High Blood Pressure and the Kidney Connection - How To Avoid Kidney Disease

Among the many potentially deadly affects of high blood pressure or hypertension is kidney disease. While elevated blood pressure is not the only cause of kidney disease it is a serious threat because unlike other causes, high blood pressure typically affects both kidneys at the same time. There is no "backup" kidney available.

Our kidneys are important filters that process over 200 quarts of blood daily removing waste and controlling the flow of urine to the bladder. The actual "filtering" process is done by tiny units called nephrons and there are roughly a million of these in each kidney. Inside the nephron is an equally small blood vessel that serves as the aqueduct and keeps the blood flowing through the kidney and allowing it to extract waste without becoming "clogged up".

How high blood pressure clogs up the works

This small blood vessel is called a glomerulus and is just as susceptible to the adverse affects of hypertention as the large vessels in the body. The glomerulus can become hardened and clogged with plaque just as a main artery can except it obviously is far more susceptible to complete failure given its small size. Once this little vessel becomes clogged it backs up the entire filtering system and in effects poisons the kidney with the waste it is removing.

And just like the larger blood vessels, the glomerulus isn't affected overnight. It takes years for high blood pressure to do its thing. Unfortunately there are no early warning signals or symptoms that the kidney is being damaged by high BP and the first time a person knows they have a problem is after the damage has been done.

More reasons to treat your high blood pressure seriously

Kidney disease is just another reason that you need to watch your pressure. Blindness, diabetes, congestive heart failure, stroke and heart attack are all aggravated by elevated pressure. Regularly monitoring your pressure and following the recommendations of the AMA is not only the best way to prevent the onset of high blood pressure but it is also the cure.

Following a plan of healthy diet, exercise and stress control will not only bring down your blood pressure, it goes a long way in preventing a variety of other disabling diseases. It's amazing how our bodies respond when we feed it fuel that it was designed to run on and we exercise it to keep it in shape. Make healthy living a priority for both yourself and for your family.