2012年12月16日星期日

Treatment to Prevent Chronic Glomerulonephritis Develop into Kidney Failure


Chronic Glomerulonephritis usually starts after streptococcal infections or occasionally other infections such as virus, bacteria and parasitic infection. The routine therapies for the disease are as follows:

Treatment for infection

As infection is the triggering factor of Chronic Glomerulonephritis, the patients are usually prescribed with anti-inflammatory drugs.

Chronic Glomerulonephritis

The above treatment methods have certain function in relieving symptoms and slowing down its progression. However, as the treatments does not treat Chronic Glomerulonephritis from its underlying causes, it is not able to halt its progression into Renal Failure.

Symptomatic treatment

As for high blood pressure, swelling, the patients are usually prescribed with medications for blood pressure, hormone, etc to eliminate symptoms.

Chronic Glomerulonephritis is an immune-mediated disease, which is caused by immune dysregulation. In right condition, the immune system in human body can defeat the foreign harmful substances when they invade into body. However, in some cases, the immune system is activated improperly and can not tell the harmful substances and healthy renal tissues and cells, thus resulting in glomerular impairment.

Therefore, the therapy in treating Chronic Glomerulonephritis should focus on suppressing the overactive immune response as well as control symptoms by restoring impaired kidney structure and improving renal function.

Is Glomerulonephritis curable?



Glomerulonephritis is divided into Acute and Chronic Glomerulonephritis and these two types of diseases have different prognosis.

Acute Glomerulonephritis usually starts acutely in several days. Usually, the patients have prodromic infection like streptococcal infections, mainly respiratory tract infection and skin infection. As the patients do not have substantial kidney damage, a timely and effective intervention treatment can reverse the disease completely. That is to say Acute Glomerulonephritis is curable. However, if the patients delay the treatment, it will transfer to Chronic Glomerulonephritis.

However, Chronic Glomerulonephritis is a hard condition to treat. It starts latently and develops slowly and progressively. As it develops latently, it can not be detected until the patients develop clinical symptoms like edema, blood in urine, foamy urine, etc. In that case, the patients' kidneys have been damaged seriously. Since a part of kidney tissues and cells have become necrotic and fiberized, the chance of curing Chronic Glomerulonephritis is zero. However, the patients can receive treatment to inhibit it from progressing into Renal Failure completely.

Chronic Glomerulonephritis is an immune mediated disorder caused by immune deposits in kidneys.

In right condition, the immune system can defeat the foreign substances known as antigens. However, in some cases, the immune system can not work properly so they fail to tell the difference between the outside substances and healthy tissues and cells in body. As a result, the immune system attacks the healthy tissues and cells in kidneys, thus leading to kidney damage. That is how Chronic Glomerulonephritis occurs.

For the above description, if the overactive immune reaction is not suppressed, it will cause further damage to kidney. Therefore, in the first place, the therapy should aim at suppressing the overactive immune response effectively and immediately to stop further kidney damage.

Then, clearing up the immune deposits plays a crucial role in treating the disease. Since if they remain in kidneys, the immune response may be triggered by inducing factors at any time.

Childhood Acute Glomerulonephritis: Symptoms and Complications


Acute Glomerulonephritis can be seen at any age among children, but its morbidity is higher between age 3~8. Read on and find the following symptoms and  complications.

Symptoms of Childhood Acute Glomerulonephrtis

High blood pressure

Blood pressure elevates mildly or moderately, which is mainly attributable to retention of fluid. With the increasing in urine output volume, the blood pressure will recover normal gradually.

Oliguria

Initially, the urine output declines. 2 weeks later, with the recovery of renal function, the urine output will recover normal gradually. In some cases, the children may suffer from anuria.

Hematuria

In 30~40% cases, the patients develop gross hematuria which can last for 1~2 weeks and then transform into microscopic hematuria. Severely, it is complicated  with difficult urination.

Edema

In more than 80% cases, the patients experience edema, generally on eyelids and faces. In severe case, the fluid may collect in every part of the body only within in 2~3 days.

Complications of Acute Glomerulonephritis in children

Encephalopathy

Once it occurs, the children usually experience serious headache, vomiting, obnubilation, coma.

Heart failure

Heart failure is occasionally seen in children and it is more common among adults. It is attributed to collection of fluid and high blood pressure. Usually, heart failure develops along with enlargement of liver and pulmonary edema.
Once your children have the similar symptoms above, you had better have him/her inspected at once. In Acute Glomerulonephritis, early and effective intervention treatment can reverse renal function completely.

2012年12月15日星期六

How to Treat Anemia in Chronic Renal Failure


Anemia is a condition in which the red blood cells are short to keep the body functioning well. It usually happens in kidney disease patients for kidneys are important to participate in the generation of red blood cells.

Why does anemia occur in Chronic Renal Failure?

Healthy kidneys can produce a hormone called erythropoietin(EPO), which can stimulate bone marrow to produce red blood cells. However, in Chronic Renal Failure, the impaired kidneys can not make enough EPO. As a result, the bone marrow can not produce enough red blood cells to meet the body's need.
In addition, the patients often suffer from nausea, vomiting and other digestive tract disease so they may not get sufficient iron and folic acid from food. These nutrients from food help the young red blood cells make hemoglobin, their main oxygen-carrying protein. Also, if the patients are on dialysis, they may lose blood during dialysis.
Anemia tends to worsen disease progresses so it is very necessary for the patients to control it by effective treatment.

How to treat anemia in Chronic Renal Failure?

