High blood pressure and kidney disease.* What is high blood pressure? * How does high blood pressure hurt my kidneys? * How will I know whether I have high blood pressure? * How will I know whether I have kidney damage kidney damage Kidney injury Nephrology A structural or functional compromise in renal function due to external–eg, athletic, occupational, or other trauma, resulting in bruising or hemorrhage, which can be profuse and life threatening Etiology Vascular ? * How can I prevent high blood pressure from damaging my kidneys? * Are there medicines that can help? * What groups are at risk for kidney failure kidney failure or renal failure Partial or complete loss of kidney function. Acute failure causes reduced urine output and blood chemical imbalance, including uremia. Most patients recover within six weeks. related to high blood pressure? * Hope Through Research * For More Information Your kidneys play a key role in keeping your blood pressure in a healthy range, and blood pressure, in turn, can affect the health of your kidneys. High blood pressure, also called hypertension, can damage the kidneys. What is high blood pressure? Blood pressure measures the force of blood against the walls of your blood vessels Blood vessels Tubular channels for blood transport, of which there are three principal types: arteries, capillaries, and veins. Only the larger arteries and veins in the body bear distinct names. . Blood pressure that remains high over time is called hypertension. Extra fluid in your body increases the amount of fluid in your blood vessels and makes your blood pressure higher. Narrow or clogged blood vessels also raise blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, see your doctor regularly. How does high blood pressure hurt my kidneys? High blood pressure makes your heart work harder and, over time, can damage blood vessels throughout your body. If the blood vessels in your kidneys are damaged, they may stop removing wastes and extra fluid from your body. The extra fluid in your blood vessels may then raise blood pressure even more. It's a dangerous cycle. High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of kidney failure, also commonly called end-stage renal disease End-stage renal disease (ESRD) Total kidney failure; chronic kidney failure is diagnosed as ESRD when kidney function falls to 5-10% of capacity. Mentioned in: Chronic Kidney Failure end-stage renal disease (ESRD ESRD end-stage renal disease. ESRD End-stage renal disease; chronic or permanent kidney failure. Mentioned in: Dialysis, Kidney ESRD End-stage renal disease, see there ). People with kidney failure must either receive a kidney transplant or go on dialysis. Every year, high blood pressure causes more than 15,000 new cases of kidney failure in the United States. How will I know whether I have high blood pressure? Most people with high blood pressure have no symptoms. The only way to know whether your blood pressure is high is to have a health professional measure it. The result is expressed as two numbers. The top number, which is called the systolic pressure systolic pressure n. The highest arterial blood pressure reached during any given ventricular cycle. , represents the pressure when your heart is beating. The bottom number, which is called the diastolic pressure, shows the pressure when your heart is resting between beats. Your blood pressure is considered normal if it stays below 130/85 (expressed as "130 over 85"), but recent studies suggest that people with kidney disease should keep their blood pressure even lower. How will I know whether I have kidney damage? Kidney damage, like hypertension, can be unnoticeable, detected only through medical tests. Blood tests will show whether your kidneys are removing wastes efficiently. Your doctor may refer to tests for serum creatinine and BUN, which stands for blood urea nitrogen blood urea nitrogen n. Abbr. BUN Nitrogen in the form of urea in the blood or serum, used as a indicator of kidney function. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) . Having too much creatinine and urea nitrogen in your blood is a sign that you have kidney damage. Another sign is proteinuria proteinuria /pro·tein·uria/ (-ur´e-ah) an excess of serum proteins in the urine, as in renal disease or after strenuous exercise.proteinu´ric pro·tein·u·ri·a n. 1. , or protein in your urine. Proteinuria has also been shown to be associated with heart disease and damaged blood vessels. (For more information, see the NIDDK NIDDK National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases fact sheet on proteinuria.) How can I prevent high blood pressure from damaging my kidneys? If you have kidney damage, you should keep your blood pressure well below 130/85. