My openion

You can avoid and cure Kidney problems with your HEALTHY FOOD/LIFE STYLE/EXERCISE
All nutritious/minerals/vitamins etc your body requires are available in our nature i.e in the form of food grain/vegetables/fruits etc.. If you take proper and healthy food you can avoid almost
all your health problems.
I don't prefer KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION. Because I have seen many people who have transplanted their kidney could not survive for their full span of life.

Diabetes and High Blood Presssure-Causes for Kidney Problems

The two most common causes of kidney disease are diabetes and high blood pressure. People with a family history of any kind of kidney problem are also at risk for kidney disease.

Diabetic Kidney Disease

Diabetes is a disease that keeps the body from using glucose, a form of sugar, as it should. If glucose stays in the blood instead of breaking down, it can act like a poison. Damage to the nephrons from unused glucose in the blood is called diabetic kidney disease. Keeping blood glucose levels down can delay or prevent diabetic kidney disease. Use of medications called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) to treat high blood pressure can also slow or delay the progression of diabetic kidney disease.

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure can damage the small blood vessels in the kidneys. The damaged vessels cannot filter wastes from the blood as they are supposed to.

A doctor may prescribe blood pressure medication. ACE inhibitors and ARBs have been found to protect the kidneys even more than other medicines that lower blood pressure to similar levels. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), one of the National Institutes of Health, recommends that people with diabetes or reduced kidney function keep their blood pressure below 130/80.

Kidney failure-completely

Total or nearly total and permanent kidney failure is called ESRD. If a person's kidneys stop working completely, the body fills with extra water and waste products. This condition is called uremia. Hands or feet may swell. A person will feel tired and weak because the body needs clean blood to function properly.

Untreated uremia may lead to seizures or coma and will ultimately result in death. A person whose kidneys stop working completely will need to undergo dialysis or kidney transplantation.

Dialysis

The two major forms of dialysis are hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Hemodialysis uses a special filter called a dialyzer that functions as an artificial kidney to clean a person's blood. The dialyzer is a canister connected to the hemodialysis machine. During treatment, the blood travels through tubes into the dialyzer, which filters out wastes, extra salt, and extra water. Then the cleaned blood flows through another set of tubes back into the body. The hemodialysis machine monitors blood flow and removes wastes from the dialyzer. Hemodialysis is usually performed at a dialysis center three times per week for 3 to 4 hours. A small but growing number of clinics offer home hemodialysis in addition to standard in-clinic treatments. The patient first learns to do treatments at the clinic, working with a dialysis nurse. Daily home hemodialysis is done 5 to 7 days per week for 2 to 3 hours at a time. Nocturnal dialysis can be performed for 8 hours at night while a person sleeps. Research as to which is the best method for dialysis is under way, but preliminary data indicate that daily dialysis schedules such as short daily dialysis or nocturnal dialysis may be the best form of dialysis therapy.

In peritoneal dialysis, a fluid called dialysis solution is put into the abdomen. This fluid captures the waste products from a person's blood. After a few hours when the fluid is nearly saturated with wastes, the fluid is drained through a catheter. Then, a fresh bag of fluid is dripped into the abdomen to continue the cleansing process. Patients can perform peritoneal dialysis themselves. Patients using continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) change fluid four times a day. Another form of peritoneal dialysis, called continuous cycling peritoneal dialysis (CCPD), can be performed at night with a machine that drains and refills the abdomen automatically.

KIDNEY FAILURE

What causes kidney failure?

Kidney failure can occur from an acute situation or from chronic problems.

In acute renal failure, kidney function is lost rapidly and can occur from a variety of insults to the body. The list of causes is often categorized based on where the injury has occurred.

Prerenal causes (pre=before + renal=kidney) causes are due to decreased blood supply to the kidney. Examples of prerenal causes of kidney failure are:

• hypovolemia (low blood volume) due to blood loss;
  
  
• DEHYDRATION from loss of body fluid (for example,vomiting, diarrhea, fever, sweating);
  
  
• poor intake of fluids;
  
  
• medication, for example, diuretics ("water pills") may cause excessive water loss; and
  
  
• abnormal blood flow to and from the kidney due to obstruction of the renal artery or vein.

Renal causes of kidney failure (damage directly to the kidney itself) include:

• SEPSIS: The body's immune system is overwhelmed from infection and causes inflammation and shutdown of the kidneys. This usually does not occur with URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS.
  
  
• Medications: Some medications are toxic to the kidney, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen and naproxen. Others potentially toxic medications include antibiotics like aminoglycosides [ gentamicin (Garamycin),tpbramycin], lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid), iodine-containing medications such as those injected for radiology dye studies.
  
  
• Rhabdomyolysis: This is a situation in which there is significant muscle breakdown in the body, and the damaged muscle fibers clog the filtering system of the kidneys. this can occur because of trauma, crush injuries, and burns. Some medications used to treat high cholesterol can cause rhabdomyolysis.
  
  
• Multiple myeloma
  
  
• Acute glomerulonephritis or inflammation of the glomeruli, the filtering system of the kidneys. Many diseases can cause this inflammation including sustemic lupus erythematosus , Wegenar's granulomatosis , and Goodpasture syndrome .

