Kidney dialysis: When is it time to stop?

Kidney dialysis does some of the work of your kidneys when your kidneys are unable to do it themselves. This includes removing excess fluids and waste products from your blood, restoring electrolyte levels and helping to control your blood pressure.

To determine how well kidney dialysis is working, the doctor can check your husband's weight and blood pressure before and after each session. Regular blood tests, such as those measuring urea and creatinine levels, also help assess the effectiveness of the treatment. Any desired changes in these results can be made with adjustments to the dialysis treatment.

However, kidney dialysis is only part of your husband's treatment. He must also adjust to fluid and dietary restrictions and take medications. In addition, dialysis impacts his time and schedule. Your husband must go to the dialysis center several times a week. Activities must be scheduled around the treatments. Dialysis may leave your husband feeling "washed out." Worsening health, depression and complications of dialysis may also affect how your husband feels about continuing treatment.

If the dialysis center doesn't periodically review your husband's overall situation, ask them to do so. These periodic reviews — which should include input from you and your husband as well as his doctors and dialysis team — are needed to determine how well the treatment is working.

If your husband is frustrated with a specific treatment or another medical problem, discuss it with his doctor. His doctor may be able to make some changes in the treatment that would improve his situation.

There may come a time when your husband feels he wants to stop kidney dialysis. Although he has the right to discontinue treatment, it's important to discuss the decision carefully with loved ones as well as your husband's treatment team.
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source:mayoclinic.com

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Screening for Liver and Kidney Disease

Exposure to hazardous or toxic substances can affect the body in many ways. In general, when chemicals and other hazardous substances are absorbed, they travel through the various body systems and can affect a particular organ or organs, called the “target organ(s).” Fortunately, the body has mechanisms, mainly in the liver and kidneys, to process and eliminate many of these substances. This ability to eliminate toxic substances can reduce the effect(s) on the target organ(s).

The elimination of toxic substances is just one of the many functions of the liver and kidneys. For example, the kidneys maintain the blood volume and regulate the mineral content in the bloodstream. The liver converts nutrients into energy, forms proteins and stores carbohydrates. While these organs can be remarkably resilient in the elimination of toxins, their other functions can be damaged in the process.
Damage to the kidney and liver can be acute or chronic. An acute process generally refers to a relatively short period of time (hours to weeks) between exposure to the toxin and the onset of symptoms or medical findings. A chronic process generally refers to a long period of time (years) between exposure to the toxin and the onset of symptoms or medical findings. The detection of either an acute or chronic process or disease can be complex, depending on the type of toxin and the extent of exposure.

How Do You Detect Liver or Kidney Disease?
Medical screening to detect chronic liver and kidney disease usually involves a test that measures how well these organs are functioning, rather than testing for the toxic substance itself. While there are several reasons for this approach, the main reason is that many substances that cause chronic disease of the liver and kidney are difficult to detect in the body.

There are several tests available to detect abnormalities. Blood tests --- commonly referred to as liver and kidney function tests --- are among the most commonly used. In a typical blood chemistry profile, six liver function and two kidney function tests are done.
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source:WHPP

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Understanding The Kidney Transplant

Having a kidney transplant is often the last ditch effort to save the life of an individual whose kidneys have failed and no longer process waste products in the body. Statistics reveal that a total of about 9,000 kidney transplants occur every year from cadavers and about 3,000 transplants occur from living related donors. Living unrelated donors account for 9,000 transplants per year. Sadly, there are more than 56,000 individuals waiting for kidney transplants at any given period of time.

The first successful kidney transplant was done in 1954 in both Boston and Paris. These were kidney transplants done between identical twins which don't have problems with rejection. The biggest problem was tissue typing-finding a suitable match for the recipient and making sure that rejection is kept to a minimum. This is why many donors are relatives who are a good match or living donors who are a good tissue typing match for the recipient.

Living donors are carefully evaluated to make sure they are medically and psychologically able to donate their kidneys for kidney transplant. The living donor transplant used to be done via an open procedure but it is now increasingly done through laparoscopic surgery, which is easier to tolerate. Kidneys from living donors have a better success rate than do kidneys from deceased donors.

Kidney transplant from deceased donors can come from those whose hearts are still beating but are brain dead, as well as from non-heartbeating donors. The kidney can survive on ice for several hours before transplant so that technically, a person can be deceased and still donate their kidneys. The kidney is then kept in a cold solution prior to donation. The best organs for kidney transplant come from the brain dead donors.

Doctors judge compatibility for kidney transplant by assessing the ABO blood type of the donor and recipient as well as the HLA and minor antigens. If many of these match, the risk of rejecting the transplant and further dialysis is much decreased. In addition, immunosuppressants are used to keep the immune system in check. In the US, only about 17% of transplants have no HLA mismatch whatsoever. This improves the success rate remarkably.

Because kidneys can be kept cold for several hours, the kidney transplant is usually done in a different place from where it was harvested. In addition, the kidney is also placed in a different place from where a normal kidney would be. The most common spot for kidney transplant is the iliac fossa in the lower abdomen. The blood supply must come from somewhere other than the renal artery.

