8 Common Habits That Can Damage Your Kidney.

Your body removes unwanted fluid by filtering your blood through your kidneys. Here any extra fluid is sucked out and put into your bladder to be removed as urine. To do this, your kidneys use osmosis to draw the extra water out of your blood. This process uses a delicate balance of sodium and potassium to pull the water across a wall of cells from the bloodstream into a collecting channel that leads to the bladder. Eating salt raises the amount of sodium in your bloodstream and wrecks the delicate balance, reducing the ability of your kidneys to remove the water. The result is a higher blood pressure due to the extra fluid and extra strain on the delicate blood vessels leading to the kidneys. Over time, this extra strain can damage the kidneys - known as kidney disease. This reduces their ability to filter out unwanted and toxic waste products, which then start to build up in the body. If kidney disease is left untreated and the blood pressure isn't lowered, the damage can lead to kidney failure. This is when the kidneys are no longer able to be filter the blood and the body slowly becomes poisoned by its own toxic waste products. If you have high blood pressure and are being treated with a diuretic medication, this makes the kidneys remove more fluid from the bloodstream. Because the sodium in salt counteracts this effect, reducing your salt intake will make your blood pressure medicine more effective.

 We should be consuming approximately 3.7 litres of fluids per day to maintain proper hydration. When a person consumes less than 50% of this amount for a prolonged time then he may face many health problems. These health problems are collectively referred as chronic dehydration. When body is dehydrated kidneys try to conserve available water by forming a concentrated urine. Also insufficient water decreases flushing action of urine. This causes stone forming substances e.g. Calcium and toxins from urine to settle within urinary passage and contribute in the formation of renal stones. During dehydration (chronic) kidneys have less amount of water available to flush out toxins effectively. These toxins and harmful substances start accumulating in urine. It creates an ideal environment for the infectious microorganisms to grow and stick to urinary passage. Which can cause urinary infections

 The need to go to the bathroom is completely natural, which is why we need to do it with a certain frequency so that our bodies can eliminate all of the excess and waste product that it doesn’t need. People who are prone to the development of kidney stones and who, for whatever reason, hold their pee, should pay heavy attention because the consequences of kidney stones can be much worse. Kidney stones are tiny “stones” that form in the kidneys from excess sodium or calcium, and if these mineral deposits are not regularly expelled via the urine, the moment will come in which the stones try to leave the body via the urinary tract and the pain that this movement produces will be unbearable.

 Normal doses of some analgesics (including ibrupofen, aspirins and all NSAIDS as well as indomethacin) may worsen kidney function in patients who already have kidney disease. This change is usually reversible if the drug is withdrawn. Excessive consumption of analgesics over many years is a well recognised cause of some kidney diseases. Which particular analgesics cause this is questionable, but the most reported cases involve consumption of mixtures containing aspirin and phenacetin. Phenacetin has been withdrawn in many countries and the incidence of this disease is now low in the UK and USA.

 For most healthy people, a high-protein diet generally isn't harmful, particularly when followed for a short time. Such diets may help with weight loss by making you feel fuller. However, the risks of using a high-protein diet with carbohydrate restriction for the long term are still being studied. Several health problems may result if a high-protein diet is followed for an extended time: Some high-protein diets restrict carbohydrate intake so much that they can result in nutritional deficiencies or insufficient fiber, which can cause problems such as bad breath, headache and constipation. Some high-protein diets include foods such as red meat and full-fat dairy products, which may increase your risk of heart disease. A high-protein diet may worsen kidney function in people with kidney disease because your body may have trouble eliminating all the waste products of protein metabolism. If you want to follow a high-protein diet, choose your protein wisely. Good choices include soy protein, beans, nuts, fish, skinless poultry, lean beef, pork and low-fat dairy products. Avoid processed meats.

 Your kidneys filter harmful substances from your blood. One of these substances is alcohol. Alcohol can cause changes in the function of the kidneys and make them less able to filter your blood. In addition to filtering blood, your kidneys do many other important jobs. One of these jobs is keeping the right amount of water in your body. Alcohol affects the ability of your kidneys to do this. When alcohol dehydrates (dries out) the body, the drying effect can affect the normal function of cells and organs, including the kidneys. Too much alcohol can also affect your blood pressure. People who drink too much are more likely to have high blood pressure. And medications for high blood pressure can be affected by alcohol. High blood pressure is a common cause of kidney disease. More than two drinks a day can increase your chance of having high blood pressure. Chronic drinking can also cause liver disease. This adds to the kidney's job. The rate of blood flow to your kidneys is usually kept at a certain level, so that your kidneys can filter your blood well. 

 Kidney infections are a result of bacteria entering the kidneys, most commonly from a pre-existing infection in the urinary tract like a bladder infection. When common infections are not treated, bacterial can migrate into the kidney and replicate thereby causing serious kidney infections which can damage the kidney.

Poor Sleep Might Harm Kidneys, Study Suggests A connection between disrupted sleep and heart disease has been studied before. 

A link between reduced sleep and diminished kidney function might be the result of medical conditions that affect kidney function, such as diabetes and high blood pressure, "Diabetes occurs more often in people who sleep less, as does high blood pressure," he said. "We know that two of the greatest factors that decrease kidney function are diabetes and high blood pressure."

Note that this article does not suggest that not having enough sleep can lead to kidney problem but having enough sleep can aid proper functioning of your kidney.