10 TIPS FOR A HEALTHY BLOOD PRESSURE

10 Healthy Habits that will help to keep our Blood Pressure down
If we have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, our doctor may recommend that we adopt a few healthier lifestyle habits to help get it under control. Studies have shown that making certain changes in the way we live can significantly lower our blood pressure. Most of these lifestyle changes can also help prevent high blood pressure if we do not already have it — the guidelines for hypertension prevention and management are often one and the same.

Here are some healthier lifestyle habits we should adopt.

Eat healthily.
There is evidence that people who consume a healthy diet can prevent high blood pressure or lower blood pressure if they already have hypertension. We should aim for a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, whole grains, nuts and seeds and lean protein sources, such as skinless poultry and fish. It should also be low in saturated fat, total fat, cholesterol and added sugars — and skip the trans fat altogether.

Reduce Salt Intake
. Limiting the amount of sodium (salt) in our diet can also help control high blood pressure. As a general rule, we should consume less than 2,400 milligrams of sodium(less than a teaspoon) per day, but if we already have high blood pressure, that amount will be lower. The target is between 500mg and 1000mg (quarter to half teaspoon). The lower our sodium intake, the better it is for our blood pressure. We must remember to count the amount of sodium in packaged foods as well as any table salt used, when we are calculating how much we are eating. Ingredients like baking soda, soda, brine, mono sodium glutamate (MSG) and baking powder have high sodium content.

Maintain a healthy weight
If we are overweight, losing as few as 10 pounds can lower our high blood pressure. Carrying extra weight not only increases our risk of high blood pressure, it also makes us more likely to develop cholesterol problems and diabetes, which are two more risk factors for heart disease. Talk with your doctor about our weight. If we are overweight, our doctor can recommend a safe weight loss program of healthy eating and increased physical activity.

Keep active
An active lifestyle is one of the best ways to prevent or control high blood pressure. In addition to its effects on hypertension, regular exercise can also help you maintain a healthy weight and reduce stress. As long as our doctor says that exercise is safe for us, aim to get at least 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity on most days of the week and incorporate flexibility (stretches) and strengthening exercises into our weekly routine.

Limit alcohol or stop drinking all together.
Drinking alcohol in moderation is generally not harmful and may even have some heart health benefits, but drinking too much has been shown to lead to high blood pressure and other serious health problems. We must limit our alcohol intake to one drink per day females or two drinks per day for males. One drink is 12 ounces of beer or 4ounces of wine or one and a half ounces of 80-proof liquor, or 1 ounce of 100-proof liquor.

Stop smoking to limit artery damage
Smoking is not considered to be a cause of high blood pressure, but it can damage the walls of our blood vessels and harden our arteries, making it especially dangerous for us who have high blood pressure. If we don't smoke, don’t start and if we do smoke, make quitting a top priority. Studies have shown that our risk of having a heart attack is reduced just one year after we quit smoking.

Monitor our blood pressure at home.
There are often no warning signs that we have high blood pressure before it damages our body. That is why it is important to keep track of our blood pressure, to make sure it is under control and being managed properly. Since our blood pressure can fluctuate between doctor visits, we should consider investing in a home monitoring kit and then regularly record our blood pressure readings so our doctor can have a clearer picture of our blood pressure over time.

Manage stress to manage hypertension
Stress can cause temporary increases in high blood pressure, but scientists are still not sure how stress affects blood pressure over the long term. However, there is evidence that stress can lead to overeating, smoking, drinking and other blood pressure-raising activities. So, we should pay attention to our stress levels and avoid unnecessarily stressful activities and events. We must remember that regular exercise reduces stress as it improves heart health.

Practice relaxation
Taking time out to unwind each day may help us control our high blood pressure. Find some relaxation techniques that we enjoy and practice them regularly. Examples of relaxation practices include meditating in a peaceful place for 15 to 20 minutes, expressing our gratitude for the positive things in our life and engaging in soothing physical activities such as yoga.

Remember, High blood pressure is the greatest risk factor for death in the in the world. We may not know we have high blood pressure unless we get it checked.


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DR OZ SPEAKS OUT ON CKD-THE SILENT EPIDEMIC

There's a dangerous health problem on the rise in the United States, affecting more than 20 million adults—25 percent more than a decade ago. It's more common than diabetes and twice as prevalent as cancer. More alarming: New evidence shows that the majority of those stricken by the condition don't even know they have it. What is this insidious epidemic? Chronic kidney disease.

Located just below the rib cage on either side of the spine, the kidneys act like a laundry service for your blood. Each bean-shaped organ, about the size of a computer mouse, contains approximately one million tiny filters, or nephrons, that separate the nutrients and other substances your body needs from waste products and excess fluid, which you eliminate as urine.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) occurs when the organs' tiny filters are progressively damaged over the course of several months to years. Eventually the damage leads to a dangerous buildup of waste in your blood, which can cause inflammation in the blood vessels, setting you up for heart attack, stroke, even brain damage. Without treatment to help slow the progress of the disease, many patients will require either dialysis or a kidney transplant.

