What Causes IgA Nephropathy

In general, IgA nephropathy develops very slowly for many years. However, it still depends on individuals. Some patients with IgA nephropathy just have the symptom of hematuria without other problems, and some of them have end stage kidney disease at last. Then what is IgA nephropathy and what causes IgA nephropathy? Please see the following.
What is IgA nephropathy?
IGA Nephropathy is also called Berger's disease and means that IgA which is an antibody deposit in kidneys. As IgA build up in glomerular mesangia area, leading to inflammation in glomerular, kidneys are impaired and can’t remove wastes and toxins from body. And many symptoms of IgA nephropathy can occur such as hematuria, protein in the blood, high blood pressure and nephrotic syndrome.
There is no cure for IgA nephropathy at present in the world, and what we can do is to alleviate symptoms and slow down development of IgA nephropathy.
What causes IgA nephropathy?
In fact, the real cause of IgA nephropathy is not clear for experts and doctors in the world, but one thing is sure that IgA nephropathy is closely associated with glomerular problems caused by immune complex. Causes of IgA nephropathy may have connections with genetic defects in immune response or immune-complex clearance. Experts and doctors think there is a kind of antigen in body, which is maybe bacterial, viral or endogenous. Thus, the combination of this antigen and genetic defects leads to IgA nephropathy.
Besides, patients with IgA nephropathy have almost no history of kidney problems in their families. So IgA nephropathy is not a inherited disease.

From the above, we don’t know the real cause of IgA nephropathy. What is lucky for us is that we know how to alleviate symptoms and treat IgA nephropathy. Chinese medicines are a very good treatment for IgA nephropathy, which has effective properties of repairing kidney damage and recovering kidney function.

Common Side Effects of Dialysis

When CKD develops into stage 5, the kidney function is almost damaged completely. In this situation, doctors will recommend patients to do dialysis. Dialysis can replace the kidney to remove the wastes and fluids from the body. However, doing dialysis has side effects. Now we will introduce common side effects of dialysis for you.
In general, there are two major types of dialysis, which are hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Most patients with stage 5 choose hemodialysis, which is the most common type of dialysis.
The common side effects of hemodialysis:
1. Tiredness. Patients with dialysis feels tired all the time. Some causes may lead to fatigue, which are below:
-- In the dialysis process, patients need to lie in bed for four or five hours.
-- Low dry weight and too much intake of fluids.
-- Anxiety and some other negative emotions caused by dialysis.
-- Dialysis aggravates anemia and low blood pressure.
Patients with dialysis can discuss with the dietitian that if a little more energy can be added in the diet. Taking some exercise helps alleviate fatigue. At the beginning, they may have difficulty with exercise because of short breath. However, if they insist, exercise will be easy for them some time later. The exercise we recommend is walking, running and cycling.
2. Low in blood pressure. When patients do dialysis, blood is pumped out largely, leading to low level of blood pressure. Gaining excessive fluids between sessions of dialysis leads to low blood pressure, thus patients must not drink much water in daily life. Besides, patients with dialysis often take some medicines for lowering blood pressure. Before doing dialysis, patients should make an adjustment to doses of medicines.
Low blood pressure may cause nausea and dizziness.
3. Infections. In the dialysis process, staphylococcus aureus bacteria can lead to the infection of blood. When infected, patients have the symptoms of having a temperature and dizziness.
In this situation, patients should go to the hospital as soon as possible.
4. Muscle cramps. It is a very common complication during the process of dialysis. It means that muscles make an reaction to the blood loss. When muscle cramps occur, dialysis has to be terminated. The pathological causes are not clear, but cramps tend to happen near the end of hemodialysis treatments, which is associated with plasma osmolality and extracellular fluid volume.
In the dialysis process, if muscle cramps occur, patients need to tell doctors. Patients can ask the doctor for some medicine to alleviate it.
5.Restless leg syndrome. It means patients keep moving their legs because of leg nerves and muscles making crawly or prickly sensations. Restless leg syndrome is related to some kidney diseases, diabetes, hardening of the arteries, or vitamin B deficiency, so it's very important to let doctors know if this symptom occurs.
6.Skin itching. The causes are below:
- As the kidney is severely damaged, wastes and toxins build up in the body.
- The imbalance of Phosphorus and calcium. Less calcium in the blood can stimulate parathyroid glands to release parathyroid hormone, which causes skin itching.
- Medicines taken by patients may lead to itching.
Apart from the above, patients may have problems with sleeping, bones and emotions.
The common side effects of peritoneal dialysis
1. Peritonitis. When patients do peritoneal dialysis, bacterial infection of the peritoneum (peritonitis) can occur because of unsterilized equipment. After injected, patients have poor appetite, nausea and abdominal pain.
The doctors inject antibiotics in the the tissue of the peritoneum to treat peritonitis.
2. Hernia. In peritoneal dialysis, insertion of the catheter can make muscles of the abdominal wall become weak. And pumping the blood puts a strain on muscles of the abdomen，which leads to hernia.
Hernia can be repaired through surgery.
3. Abdomen pain because of dialyzers and dialyzates.
4. Swelling and pulmonary edema.
5. Dialysis tubular blockage.
6. Protein loss and low potassium.
Besides, patients with peritoneal dialysis may have weight gain and malnutrition.

