of a diabetic.
Symptoms to Detect Kidney Disease When You Are Hypertensive:
Like high blood pressure, it is difficult to detect a kidney disease. Therefore, consult a nephrologist if you experience problems, such as:
• Difficulty in urination and less urine amount
• Fluid retention, which causes swelling in body, especially lower legs and abdomen
• Frequent urination during night
A series of tests to find serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen will be conducted to assess the damage to your kidneys.
Though high blood pressure and renal failure can be experienced by people from different races, nationalities, and age groups, people from certain ethnic groups are more vulnerable to kidney disorder due to hypertension. The high risk group includes people with family history of diabetes, hypertension, or kidney failure, Native Americans, natives of Alaska, Hispanic Americans, and African Americans.
Different Types of Kidney Disease Caused Due To Hypertension
Due to damaged blood vessels, the filtering ability of the kidney is impacted, which can cause the following problems:
• Kidney failure: High blood pressure ranks only second to diabetes as one of the main reason for kidney failure. This is because of the damage hypertension can do to the large arteries that pump blood into your kidneys and also damage tiny blood vessels known as glomeruli placed inside the kidney.
The excessive damage to blood vessels can have a drastic impact on the filtering ability of the kidney, which can affect blood purification. Because of the large volume of waste, fluid will accumulate in the patient’s body. The patient has to undergo dialysis or kidney transplant to get rid of this problem.
• Glomerulosclerosis or scarring of kidneys: This medical condition is caused because of the scarring of tiny blood vessels within the kidneys, known as glomeruli. These small clusters of vessels are responsible for filtering waste and extra fluid from blood. This condition will make your kidneys ineffective and even cause kidney failure if the problem is not treated on time.
• Kidney artery aneurysm can cause a bulge in the blood vessel wall, which can gradually weaken and then finally damage artery walls. If the problem persists, these aneurysms can rupture and cause internal bleeding, which can prove fatal.
Preventive Steps to Avoid Kidney Disease When You Are Also Hypertensive:
You can protect your kidneys from damages caused due to high blood pressure by keeping a check on your blood pressure levels. Eat a diet rich in fiber and antioxidants but low in fat and exercise daily. One must also get their blood pressure levels checked regularly and take blood pressure medicines as per the doctor’s prescription.
This way you can fight hypertension and prevent it from damaging your kidneys.