Type 2 Diabetes - Don"t Let Your Kidneys Die! 4 Tips To Keep Them Running Strong
If there is a "scared straight" treatment that may actually work, it would be involved with taking people with Type 2 diabetes on a tour of their local dialysis clinic.
Seeing the sad faces and emaciated bodies strapped to dialysis machines would be enough to get those people to take action and revamp their health.
Unfortunately, the first time most diabetics usually see the inside of a dialysis clinic is when they have end stage kidney disease.
In fact, diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease in the world.
But you don't have to sit back and watch your kidneys shrivel up and die.
Taking these important actions can help reduce your kidney disease risk: BSL Management: High blood sugars actually lodge themselves into your kidney cells, causing them to become injured.
That's why diabetics with well-controlled blood sugars have much lower kidney disease rates than those who let their blood sugars levels run wild.
Halt Hypertension: Hypertension (high blood pressure), and diabetes are kissing cousins that are often found together.
However, hypertension limits blood flow to the kidneys, dramatically increasing the risk for damage.
In addition to losing weight, there are a few diet tricks to get high blood pressure under control.
First, and most obvious, is to limit your sodium intake.
This doesn't include just the salt shaker as the Mayo Clinic states that 75 percent of the sodium in our diet comes from processed foods.
Limit processed foods like canned soup and frozen dinners and you'll go a long way towards cutting sodium from your diet.
Also, eat more dairy.
One of the things that makes the super-successful DASH diet for hypertension so effective is it includes at least three servings of low-fat dairy per day.
Finally, aim to up your potassium intake.
High potassium diets partially counter the sodium in your diet, reducing blood pressure.
Try to eat a high-potassium food like a fruit or vegetable at every meal.
However, if you already have signs of kidney disease, don't increase your potassium without checking in with your doctor and dietitian.
Get Antioxidants: Tasty healthy foods like blueberries and black beans are bursting with antioxidants which can help shield your kidney cells from damage caused by oxidation.
Other antioxidant-rich foods include tomatoes, green tea and eggplant.
Vitamin D: Vitamin D reduces the inflammation that kills off kidney cells.
In fact, research in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that 60 percent of the elevated risk of kidney disease in African Americans was directly attributed to low vitamin D levels.
Seeing the sad faces and emaciated bodies strapped to dialysis machines would be enough to get those people to take action and revamp their health.
Unfortunately, the first time most diabetics usually see the inside of a dialysis clinic is when they have end stage kidney disease.
In fact, diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease in the world.
But you don't have to sit back and watch your kidneys shrivel up and die.
Taking these important actions can help reduce your kidney disease risk: BSL Management: High blood sugars actually lodge themselves into your kidney cells, causing them to become injured.
That's why diabetics with well-controlled blood sugars have much lower kidney disease rates than those who let their blood sugars levels run wild.
Halt Hypertension: Hypertension (high blood pressure), and diabetes are kissing cousins that are often found together.
However, hypertension limits blood flow to the kidneys, dramatically increasing the risk for damage.
In addition to losing weight, there are a few diet tricks to get high blood pressure under control.
First, and most obvious, is to limit your sodium intake.
This doesn't include just the salt shaker as the Mayo Clinic states that 75 percent of the sodium in our diet comes from processed foods.
Limit processed foods like canned soup and frozen dinners and you'll go a long way towards cutting sodium from your diet.
Also, eat more dairy.
One of the things that makes the super-successful DASH diet for hypertension so effective is it includes at least three servings of low-fat dairy per day.
Finally, aim to up your potassium intake.
High potassium diets partially counter the sodium in your diet, reducing blood pressure.
Try to eat a high-potassium food like a fruit or vegetable at every meal.
However, if you already have signs of kidney disease, don't increase your potassium without checking in with your doctor and dietitian.
Get Antioxidants: Tasty healthy foods like blueberries and black beans are bursting with antioxidants which can help shield your kidney cells from damage caused by oxidation.
Other antioxidant-rich foods include tomatoes, green tea and eggplant.
Vitamin D: Vitamin D reduces the inflammation that kills off kidney cells.
In fact, research in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology found that 60 percent of the elevated risk of kidney disease in African Americans was directly attributed to low vitamin D levels.
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