Restore the impaired kidneys
As mentioned above, anemia in Chronic Renal Failure results from the impaired kidneys and inadequate renal function. Therefore, the treatment should primarily focus on restoring the impaired kidneys. Once the kidney structure is rebuilt and kidney tissues are regenerated, the kidneys will have an improvement in renal function and even recover normal function.
Iron
Iron is also needed to raise hematocrit to a normal level. If iron level is too low in blood, EPO will not help in relieving anemia. Usually,the patients are recommended to take iron pills or take intravenous injection of iron.
In addition, a few people may need vitamin B12 and floic acid supplements.
EPO
EPO is commonly used to treat anemia in Chronic Renal Failure. It is usually injected under the skin two or three times a week. FDA recommended that the patients treated with EPO should keep the hemoglobin level between 10 and 12 g/dl.
Anemia is knowns as “having 1.000 faces”. Without seeing your condition, it is hardly to give further personalized suggestions. But if you are interested, you can leave your conditions and question to kidneyask@hotmail.com

Difficulty Breathing and Chronic Kidney Failure



Many doctors say that its symptoms is terrible than Chronic Kidney Failure itself. Difficult breathing is a good example. Many kidney failure patients die of difficult breathing before their kidneys are totally damaged.
Why people with Chronic Renal Failure suffer from difficulty in breathing?
1. Once the kidneys are damaged, they will not be able to discharge fluid out of body normally as before. As a result, the fluid will build up in body and the increased blood volume will also collect in lungs thus making it difficult to breath.
2. As the kidneys can not filter out the potassium, the potassium level in blood will rise up. As a result, it will cause heart to beat irregularly and the patients are at high risk of developing congestive heart failure. Afterwards, heart failure can lead to difficulty in breathing.
3. Anemia is commonly seen in the patients with Chronic Renal Failure. Red blood cells are responsible for carrying oxgen to tissues and organs. For anemia, the number of red blood cells will decline thus resulting in difficulty in breathing.
The above are the main causes of difficult breathing for the patients with Chronic Renal Failure.
How to deal with it?
The patients should take some measures to relieve lung edema, heart failure and anemia by using diuretic and hemopoietin etc. However, these measures only can relieve the symptoms, but not their root causes.
The above problems are mainly attributable to renal function decline. Therefore, the primary goal in eliminating the difficulty in breathing is to restore the impaired kidneys.
Difficult is the indication of damaged heart that caused by the underlying kidney problems. Thereby, management for both heart and kidneys is important.

Living With Chronic Kidney Disease



Once you are diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, how to live with it and how to keep it silent in your life will be a necessary question that needs you to answer. Read on and find the suggestions of living with chronic kidney disease.
First things first, what is chronic kidney disease? Allow me to introduce it for you once again.
Kidneys function as a filtering system in human body. Normal kidneys are able to remove the excess fluids and electrolytes as well as wastes from your blood. However, as your kidneys are damaged, there’s no way to eliminate all those toxins, resulting in wastes accumulating in your body. It can be fatal and need some serious attention.
Since you have developed chronic kidney disease, what should you do to stop it from worsening? Chronic kidney disease is not dreadful as long as you take good control of the disease, but how?
▪ To those who have diabetes, your blood sugar should be managed.
▪ To those with high blood pressure, take good control of your blood pressure.
▪ Control the cholesterol
▪ Live a healthy lifestyle, stay away from alcohol and cigarettes.
▪ Follow a sound diet, which greatly benefits your kidneys.
▪ Avoiding renal toxic drugs can prevent the condition from getting worse.
▪ Taking regular check-ups
Third question, when will I have to take dialysis?
You can cross off the dialysis from your list as long as you are able to take a good control of your condition. Early detection, timely treatment and healthy lifestyle do deliver you a best prognosis.
There’s a good prognosis of chronic kidney disease, but need your precautions. Don’t learn the disease only in the end stage, because as the condition enters into ESRF (end-stage renal failure), dialysis or kidney transplant would be inevitable. Need more information, write an email to kidneyask@hotmail.com
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2012年12月2日星期日

Treatments to Fight Against Your Renal Failure



The supportive therapy in first stage mainly focuses on preventing primary kidney disease together with adopting conservative medical therapies, with the purpose of preserving remaining nephrons as much as possible, so as to delay the arrival of Renal Failure. Here are several principles:

1. Follow a healthy diet plan. Primary principles for people with Rena Failure are low protein, low salt, low potassium and low phosphorus. All those restrictions should be followed without slackness. Keep this in your mind: to people who develop kidney disease; diet contributes to reduce kidneys’ burden with an obvious effect. Stop posing heavy burden to your kidneys, start from your daily diet now.

2. Take good control of your blood pressure. This principle is especially suitable for those with high blood pressure. Blood pressure has a complex relationship with kidneys. Anyway, taking good control of your blood pressure benefits one’s kidney health and cardiovascular system.

3. Do something to correct the anemia. A long-term anemia imposes the burden of heart, triggers a series of heart diseases.

4. Correct the acidosis. Acidosis develops as reduced kidney function aggravates. A standing acidosis will consume muscles, trigger bones loss, and increase the risk of bone disease.

5. Manage hyperlipidemia. More and more people consider hyperlipidemia as one of the main culprits of kidney disease, of course, including Renal Failure. Hyperlipidemia may elevate glomerular internal pressure; stimulate hyperlipidemia of interstitial cells and hyle. Consequently, causing chronic glomerular injury.
I just list some conventional as well effective ways to deal with Renal Failure, there can be more.

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