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High blood Pressure and Kidney Disease
What is high blood pressure?
How does high blood pressure hurt my kidneys?High blood pressure makes your heart work harder and, over time, can damage blood vessels throughout your body. If the blood vessels in your kidneys are damaged, they may stop removing wastes and extra fluid from your body. The extra fluid in your blood vessels may then raise blood pressure even more. It's a dangerous cycle. High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of kidney failure, also commonly called end-stage renal disease (ESRD). People with kidney failure must either receive a kidney transplant or go on dialysis. How will I know whether I have high blood pressure?Most people with high blood pressure have no symptoms. The only way to know whether your blood pressure is high is to have a health professional measure it. The result is expressed as two numbers. The top number, which is called the systolic pressure, represents the pressure when your heart is beating. The bottom number, which is called the diastolic pressure, shows the pressure when your heart is resting between beats. Your blood pressure is considered normal if it stays below 130/85 (expressed as "130 over 85"), but recent studies suggest that people with kidney disease should keep their blood pressure even lower. How will I know whether I have kidney damage? Kidney damage, like hypertension, can be unnoticeable, detected only through medical tests. Blood tests will show whether your kidneys are removing wastes efficiently. Your doctor may refer to tests for serum creatinine and BUN, which stands for blood urea nitrogen. Having too much creatinine and urea nitrogen in your blood is a sign that you have kidney damage. How can I prevent high blood pressure from damaging my kidneys?If you have kidney damage, you should keep your blood pressure well below 130/85. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), recommends that people with kidney disease use whatever therapy is necessary, including lifestyle changes and medicines, to keep their blood pressure at or below 130/85, or even below 125/75 when protein in the urine exceeds 1 gram per 24 hours. How can I control my blood pressure?Five lifestyle changes that can help control blood pressure:
Are there medicines that can help?Many people need medicine to control high blood pressure. A group of medications called ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors lower blood pressure and have an added protective effect on the kidney in people with diabetes. Additional studies have shown that ACE inhibitors also reduce proteinuria and slow the progression of kidney damage in people who do not have diabetes. You may need to take a combination of two or more blood pressure medicines to reach 125/75. What groups are at risk for kidney failure related to high blood pressure?All racial groups have some risk of developing kidney failure from high blood pressure. African Americans, American Indians, and Alaska Natives, however, are more likely than whites to have high blood pressure and to develop kidney problems from it--even when their blood pressure is only mildly elevated. In fact, African Americans ages 25 to 44 are 20 times more likely than whites in the same age group to develop hypertension-related kidney failure. People with diabetes also have a substantially increased risk for developing kidney failure. People who are at risk both because of their race and because of diabetes should have early management of high blood pressure.
Signs Of Pregnancy
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Hypertension can result from too much fluid in normal blood vessels or from normal fluid in narrow blood vessels.