Early Chronic Kidney Disease

In the early stage of chronic kidney disease (stage 1-3), the accumulation of waste, minerals, liquid and other chemicals in the blood is very slow. You may not feel any symptoms at first, but your doctor can detect them in the test results. The common symptoms include hypertension, anemia, arteriosclerosis (atherosclerosis) and osteoporosis.

It is very important for you to find a medical team specializing in kidney disease to cooperate closely as soon as possible. The correct treatment includes following the doctor's instructions on diet, exercise and drugs. This targeted treatment plan will prevent further kidney damage and play an important role in maintaining your kidney health.

Work:

If you are still working, please continue to keep your work. Because while your job provides income, it will also provide other securities (such as medical insurance)

Sports:

Before any exercise plan starts, you need to talk with your medical team about how to maintain or make an exercise plan that is more suitable for you until you finally reach the moderate amount of exercise of 30 minutes per day. Exercise can not only improve your condition, but also reduce mental stress, reduce or maintain weight, release mood and control blood pressure.

Diet:

In stages 1 and 2, the function of the kidney may not reach 100% of the normal level, but it can still remove waste from the blood. A healthy lifestyle, especially eating foods that protect the kidney and avoiding taking some commonly used drugs and supplements that damage the kidney, can delay kidney damage and even prevent the development of chronic kidney disease.

Diets beneficial to the kidney include:

Encourage eating nutritious carbohydrates (cereals, fresh fruits and vegetables)

Limiting the intake of foods that contain too much fat and processed foods that are high in sugar and salt

Eat recommended amounts of protein ( Including meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products and nuts)

Eat recommended amounts of safe vitamins and minerals

Follow the advice of the medical team and keep the liquid intake balanced (and do not dehydrate the body due to too little liquid intake)

Shopping

Please remember that the food that enters your shopping cart in the supermarket will eventually affect your feelings. Supermarket shopping may be very difficult because there are temptations everywhere.

If you have chronic kidney disease, the food you eat is not only the nutrients needed to maintain your health, but also part of your treatment prescription, so please be prepared before shopping:

Adopt and review your diet plan

Purchase the foods required for the one-week menu according to the shopping list agreed by your dietitian.

The food needed on the shopping list only comes from the above menu, and insists on buying only these in the store.

Please eat well before shopping

Common drugs for early chronic kidney disease

Delaying or avoiding the continuous decline of kidney function is the main goal of early treatment. In addition to avoiding the complete loss of renal function, maintaining renal function and health as much as possible is also the key factor to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, which can lead to heart attack or stroke.

You should understand that the choices and decisions you make now will affect the treatment measures that may have to be taken in the future, such as dialysis or kidney transplantation, which is very important.

In the early stage of CDK, doctors will talk with you about how to control your blood pressure, blood glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride within the target range. If you have hypertension, it is very important to take drugs to reduce your blood pressure to below 130/80 mmHg. This kind of drug called "angiotensin converting enzyme (ACEs) inhibitor" and "angiotensin 2 receptor blockers (ARBs)" is helpful. These drugs can reduce hypertension. Even if your blood pressure is normal, your doctor may prescribe these medicine to help you reduce the amount of abnormal proteins in your urine.

The main purpose of these treatments is to prevent deterioration of your kidneys and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. If you have diabetes mellitus , your doctor will tell you how to maintain your blood glucose at normal levels. Of course, you may need to change your dietary habits or start taking drugs.

Here is a list of drug that may be prescribed to patients with early kidney disease.

Blood pressure drugs - hypotensors

Cholesterol drugs - statins

Calcium supplements

Iron supplements

Vitamin D supplements

Phosphorus binders

Diuretics - it is helpful to maintain liquid balance

Prescribed multivitamins

Anemia drugs - erythropoiesis stimulating agents (ESA), a hormone substitute that stimulates erythrocyte production

Special Note: Some people need to take multiple drugs, while others only need to take a small amount of drugs. Your doctor will tell you which drugs you need to take.