Post renal causes of kidney failure (post=after + renal= kidney) are due to factors that affect outflow of the urine:

• Obstruction of the bladder or the ureters can cause back pressure because the kidneys continue to produce urine, but the obstruction acts like a dam, and urine backs up into the kidneys. When the pressure increases high enough, the kidneys are damaged and shut down.
  
  
• Prostatic Hypertrophy or Prostate Cancer may block the urethra and prevents the bladder from emptying.
  
  
• Tumors in the abdomen that surround and obstruct the ureters.
  
  
• Kidney stones. Usually, Kidney stones affect only one kidney and do not cause kidney failure. However, if there is only one kidney present, a kidney stone may cause the lone kidney to fail.

Chronic renal failure develops over months and years. The most common causes of chronic renal failure are related to:

• poorly controlled DIABETES,
  
  
• poorly controlled HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE , and
  
  
• chronic glomerulonephritis.

Less common causes of chronic renal failure include:

• POLYCYSTIC KIDNEY DISEASE
  
• reflux nephropathy,
  
  
• kidney stones, and
  
  
• prostate disease.

KIDNEY STONE

A kidney stone, also known as a renal calculus (from the LATIN ren, "kidney" and CALCULUS"pebble") is a solid CONCRETION or CRYSTALl aggregation formed in the kidneys from dietary minerals in the urine. Urinary Stones are typically classified by their location in the kidney (nephrolithiasis), ureter (ureterolithiasis), or bladder(cystolithiasis), or by their chemical composition ( Calcium-containing, struvite , uric acid, or other compounds). Kidney stones are a significant source of morbidity. 80% of those with kidney stones are men. Men most commonly experience their first episode between age 30–40 years, while for women the age at first presentation is somewhat later.

Kidney stones typically leave the body by passage in the urine stream, and many stones are formed and passed without causing symptoms. If stones grow to sufficient size (usually at least 3 millimeters (0.12 in)) they can cause obstruction of the ureter. Ureteral obstruction causes postrenal azotemia and hydrenephrosis (distension and dilation of the renal pelvis and calyces ), as well as spasm of the ureter. This leads to pain, most commonly felt in the flank (the area between the ribs and hip), lower abdomen and grocin (a condition called renal colic). Renal colic can be associated with nausea, vomiting, fever,blood in the urine, pus in the urine, and painful urination. Renal colic typically comes in waves lasting 20 – 60 minutes, beginning in the flank or lower back and often radiating to the groin or genitals. The diagnosis of kidney stones is made on the basis of information obtained from the history,physical examination,urinalysis, and radiographic studies. Ultrasound examination and blood tests may also aid in the diagnosis.

When a stone causes no symptoms, watchful waiting is a valid option. For symptomatic stones, pain control is usually the first measure, using medications such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or opiods. More severe cases may require surgical intervention. For example, some stones can be shattered into smaller fragments using extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL). Some cases require more invasive forms of surgery. Examples of these are cystoscopic procedures such as laser lithotripsy or percutaneous techniques such as percutaneous nephrolithotomy. Sometimes, a tube (ureteral stent) may be placed in the ureter to bypass the obstruction and alleviate the symptoms, as well as to prevent ureteral stricture after ureteroscopic stone removal.

Blood Supply

Blood supply

The kidneys receive blood from the renal arteries, left and right, which branch directly from the abdominal aorta. Despite their relatively small size, the kidneys receive approximately 20% of the cardiac output.

Each renal artery branches into segmental arteries, dividing further into interlobar arteries which penetrate the renal capsule and extend through the renal columns between the renal pyramids. The interlobar arteries then supply blood to the arcuate arteries that run through the boundary of the cortex and the medulla. Each arcuate artery supplies several interlobular arteries that feed into the afferent arterioles that supply the glomeruli.

The interstitum (or interstitium) is the functional space in the kidney beneath the individual filters (glomeruli) which are rich in blood vessels. The interstitum absorbs fluid recovered from urine. Various conditions can lead to scarring and of this area, which can cause kidney dysfunction and failure.

After filtration occurs the blood moves through a small network of venules that converge into interlobular veins. As with the arteriole distribution the veins follow the same pattern, the interlobular provide blood to the arcuate veins then back to the interlobar veins which come to form the renal vein exiting the kidney for transfusion for blood.

Know about Kidney

Location

In humans the kidneys are located in the abdominal cavity , more specifically in the paravertebral gutter and lie in a retroperitoneal position at a slightly oblique angle. There are two, one on each side of the spine. The asymmetry within the abdominal cavity caused by the liver typically results in the right kidney being slightly lower than the left, and left kidney being located slightly more medial than the right. The left kidney is approximately at the vertebral level T12 to L3, and the right slightly lower. The right kidney sits just below the diaphragm and posterior to the liver , the left below the diaphragm and posterior to the spleen. Resting on top of each kidney is an adrenal gland. The upper (cranial) parts of the kidneys are partially protected by the eleventh and twelfth ribs, and each whole kidney and adrenal gland are surrounded by two layers of fat (the perirenal and pararenal fat) and the renal fascia. Each adult kidney weighs between 125 and 170 grams in males and between 115 and 155 grams in females. The left kidney is typically slightly larger than the right.