In situations where the kidney transplant recipient is a diabetic, the pancreas is also sometimes transplanted at the same time in order to turn around some of the diabetes the individual has. This almost always requires a deceased donor although partial pancreas transplants in living donors has been done. The patient can also receive a kidney transplant first, followed by a pancreas transplant at a later date.
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Kidney Transplant brings you the latest news on kidney transplants. Kidney transplants are ever increasing each day, be sure to check out our latest information page at http://www.kidneydirect.com

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The Basic Facts of Kidney Cancer

Kidneys are very important and complex organs in our bodies. Their primary function is to keep the bodily fluids, which include the blood and the urine, in equilibrium by constantly screening, cleansing and filtering these fluids inside our bodies. These screening, cleansing and filtering actions are very important in keeping our bodies healthy and if something should happen to these kidneys, our bodies can be seriously affected. Like all other organs in our bodies, our kidneys can develop kidney cancer.

The most common type of kidney cancer in adults is known as renal cell carcinoma. Renal cell carcinoma begins in the small cells that line the tubes within our kidneys. This type of cancer is generally a single mass but can also have many tumors. The most common form of kidney cancer in children is known as Wilms' tumor. The other type of kidney cancer is the transitional cell carcinoma. This form of cancer starts in the tubes that connect the kidneys to the bladder. In the USA alone, around 51,000 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year and this number is increasing.

There are several risk factors when dealing with kidney cancer. Men are more likely to get renal cell carcinoma than women. As you get older the risk of getting kidney cancer increases, especially those above 60 years old. Smoking also increases the chance that you will develop cancer in your kidney. Your weight also plays a major role - those who are above average weight have more chances of developing kidney cancer as well. Having high blood pressure also increases the risk of getting renal cell carcinoma, but the reason why this is so is still unknown. Heredity also plays a role in this as well.

Kidney cancer is diagnosed through various methods. One method is through an ultrasound where high-frequency sound waves are used to generate images of internal organs. CT and MRI scans are also used to look for kidney cancer. CT scans use computers to generate better images of internal organs than x-rays scan and MRI scans use magnetic fields and radio waves to generate pictures of our bodies.

Kidney cancer rarely causes obvious symptoms in the early stages. In the later stages, the symptoms for kidney cancer includes blood in urine, back pain below the ribs, weight loss, fatigue and fever. If you have any of these symptoms, it is important that you visit your doctor early. Your doctor will be able to assess whether you need to undergo certain scans to see if you do in fact have kidney cancer.
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Lester Lee is the webmaster of http://www.Cancer-Tumor.info, an informative website that provides the latest advice, info and updates on Kidney Cancer Visit our site today for more helpful info on Kidney Cancer and other similar topics.

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Diet Tips For People With Diabetes and Kidney Disease

It is important to note that not everyone with diabetes will get kidney disease. It is just a popular misconception. If you maintain proper blood glucose levels you can avoid kidneys disease.

When a person who is diabetic is unable to dispose of the waste products of starches and sugars through their systems, they are prone to get kidney disease. The foods that remain in their systems are not able to broken down as they do to people with out this disease. This is dangerous because the sugars and starches that they in the system goes high levels of blood sugars. And it also makes it difficult for proteins to pass freely through the system.

So if a person who does not control diabetes and does not maintain proper blood glucose levels, the elimination process of his or her kidneys does not function effectively. Thus causing the kidneys to over function trying to eliminate the block proteins and waste products. This then causes the kidneys to filter too much blood then begin to leak. Then all of the waste products begin to build up in the persons blood.

Although they are many ways of acquiring kidney disease. When referring to diabetes, kidney disease is acquired because the kidneys are overworked trying to filter out the access starch and sugars from the blood. This causes the kidneys to shut down just like any other organ. When this happens a person is then put on dialysis. Dialysis is a machine that functions the same way as a kidney. Some people than opt for a transplant but this is not always available if you are diabetic.

A person with diabetes should understand how important it is to understand how their kidneys work. Because you cannot leave without kidneys. A diabetic person does not have to contact kidney disease at all. By this one should follow what their doctor of physician is told them to do.

It has been discovered that most diabetic people are compliant patients and do not do what the doctor instructs them to do. They just do not follow the instructions and recommendations in the gylcemic index. Gylcemic index is a chart that this specially developed to help inform a diabetic person on what foods to avoid. The foods that take long to digest and breakdown are the ones that damage the kidneys. And as you know that kidneys are responsible for eliminating waste.

Not monitoring your blood sugar levels is not good as well. Diabetic people often prescribed with blood monitors that they use several times a day to check on their blood glucose levels. So every time you make a visit to your physician, the physician will ask for your blood glucose levels recordings.

Diabetes who refuse to take this life-saving medications are then usually prescribed to insulin. Insulin helps a diabetic person by enabling the breaking down food and assisting the kidneys in eliminating waste. If you cannot afford this medication there no need to worry because they are different programs available for you.