Patients with stage 5 of CKD should decide whether to do dialysis carefully, because there are many side effects. As a consequently, if there aren’t many toxins building up and much swelling in the body, patients at stage 5 don’t have to do dialysis and can be treated with other methods. Nevertheless, if dialysis is very essential, they need to consult the doctor in details to choose which type of dialysis is the most suitable.

How to Reduce Protein in Urine with Kidney Problems

Patients with kidney problems have the symptom of protein in the urine which is called proteinuria in medicine. Proteinuria means that the content of protein in the urine is much more than the normal. The excessive protein in the urine can make the urine very foamy. The normal value of protein in the urine is less than 150mg per day. Proteinuria does harm to the health. As a large quantity of proteins run away through the urine, the body can’t absorb enough protein to maintain the physical function. So patients with kidney problems should reduce protein loss.
Why do patients with kidney problems have proteinuria?
As the blood flows into kidney, protein in the blood is mainly filter by glomeruli and then is absorbed again by kidney tubules. When the kidney has some problems, glomerular filtration membrane can be impaired, which leads to filtration membrane pore size becomes larger. So the protein leaks from the glomerular filtration membrane. Besides, due to kidney damage, the absorption of renal tubule is impaired, under such a condition, renal tubule will fail to absorb protein filtered by glomeruli. These proteins are finally discharged into urine and thus form proteinuria.
How do patients with kidney problems reduce proteinuria?
From the above, we can know that glomeruli and kidney tubules are impaired,leading to proteinuria. The patients should do the examinations to confirm which is damaged, glomeruli or kidney tubules. After examinations, if it is the glomeruli problem, patients should treat glomeruli. Traditional Chinese Medicine can be very helpful and alleviate the damage of glomeruli. If it is kidney tubule problem, they should take measures to reduce the kidney tubule damage. Patients should get proper treatment in time and well cooperate with doctors, for example, take medicine on time as doctors demand. Besides, patients should pay attention to the daily diet. They need to follow a low protein diet in life, so the kidneys don’t have to bear much burden of protein filtration. Patients must avoid the high protein food, such as chicken, meat, soy, nuts, etc. However, they can eat some fish and shrimp which contain high quality protein. Eating more fruits and vegetables can be helpful and beneficial for them. Water can help kidney filter the protein, so patients should also drink more water or drinks.

In a word, much Protein in the urine is very bad for health and can make the kidney disease worse. Patients with kidney problems should try their best to reduce the protein in the urine.

