Kidney Disease and Painkiller Safety

If a person's kidneys become compromised, one of the first steps often taken is to alter their diet. Good exercise and a healthy lifestyle are also vital. But as they plan how to eat and exercise, many people forget another important element in trying to keep their kidneys healthy: common, everyday painkillers.

The labels on these painkillers, with suggested dosages and durations for use, are on the containers for a reason. In general, no painkiller should be taken for more than three days for a fever, or for longer than ten days for pain. This is why doctors recommend that even if a person's kidney function is normal, they should take as low a dose of painkillers as possible, and should take them for the shortest possible time.

Yet some people have conditions for which painkillers are actually recommended: for example, a heart condition for which they take aspirin. Are these patients now doomed to choose between heart problems and kidney problems? Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. The aspirin dose is usually low enough that it doesn't affect kidney function.

Aspirin, in fact, seems to be the painkiller that does the least harm, at least when taken in moderate amounts. Yet the characteristic that makes them most useful with heart problems (blood thinning) can cause other health issues. So the user still must be careful about potential stomach bleeding or ulcers, and if their liver is compromised, even aspirin could be off the table as a painkiller.

Some painkillers, the NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), can actually cause a form of kidney disease called chronic interstitial nephritis, if taken for too long. Ibuprofen and naproxen are the main culprits for this. They should be avoided by anyone who knows their kidneys have impaired function, and should be used with a doctor's guidance if the patient has other issues like liver disease or high blood pressure.

Acetaminophen seems to be the only relatively safe painkiller if the patient can't tolerate aspirin. Doctors warn against drinking alcohol while taking this drug, but kidney patients should be treating alcohol moderately anyway. And even this medicine should be taken under a physician's guidance.

People inevitably need painkillers from time to time. But the more they know about how these medicines affect the kidneys, the less casually they may take them. Convenient and effective as they are, these drugs can still have devastating side effects, especially when it comes to kidney health.

Detailed Information on Kidney Stones

The formation of kidney stones

Kidney stones are nothing but a solid mass made up of some crystals and those crystals are mainly the minerals which are present in the urine ofa human body. Normally the urine of humans contain some chemicals which do not allow to form stones in the kidney but this does not work for all humans and that is the reason for the formation of kidney stones. The basic formation of the renal stones is by the high concentration of urine than the normal level. This concentrated urine settles in our kidney and thus resulting in the formation of kidney stones. Generally such stones cannot be noticed until there is pain or only after analyzing the symptoms. Passing these stones will be a painful one but the fact is small stones pass naturally by urine but larger stones can only be diluted and made into smaller stones and then only made to pass through the urine.

Kidney stones symptoms

Nowadays, the technology has improved vastly so that laser treatments can be made to make the size of the stone lesser. Proper dieted food will be one of the good ways for stopping the formation of stones in the kidney. These stones mainly contain calcium as its source and foods with large amount of calcium must be avoided. There are many types of kidney stones and are named according to the place in which it is present. The symptoms of these stones are generally shown by some side effects of the stones but some silent stones do not get clued and the only option will be to go with the x-ray and then limit the growth of the stones. All the formation of stones in the kidney is only followed after the super saturation of the urine. After the super saturation the calcium and the minerals settle and forms urea and that urea is the main form of these stones. The symptoms for the formation of the kidney stones are frequent urination with blood and traces of blood in the urine. The pain the lower back and the abdomen of a human is also a sign of the formation of the stones. The intake of more water always does miracles in the human body for getting rid of renal stones. When a large amount of water is consumed then the functioning of kidney would be more proper in the context of the formation of the renal stones.

Treatments for kidney stones

There are many home treatments for the kidney stones, if they are small in size, but if the stones are big, then taking a risk will always be a dangerous one. People with severe pains and all the symptoms should be immediately hospitalized because the later stage after the stone formation will be a terrible thing. Pain relievers can also be used while the renal colic is passing through the urine. Drinking more water always produces more urine and if the urine is more, then the formation of the stones is limited because the urine is diluted. Food items which contain more oxalic acid must be limited because the intake of more oxalic acids will make the concentration of the urine higher. Food items which are rich in oxalic acids are peanuts, spinach, tomatoes, etc., and those kinds of foods are good to be eliminated. Finally the usage of sugar must be reduced because the sugar has a quality of extracting more calcium from the bones and sends it as waste and it is directly transferred to the kidney and that might result in the formation of the stones. Hence the kidney stones formation can be prevented to some extent.

Discovering A Few Simple Truths About Anxiety

In today's world anxiety just seems to be a fact of life. For most people anxiety doesn't come in form of a serious anxiety disorder but instead as the run of the mill garden variety. The question is how can we reduce this nervous tension thus putting us back on the path to health and happiness?

Recently I was watching one of my favorite television dramas when an ad came on featuring two guys who had been living under a couple of rocks for a while. When they finally got up enough nerve to roll the rock away their first thought was how they might save some money on care insurance.

As you may realize their first thoughts had a hint of anxiety.  

For some living under a rock or locating out of the reach of societal anxiety might seem like a great idea. But even under a rock the long arm of anxiety and worry would be present. So isolating oneself from anxiety and nervous tension is not realistic.

Does anxiety really help us do better?

I recently read an article written by so called anxiety expert that loudly proclaimed that in today's world anxiety helps to motivate us, prepares us for things we have to face, and gives us energy when we need it.