It is also very important to maintain your weight because it is crucial in living a healthy lifestyle and maintaining diabetes. But on the other hand many people still refuse to exercise.

But lastly, you should understand that kidney disease and diabetes do not go hand in hand, they are to different type of diseases. And the one does not lead to the other yet they can contribute if not managed well.

By the way, in 1981, Dr. David Jenkins of the University of Toronto came up with a ranking system for carbohydrates based upon how long it takes them to break down into the system. Some carbohydrates break down very slowly and those release glucose gradually into the bloodstream and have a low glycemic index. For people who are diabetes, particularly those who are insulin dependent, a low glycemic index is preferable. These foods allow the insulin or medication to respond better to the blood glucose and allows for the sugars to break down more naturally.

By following a diet with limited amounts of carbohydrates, being aware of the Glycemic Index and learning which carbohydrates are the most harmful to a diabetic diet, someone with this potentially life threatening condition can keep this disease at bay.
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A diabetic diet should include limits on carbohydrates and increases in protein. Sugars should be eliminated as well as white flour. Pasta and rice are also rich in carbohydrates. One way someone can follow a good diabetic diet is to follow some of the low carb diets that were popular some years back. Many of these diets either eliminated or limited carbohydrates. There are also many different diabetic cookbooks for those with this condition that can help a person live a happier, healthier life.

Research Source: http://www.information-guide.org/recipesfordiabetics/

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Kidney Cancer Symptoms - Discover the Signs That Just Might Save Your Life!

Kidney cancer symptoms can be very painful because this disease starts from an abnormal growth that originates from within the kidney. Located on either side of the abdomen, these redish brown organs barely the size of a fist are responsible for cleaning up our body. In order to see just how much damage this can cause, it's important to understand the consequences. Kidney failure means that we have nothing to eliminate wastes or remove any excess water from our body with. Our kidneys are also responsible for helping in the production of red blood cells and controlling blood pressure.

There are actually several symptoms that you can watch out for so that you can alert your doctor quickly. The first of these being traces of blood in your urine. This can cause it to turn the color of rust to a deep red. Lingering side pains are also a sign to watch out for, as well as a lump or mass that can be felt on your sides or in the abdominal area.

Weight loss without working out or without a new diet is also something to watch out for although that can also be a sign for other types of cancer as well. The sudden onset of a fever along with tiredness and a general feeling of poor health are also signs that are cause for concern.

The fact that you may be experiencing these kidney cancer symptoms does not necessarily mean that you have cancer itself. They can also be caused by an infection, cysts or a wide range of other, less severe illnesses. Regardless of this, once these signs start to show, it's important to have them checked by a doctor as soon as possible so that you can get a diagnosis and start the proper treatment.

Melissa McKyler is a firm believer in natural cancer treatments. Her website focuses on all different types of cancer symptoms and alternative natural cancer treatments. For more information about kidney cancer symptoms be sure to visit http://www.NaturalCancerTreatmentSecrets.com

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The Best Natural Ways to Dissolve Kidney Stones

If you are currently suffering from renal stone disease then you may be wondering how you can go about learning how to dissolve kidney stones to prevent them from getting to the stage where medical intervention will be needed to get rid of them.

If this is the case then you will be surprised to know that there are plenty of ways in which this pesky stones can be dissolved and with things that you may be able to find just lying around your home!

Kidney stones are formed naturally in the body so it would make sense for them to be able to be eliminated naturally as well. One of the most favored of all the natural ways to dissolve kidney stones is a tea that was first introduced by the Chinese. Commonly referred to as “Kidney stones tea” it contains herbs such as Joe-Pye weed, plantain leaf, corn silk, cramp bark, wild yam root and hydrangea root.

This tea can be purchased ready prepared but it is said to be more effective if it is made fresh at home and there are a few recipes for this that can be found on the internet.

Corn silk and dandelion are two other natural compounds that can be made to form a kind of tea that acts as a diuretic. Again, another tea that is reported to dissolve kidney stones, the tea can be made at home or bought in various health and specialist stores and should ideally be consumed both in the morning and the evening to be at its most effective.

Goldenrod is a herb that grows wild in North America and again has been reported to be effective when looking at trying to dissolve kidney stones. There are a few recipes on the internet that can be used to make a concoction containing this herb.


One of the best things that can be used to dissolve kidney stones which are more commonly found at home is phosphoric acid and although you may not be able to place the name at first, if you look at the back of fizzy drinks bottle at the ingredients, you will find that many of them will contain this.

Although this acid can actually cause kidney stones in some cases, it can also be used to dissolve them in the same way that many things dissolve when left in a glass of cola.

One last thing that can be used to dissolve kidney stones is the juice of cranberries. Cranberry juice is renowned for being rather acidic and although it can actually cause the stones in some cases, just like drinking fizzy drinks, it can be used to dissolve them as well once they have already developed.
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Alvin Hopkinson is a leading health researcher in the area of natural remedies

and kidney stone treatment. Discover how you can dissolve your stones for good using proven and effective kidney stone remedy, all without using harmful medications or drugs. Visit his site now at http://www.nomorekidneystone.com

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