What Can Be Done to Keep Sodium Low in Dialysis Patients

Patients with dialysis should keep low sodium. Sodium is necessary for the physical functions. Sodium can help the body balance the fluids. However, too much sodium does harm to patients with dialysis. Here we we will make an introduction for you.
Effects of sodium on patients with dialysis.
The Kidneys of patients with dialysis cannot get excessive sodium and fluid out of the body. Then sodium and fluids will build up in the tissues and bloodstreams, which causes elevation of blood pressure and discomfort for the patients. High blood pressure is closely associated with kidney damage. High blood pressure can make more wastes and fluids build up in the body.
Apart from sodium, some other elements can affect patients with dialysis, such as: potassium, phosphorus, calcium,etc.
How to reduce sodium in patients with dialysis.
Patients with dialysis must have a low sodium diet, which is very beneficial for the treatment. Patients should consult the doctors and dietitians about the diet. And they can help the patients with dialysis eat how much sodium everyday and recommend to have some food low in sodium. When patients start to eat low salt food, they may be very unaccustomed and uncomfortable. However, if they continue for some weeks, patients will adapt this diet and can experience the good flavors of low salt. Besides, patients can ask the dietitian to make a food list that what should be eaten everyday. There is much food containing sodium, but it is not salty. Patients may regard it as no salt food. In this situation, the dietitian can tell you how to identify this kind of food and avoid sodium.

The patients with dialysis need to pay attention to intake of sodium, and low sodium is very important for the treatment. Finally, remember to follow a healthy and low sodium diet strictly.

Why Does Serum Creatinine Level Increase with Kidney Problems

Kidney can excrete and produce serum creatinine. In this way, serum creatinine level is kept in balance in the healthy body. If there is something wrong with kidney, seurm creatinine level will increase. Why does it happen? Here we will make an introcuction for you.
What is serum creatinine?
Serum creatinine describes mixed substances called creatinine in the blood. The normal value of serum creatinine is 44-133umol/L. If the value is above 133umol/L, more than half of the kidney may be impaired. In the clinic, testing serum creatinine level is always used as an important indicator of kidney health. Creatinine is usually produced at a steady speed. When energy is delivered to the muscles, body will generate creatinine which is a byproduct in this process. Muscles make creatine become creatinine by metabolism and then release creatinine into the bloodstream. The kidney is responsible for getting creatinine out of the body. If your kidney function is not well, serum creatinine level can increase.
Why kidney problems cause elevation of serum creatinine?
Serum creatinine is associated with glomerular filtration rate (GFR) closely. As GFR declines, serum creatinine increases. The kidney filters and excretes serum creatinine to keep the balance. Serum creatinine level can be influenced by its generation, glomerular filtration and tubular secretion. As the kidney has some problems, the wastes and toxins will build up in the blood, making GFR decrease. Besides, as the kidney function declines, the filtration of creatinine in the blood will drop, leading to evelation of serum creatinine.
Is it serious with slightly increased creatinine level?
If value of serum creatinine is about 140 or 150, which is just a little higher than the normal value, the kidney function may be almost lost. Patients should take notice of this point. As your kidney function begins to decrease, serum creatinine is accumulating. For kidney disease patients, serum creatinine level begins to increase only when a half of kidney function is impaired. Therefore, elevation of serum creatinine may indicate serious kidney problem.

Patients with kidney problems should pay attention to the value of serum creatinine. If serum creatinine level increases to above standard, timely and proper treatment is required.

Can Patients with Kidney Disease Eat Seafood

Seafood contains lots of nutrients, such as calcium, iron and high quality protein. Seafood is very popular for people around the world. But for patients with kidney disease, can they eat seafood? Is seafood good for them?
Whether patients with kidney disease can eat seafood depends on what kind of kidney disease it is. It differs from one to another. If patients have allergy to something, eating seafood can increase this allergic action and activate inmmune system, which can worsen kidney disease. Besides, patients with Purpura Nephritis should avoid eating seafood.
Seafood is rich in high quality protein, which can provide patients with enough good protein. However, if patients eat seafood too much, inflammatory response will be caused. Patients with kidney disease should eat seafood within a moderate amount. Patients who are recovering from Nephritis should eat seafood, because seafood contributes to improvement of health condition.
For patients with CKD, how much seafood they can eat should be decided by the severity of kidney damage and protein urine. If the kidney function decreases very slightly, we recommand that daily intake of protein is 0.6~0.8 grams/kg. If kidney damage is very serious, we suggest patients should limit seafood moderately.
The healthy diet for patients with kidney disease is very important. It can help improve disease condition and accelerate recovery. As for the healthy diet, there are many principles we should follow.
Patients with kidney disease should avoid drinking, which can causes many problems, such as high blood pressure, exacerbate lipid problems and cardiovascular disease.
Having a low-salt diet is very beneficial to patients with kidney disease, which can make retention of wastes and fluids in the body decrease. Besides, it also can relieve swelling and lower blood pressure.
Patients with kidney disease should keep potassium and phosphorus within a lower level. If the value is over the standard, patients must limit intake of potassium and phosphorus.