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, n.pr established in 1948, this division of the National Institutes of Health is responsible for research and education on cardiovascular, pulmonary, systemic diseases, and sleep disorders. (NHLBI NHLBI, n.pr See National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. ), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH "Not invented here." See digispeak. NIH - The United States National Institutes of Health. ), recommends that people with kidney disease use whatever therapy is necessary, including lifestyle changes and medicines, to keep their blood pressure at or below 130/85, or even below 125/75 when protein in the urine exceeds 1 gram per 24 hours. How can I control my blood pressure? NHLBI has found that five lifestyle changes can help control blood pressure: * Maintain your weight at a level close to normal. Choose fruits, vegetables, grains, and low-fat dairy foods. * Limit your daily sodium (salt) intake to 2,000 milligrams or lower if you already have high blood pressure. Read nutrition labels on packaged foods to learn how much sodium is in one serving. Keep a sodium diary. * Get plenty of exercise, which means at least 30 minutes of moderate activity, such as walking, most days of the week. * Avoid consuming too much alcohol. Men should limit consumption to two drinks (two 12-ounce servings of beer or two 5-ounce servings of wine or two 1.5-ounce servings of "hard" liquor) a day. Women should have no more than a single serving on a given day because metabolic differences make women more susceptible to alcoholic liver disease alcoholic liver disease Hepatology A general term for any of a number of clinical conditions caused by chronic excess of alcohol consumption, including alcoholic cirrhosis and alcoholic fatty liver. See Alcoholic hepatitis, Cirrhosis. . * Limit caffeine intake. Are there medicines that can help? Many people need medicine to control high blood pressure. A group of medications called ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors lower blood pressure and have an added protective effect on the kidney in people with diabetes. Additional studies have shown that ACE inhibitors also reduce proteinuria and slow the progression of kidney damage in people who do not have diabetes. You may need to take a combination of two or more blood pressure medicines to reach 125/75. What groups are at risk for kidney failure related to high blood pressure? All racial groups have some risk of developing kidney failure from high blood pressure. African Americans, American Indians, and Alaska Natives, however, are more likely than whites to have high blood pressure and to develop kidney problems from it--even when their blood pressure is only mildly elevated. In fact, African Americans ages 25 to 44 are 20 times more likely than whites in the same age group to develop hypertension-related kidney failure. People with diabetes also have a substantially increased risk for developing kidney failure. People who are at risk both because of their race and because of diabetes should have early management of high blood pressure. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases About NIDDK The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, conducts and supports research on many of the most serious diseases affecting public health. (NIDDK), also part of NIH, is sponsoring a study to find effective ways to prevent high blood pressure and kidney failure in African Americans. Hope Through Research In recent years, researchers have learned a great deal about kidney disease. NIDDK sponsors several programs aimed at understanding kidney failure and finding treatments to stop its progression. NIDDK's Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic hematological, hematologic pertaining to or emanating from blood cells. hematological tests total and differential white cell counts, hematocrit estimation, erythrocyte count. Diseases supports basic research into normal kidney function and the diseases that impair normal function at the cellular and molecular levels, including diabetes, high blood pressure, glomerulonephritis glomerulonephritis: see nephritis. , and polycystic kidney disease Polycystic Kidney Disease Definition Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is one of the most common of all life-threatening human genetic disorders. . For More Information American Kidney Fund 6110 Executive Boulevard, Suite 1010 Rockville, MD 20852 Phone: 1-800-638-8299 or (301) 881-3052 Email: helpline@akfinc.org Internet: www.akfinc.org National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Information Center P.O. Box 30105 Bethesda, MD 20824-0105 Phone: (301) 592-8573 Email: NHLBIinfo@rover.nhlbi.nih.gov Internet: www.nhlbi.nih.gov National Kidney Foundation 30 East 33rd Street New York, NY 10016 Phone: 1-800-622-9010 or (212) 889-2210 Email: info@kidney.org Internet: www.kidney.org NIH Publication No. 01-4572 July 2001 Posted: August 2001 |
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