The kidneys have many important functions which include detoxifying your body and helping it maintain balance in a variety of ways. For instance, kidneys remove waste from the blood and divert it into urine for excretion. They balance the levels of electrolytes in your blood and keep the acid-base balance of your blood.
In short, the kidneys are critical to keeping you alive. Electrolyte balance keeps your heart beating, and the PH balance of your blood keeps enzymes working so that your cells can function.
Symptoms of Weak Kidneys
When the kidneys become dysfunctional, the body can experience lethargy, a loss of appetite, drowsiness and muscle cramps. Other common symptoms that much of the general population might experience include:
- Puffy face or eyes
- Back pain
- Fluid retention
- High blood pressure
- Brain fog
The Importance of Kidneys in a Toxic Age
As toxic as the world is becoming, with thousands of man-made pollutants making their way into our air, water, and food, the last thing we need is for our kidneys to stop cleansing our blood.
Healthy kidneys, through their balancing actions, keep you functioning at your peak level, and through their detoxification abilities, help keep your body clean.
We must support and protect our kidneys in order to keep ourselves free of toxins and our bodies functioning as well as when we were young. If our kidneys are not healthy, pollutants might build up more easily in our bodies, damaging our tissues, accelerating the aging process, and causing disease.
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Don’t Damage Your Kidneys
The first step in keeping your kidneys healthy is to not do things that harm them! Here are some things that make your important organs suffer.
1. Eating Too Many Animal Products
Research has shown that meat is harder for your kidneys to process than plant protein and can contribute to kidney disease1, 2. Kidney-health parameters have shown that animal protein stresses kidneys, and this is probably because of the highly-absorbable phosphorus in meat3. So be easy on those kidneys, and replace that steak with beans and rice.
2. Soft Drinks
The decline in kidney function has been associated with sugary soft drinks4. They also set you up for diabetes and obesity, which predispose you to increased kidney damage4.
Damage to blood vessels is accelerated by high blood sugar, and the kidney is full of tiny blood vessels which are responsible for the kidney’s filtering5. Soft drinks are typically also very high in phosphorous.
3. Diet Soft Drinks
Diet soda has also been shown to stress kidneys. Over two diet drinks a day is associated with kidney function decline in women in 20114.
4. Lack of Sleep
Researchers think that lack of sleep contributes to kidney dysfunction6. It is supposed that the inflammation and oxidative stress caused by lack of sleep harms the kidney’s blood vessels.
5. Too Much Salt
Salt is difficult for the kidneys to process and also raises blood pressure7. If the blood pressure is too high, there can be damage to the tiny blood vessels that filter the kidneys. Many people notice that they don’t feel well after eating a really salty meal, and it’s best not to overdo the salt because our ancestors didn’t eat nearly as much as we do.
6. Eating Too Many Large Fish
Large fish like tuna, halibut, swordfish, and others soak up large amounts of toxic heavy metals, and when you eat them, the toxins are absorbed through your digestive system. These metals have to go through your kidneys, and when they do, they cause damage and interrupt kidney functioning8. Metals can even accumulate in kidneys!
7. Smoking
Smoking cigarettes impairs kidney function dramatically. Blood pressure is increased, damaging the blood vessels in the kidneys1,2. Inflammation and oxidative stress also increases, further damaging blood vessels and impairing kidney filtration and function1,2. Not only are the numerous carcinogenic chemicals in cigarettes harmful to kidneys, the main active ingredient, nicotine, has been found to impair kidney health as well.
8. Dehydration
Drinking enough water is critical for the health of kidneys. The kidneys process toxins (both from the outside world and ones produced in your body) out into your urine, and they need water to flush themselves out. Being dehydrated or consistently having dark-colored urine means that kidney tissue might be undergoing damage from stagnant toxins9.
9. Too Many Over-the-Counter Painkillers
NSAIDS like ibuprofen are other things that can stress the kidneys. Their overuse has been linked to kidney damage and may cause inflammation and damaging high blood pressure in the kidney’s blood vessels10.
And if your kidneys don’t have enough water to detoxify, your whole body will not be able to clean out toxins from the environment, which might impair your health, damage your tissues, and make you look older.
10. Not Getting Enough Exercise
Exercise reduces the chance of kidney stones and helps keep blood pressure within a healthy range so that it doesn’t damage the kidneys11.
Practicing lifestyle habits that protect your kidneys is the first step in keeping them healthy. But for those who have sluggish kidneys, giving them additional support could reinvigorate them and take your health to the next level.
3 Step Kidney Detox System
Are you concerned that your diet or lifestyle habits are damaging your kidneys?
Looking for an all-over kidney detox that’s easy to follow and supports kidney health?
Then you need to check out this easy 3-step kidney detox system.
Our kidneys naturally flush toxins and pollutants out of our bodies, but sometimes they could use a little support. This helpful guide gives you three easy steps to help protect and support your kidneys while giving them a naturally-beneficial herbal boost.
Click here to download the FREE ebook and help your kidneys do their job!