The above all is our introduction for your reference. If you are a patient with kidney disease and want to know if seafood is allowed, please contact us directly.

Will Kidney Disease Cause Bone Problems

Many patients with kidney disease have bone problems, which makes them very annoyed. You may ask if bone problems have necessary relation with kidney disease or not? And will kidney disease cause bone problems? Here we will make a detailed introduction for you, hoping it is helpful.
What are the causes of bone problems
Firstly, let’s know what can cause bone problems.
Phosphorus, calcium and Parathyroid hormone(PTH) in your body are the most important factors. Any of three has some problems or imbalance, and bone problems can occur.
What effects can kidney disease have on bones?
If a person suffers from kidney disease, his kidney function will be decreasing with time. The kidney can maintain the balance of phosphorus and calcium. When there is something wrong with kidney, many wastes can build up in the body, leading that much phosphorus gathers in the body, too. However, calcium is less. So calcium is absorbed from bones to maintain the balance. The combination of high phosphate and low calcium can affect the parathyroid glands (four small glands in
your neck) very much. Parathyroid glands will be overactive and secrete lots of hormone, causing bone problems. If this situation continues for a long time, your bones become very weak and painful.
Besides, the kidney can help body absorb calcium through vitamin D. when your kidney has problems, it can’t work well, which cause lack of calcium.
For lack of calcium, bones are very prone to be weak, and many bone problems can be caused.
Patients with kidney disease may be advised to take some medicines containing aluminium to blind phosphorus. And taking this kind of medicine in the long term can lead to bone problems, too.
What kind of bone problems can kidney disease cause?
Patients with kidney disease always have bone problems, which mostly include:
Femoral head disease
Chronic kidney disease-mineral and bone disorder (CKD-MBD)
Renal Osteodystrophy
How should we prevent and treat bone problems caused by kidney disease?
Reducing the amount of phosphorus you eat
Taking medications called phosphate binders
Taking calcium supplements
An exercise program
Taking a medication to decrease the PTH level, or an operation to remove some of the parathyroid glands
Taking medication with the active form of Vitamin D
Avoid tobacco
Follow your treatment plan

From the above information, we can conclude that kidney disease can and will lead to bone problems. So patients with kidney disease should pay much attention to bone problems and prevent it as you can as possible. Here is our introduction, and we hope it is useful to you. If you have any question, please contact us freely any time through email or phone.

How to help patients with kidney disease have a good appetite

Patients with kidney disease always have a bad appetite, which is one of the symptoms of kidney disease. How can they improve the bad appetite? Now let’s get a general knowledge of it and we will make some effective suggestions for you.
When there is something wrong with your kidney, the filtration function will decrease. High levels of toxins and wastes in blood can affect other organs of the body. If your stomach is affected, your digestive system will be disordered. Many symptoms related to digestive system can occur, such as vomiting, nausea. Besides, your bad emotion and depression also contribute to loss of appetite.
A good appetite is very important for the recovery of patients. Although you have no appetite to eat something, you must provide your body with enough calories and nutrients. Make some changes of your diet to have a good appetite and take some exercise.
The suggestions are as the following:
* Eat more what your favorite food is, which had better belong to bland, starchy food.
* Eat small portions of protein foods, at a cold temperature.
* Take more exercise
* Eat several small meals instead of large one.
* Try a liquid nutritional drink once a day.
* Improve the protein content in your meals.
* Take some medicine which contributes to food digesting.
The fundamental problem lies in your kidney. You should be under treatment as soon as possible and follow the doctor’s advice.

Patients with kidney disease can have a good appetite as long as they try their best to develop good living habits and get timely and effective treatment.

