How drinking milk can damage your kidneys and 5 other bad habits
How many times have you been told by your doctor to drink more milk?
Well, there's a good chance he was wrong all the time.
we'll see briefly why milk is definitely a bad habit for your renal health,
but all the following 6, common, bad habits can damage your kidneys.
The good news is that your kidney health will improve as soon as you stop doing them.
1 Drinking milk A research from Harvard Medical School shows
that drinking milk can increase the risk of bone fractures.
Researchers found out that the consumption of milk and other dairy products increases
the excretion of calcium in the urine.
This is due to the fact that milk causes the body to take calcium from the bones.
This will not just put a lot of stress on your kidneys and increase the chance of kidney
stones, but will also decrease the density of your bones.
The kidney has the important role of maintaining the balance between phosphorus and calcium
in the body.
In case of kidney disease, the kidney will not be able to filter phosphorus as it should.
When the balance between phosphorus and calcium is compromised, because you're drinking phosphorus
rich milk, the body will take calcium from the bones.
This will reduce bone density and will put even more stress on the kidneys.
So it is better for kidney patients to avoid milk and dairy products.
What should kidney patients drink instead of milk?
Soy, almond or rice milk are widely available and can be a good substitute to regular milk.
If you want to try them, remember to check labels and be sure that potassium levels are
compatible with your renal diet.
2 Holding in urine too long Sometimes it can be really difficult to find
the time to go.
Crane operators and school teachers are the two professions who use the restroom fewer
times than other occupations.
But it's not just them.
When stuck in the traffic or sitting in a meeting, the call of nature can hardly be
answered.
And the habit of holding in urine can damage your kidneys.
If you get too used to holding in urine, the bladder can stretch and increase its size.
A bladder will normally hold 10-15 ounces.
A really stretched one can go up to 20 or even 30 ounces.
A bladder this big will not work well.
It will not able to sense when it's full, and will not squeeze as well as a healthy
one.
This will increase the chance of getting a urinary tract infection.
And when bacteria are in the bladder for a longer time, the chance of them making their
way up to the kidney will increase, causing a full on kidney infection.
This is why it is a lot better to find a restroom when the nature calls.
3 Alcohol Drinking too much is probably one of the fastest
ways to make a permanent damage to your kidneys.
Researchers found oud that the kidneys of heavy drinkers are two times more likely to
develop a kidney disease.
Even people drinking moderate amounts can harm their kidneys.
Since alcohol is one of the substances the kidney filters from the blood, drinking will
put a lot of load on the kidney.
Drinking will also dehydrate the body and increase blood pressure.
While even just one of these conditions is absolutely not healthy for the kidney, dehydration,
more load and high blood pressure combined together can really cause a lot of damage.
This is why kidney patients are often recommended not to drink at all.
4 Smoking The list of damage smoking can do to your
body is too long to be enunciated here.
Let's just say that smoking is responsible for one out of every five deaths in the US.
Smoking is even more dangerous for kidney patients, because it will increase blood pressure
and heart rate while slowing down the blood flow to the kidney.
This will lead to an accelerated loss of kidney function.
Smoking will hurt your kidneys even if they are healthy.
While quitting smoking is always difficult, even decreasing the number of cigarettes smoked
will help.
Obviously totally quit smoking is the best thing to do.
5 Not enough water A significant number of people fails to consume
recommended amount of water each day.
Keeping hydrated has a huge impact on kidney health; drinking water should not be taken
for granted.
Every organ of your body needs water, but the kidney is the one that gets more damage
from the lack of water.
Drinking the right amount of water will even help preventing kidney stones and UTIs.
How to tell how much water you need?
The Institute of Medicine has estimated that men need about 13 cups a day (3 liters) and
women 9 cups (2.2 liters).
This is just a general recommendation, and you may need more or less than this based
on your level of activity, bodyweight and health.
Patients with chronic kidney disease will have to drink a lot less water than this.
6 Not enough sleep Western culture glorifies people who are able
to keep on with their life with the least amount of sleep possible.
How many times have you heard coworkers or acquaintances bragging about how few hours
they have been sleeping lately?
To say that this is a bad habit is an understatement.
Recently a study at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts proved that
the lack of sleep is actually a gateway to kidney disease.
According to the study, people sleeping 5 or less hours a night have a whopping 65%
greater chance of a rapid decline in kidney function compared to who slept more than seven
hours.
This is supported by precedent studies, showing links between cardiovascular disease and diabetes,
both causes of kidney disease.
If you're not sleeping enough, get more sleep every night is definitely the way to go.
The first thing to get more sleep is always adjusting a bit the lifestyle.
Other good habits to improve sleep are less caffeine, at least after 2PM and relaxing
more before going to bed.
What about a warm bath and some good, relaxing music?
This is all, thank you for watching and don't forget to subscribe!