It’s normal to wonder how your life will change and how you’ll manage the changes that come with a new diagnosis of kidney disease. The lexicon of kidney disease can add another layer of complexity to navigating this transition. Familiarizing yourself with some of the medical terms you’ll hear your Nephrology Associates of Greater Cincinnati care team use can help you feel more at ease about the changes happening in your body and empowered to be an active participant in your health. 

As a patient with kidney disease, keeping your blood pressure in check is more important now than ever. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can have significant life-altering consequences.

February is American Heart Month, and it’s a great time to spread a little love to your body. As many patients with chronic kidney disease in the Cincinnati area also have hypertension or other types of heart disease, it’s important to eat both a dialysis-friendly and heart-healthy diet.

However, these diets serve different purposes and have a few conflicting recommendations. Here are a few things to consider when merging these two diets.

According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than half of chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients also have high blood pressure. High blood pressure (HBP), also called hypertension, can increase the chance that your CKD will worsen, making it extremely important for CKD patients to maintain a healthy diet, exercise regularly, and keep blood pressure in check.

Unregulated HBP and chronic kidney disease are inextricably linked – hypertension can cause kidney disease and kidney disease can cause hypertension.

Hypertension is one of the leading causes of CKD. High blood pressure damages blood vessels throughout your body over time, which reduces the blood supply to vital organs like your kidneys. When HBP also damages the filtering bodies in your kidneys, the kidneys can no longer remove toxins, wastes, and excess water from your blood effectively. The extra fluid buildup in the blood vessels can then accelerate hypertension more.