Can I drink coffee with CKD

When we speak of coffee, everyone almost has drunk and heard of it. Coffee is a very, very popular drink in the world. As we all know, coffee, tea and coco are called the three most popular drinks in the world. And many people like drinking coffee. Then patients with CKD who like coffee will ask the question: can I drink coffee? Here we will give you the right answer.
Advantages and disadvantages
At first, let’s get a general knowledge of coffee.
The major Compositions of coffee include:
caffeine
tannin
Fat
Protein
Sugar
Fiber
Mineral
There are many advantages of drinking coffee, which is as following:
1 Coffee has the function of diuresis dehumidification.
Caffeine can promote the kidney function and excretion of excessive sodium, which can increase output of urine and improve edema.
2 coffee can contribute to a good appetite.
Caffeine stimulates the sympathetic nerve and Secretion of stomach acid, which promotes digestion.
3 Coffee can increase HDL cholesterol and accelerate the metabolism of bad cholesterol, which can reduce the risk of stroke.
4 coffees is good for skin
Drinking black coffee can make your skin white. And Black coffee can promote cardiovascular circulation.
5 Coffee can eliminate fatigue.
6 Coffee can prevent gallstones.
7 Drinking coffee very often can prevent radiation damage.
8 Coffee can improve liver function.
The disadvantages include:
1 it may lead to high blood pressure.
2 it may cause osteoporosis.
3 it may cause nervosity
4 Drinking too much may lead to toxication of caffeine.
5 it may lead to sleeping disorder.
6 it may cardiovascular disease.
7 It may damage the immune system.
The effects of coffee on the patients with CKD
From the above，we can make the conclusion that effects of coffee on patients with CKD. If patients with CKD often drink coffee, blood pressure can be higher, making chronic kidney disease worse.
High blood pressure is very bad for chronic kidney disease. It can speed up glomerular sclerosis and renal fibrosis and cerebrovascular complications can lead to kidney failure. So patients with CKD shouldn’t drink too much coffee. Patients with serious CKD can’t drink coffee at all. Coffee contains fat, protein, carbohydrate, inorganic salt and vitamin, which can aggravate the number of wastes in the body. It is no good for chronic kidney disease. Caffeine is very hard to decompose, which add the much burden to kidney. Caffeine is unfavorable to the absorption of calcium, and it may cause the loss of sclerotin. If the amount of calcium in people’s diet is lacking, or people do not have activity frequently, and at the same tine, if these people have the habit of drinking coffee, they may have osteoporosis easily. On the other hand, patients with kidney disease often have the disorder of minerals, and the imbalance of potassium and calcium may cause the shortage of calcium, and then patients may have bone disease. As a result, coffee may destroy CKD patients’ health if they are in late stage.

So we suggest that patients with CKD who like coffee should drink less at a controlled level. If your CKD is very serious, you can’t drink coffee at all. In a word, patients with CKD should drink coffee as little as possible. It is much better that patients with CKD don’t drink coffee

Why do patients with chronic kidney disease have declining urine volume

If you are a patient with chronic kidney disease, your urine volume can be declining. Then you may want to know what can lead to this phenomenon, why it happens and some treatment for it. Here we will make a detailed introduction for you, hoping it can be helpful.
Firstly of all, let’s understand how the urine is produced.
As it is known, we can live due to metabolism. The urination is one way of excreting the wastes and fluids of our body. The process is as follows:
The blood flows into the kidney and come to the glomerular filtration membrane, where substances with big molecular weight or negative charge are only allowed to pass through. In this way, most of the nutrients are stored in the body. However, some wastes and fluids, such as creatinine, urea nitrogen, are leaking out. These wastes and fluids are excreted through the urine. And the kidney is the most important organ of forming the urine.
Then let’s understand why the urine volume of patients with chronic kidney disease decreases.
From the above, we know that kidney is the major organ to produce the urine and is associated with excretion very closely. The kidney of the patient with chronic kidney disease is damaged to a certain degree, which means the kidney function can’t work as well as it was. So the filtration of wastes and fluids are affected. The kidney can’t excrete the wastes out completely, which leads to accumulation of toxins. Because the kidney filters less blood, it leads that the wastes and fluids can’t be excreted. So the urine is formed less.
Finally, let’s talk about how we should relieve the symptom that patients with CKD have decreasing urine volume.

The fundamental way to solve this problem is to treat the chronic kidney disease. The patients should be treated timely and properly as the doctor asks. If you want to know the specific treatment about this, you can contact us freely by email or telephone.