Dehydration Can Lead to Severe Kidney Damage, 5 Tips to be ‘Water Wise’

Kidney health: 5 tips to make sure you’re drinking enough water to keep your kidneys healthy.

Our kidneys remain healthy when we drink enough water. Every part of our body needs water to function properly; it makes up between 60- 70 percent of our body weight. Urine generated from waste products in our blood is one way that water supports kidney function. Keeping our blood vessels open allows blood to freely flow to our kidneys and provide them with important nutrients. However, this delivery system has a harder time functioning if you become dehydrated. When we work or exercise extremely hard, especially in hot and humid weather, it’s crucial to drink enough fluids to prevent dehydration from damaging our kidneys. Here are 5 tips to make sure you’re drinking enough water to keep your kidneys healthy:

Drinking More Water Improves Kidney Health? Here’s How

• The requirement for 8 glasses of water per day for everyone is not a guideline. This is just general advice based on the fact that our bodies constantly lose water and that we require adequate water intake to survive and optimal quantities to thrive.

• When the kidneys fail, patients rarely or never excrete water. Indeed, water intake for patients undergoing dialysis treatment must be severely constrained

• Though it is uncommon for this to occur in the normal individual, athletes like marathon runners may consume large volumes of water, which can lower their blood’s salt content and cause hyponatremia, a severe disease.

• To be “water smart” for the average person means to consume enough water or other healthy liquids, such as unsweetened juice or low-fat milk, to slake thirst and maintain light yellow or colourless urine. You are dehydrated if your urine is dark yellow in colour.

• Two frequent medical problems that can harm the kidneys are kidney stones and urinary tract infections (UTIs), for which adequate hydration is crucial. When there is enough water to keep stone-forming crystals from staying together, kidney stones form less frequently. The medicines used to treat urinary tract infections are more effective when they are dissolved in water. In addition, drinking adequate water aids in flushing out the infection-causing bacteria through urine stream.

(Inputs: Dr. Neelakandan R. MBBS, Urologist (MS. MCh) at Pristyn Care)