One reason CKD is on the rise is that it's linked to two other increasingly common conditions—diabetes and hypertension, which together account for two-thirds of CKD cases. (High blood sugar and high blood pressure damage the kidney's nephrons and impair blood vessel function, making it more difficult for waste to be removed.) But although more and more Americans are being screened for these two conditions, CKD often goes undiscovered until obvious symptoms—such as numbness in the hands or feet, a halt to menstruation, or severe joint pain—appear. The bad news: These symptoms usually don't arise until kidney function has fallen to less than 25 percent of normal and irreversible damage has occurred. The good news: With your doctor's help, you can detect the disease earlier and even prevent it altogether.

What You Can Do
Watch for Warning Signs
Many symptoms of kidney disease are ignored because they don't seem serious. Keep an eye out for loss of appetite, nausea, fatigue, swollen ankles or feet, and difficulty sleeping and concentrating.

Get Screened
Even if you have no symptoms of CKD, you should still get screened if you have diabetes (about 40 percent of those with diabetes develop CKD), high blood pressure, or a family history of kidney disease, or you are over age 60. Screening typically includes a urine test to check for protein, which can show up months to years before symptoms occur. Your doctor may also order a blood test to measure the buildup of waste products (specifically urea and creatinine) as well as an ultrasound of your kidneys.

Block the Damage
To combat diabetes and hypertension, the primary instigators of CKD: Maintain a healthy weight and diet, exercise, and quit smoking. Your doctor may prescribe a special low-salt, low-protein diet, or medication to regulate your blood pressure and blood sugar. (Aim for a blood pressure below 115/75 and a fasting blood sugar below 100.) Also ask your doc to check your levels of hemoglobin A1c, which can indicate the average amount of glucose in your blood over several weeks. One recent study showed that for every 1 percent drop in A1c level, the risk of kidney disease drops by up to 40 percent

NEPHROLOGIST IN BOSTON DONATES KIDNEY TO WIFE

More than 12 million people suffer from polycystic kidney disease, a painful condition which can cause their kidneys to fail. One local doctor is not only treating patients, but has donated his own kidney to save a stranger's life, and ultimately, his wife's.

Dr. Andrew Levey has treated hundreds of kidney patients over the past three decades. "I came to Tufts in 1979 to study how to take care of people with kidney disease."

So it was only natural that he wanted to donate one of his kidneys to his wife when hers started to fail. Levey's wife, Dr. Roberta Falke explains, "I was very moved, I've always been moved by any person who donates any part of them, to help another person, I think that's extraordinary."

Dr. Levey says, "I've counseled dozens of patients about the benefits of being a kidney donor, if felt like I got to practice what I preach."

But Dr. Levey knew he wasn't a match for his wife of 30 years. That's why he decided to take part in a six-way kidney swap last December which allowed his wife to get a life-saving transplant from another donor. "It's very satisfying. I've never had a chance to help anyone like that, its nice to have that opportunity."

Dr. Levey's colleague, Dr Ronald Perrone, who helped to coordinate the kidney exchange says, "I've been arranging kidney transplants for years but to see if benefit your colleague and friend, is very powerful, it's truly the gift of life."

The Levey family will be taking part in the annual Walk For PKD for a seventh year to help raise money for research and to help patients like Roberta.

Dr. Levey explains, "We just don't have enough treatments. It's a hot area of research, testing medicines to slow the growth of cysts and development of kidney failure."

Dr. Falke and Dr. Levey and dozens of other patients and their families will be taking part in a fundraising Walk for the PKD Foundation on Saturday, Sept 25th at Artesani Park in Brighton at 10 am.

For more information about PKD or the walk, go to www.bostonpkdwalk.org or if you'd like to learn more about organ donation, visit www.neob.org or pkdcure.org.

Nephrotic Syndrome is a Nutritional Challenge - Renal and Urology News

Nephrotic Syndrome is a Nutritional Challenge - Renal and Urology News

UCSF UNVEILS ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY DESIGN

UCSF unveils model for implantable artificial kidney to replace dialysis

UCSF researchers today unveiled a prototype model of the first implantable artificial kidney, in a development that one day could eliminate the need for dialysis.

The device, which would include thousands of microscopic filters as well as a bioreactor to mimic the metabolic and water-balancing roles of a real kidney, is being developed in a collaborative effort by engineers, biologists and physicians nationwide, led by Shuvo Roy, PhD, in the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences.

The treatment has been proven to work for the sickest patients using a room-sized external model developed by a team member in Michigan. Roy’s goal is to apply silicon fabrication technology, along with specially engineered compartments for live kidney cells, to shrink that large-scale technology into a device the size of a coffee cup. The device would then be implanted in the body without the need for immune suppressant medications, allowing the patient to live a more normal life.

“This device is designed to deliver most of the health benefits of a kidney transplant, while addressing the limited number of kidney donors each year,” said Roy, an associate professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy who specializes in developing micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) technology for biomedical applications. “This could dramatically reduce the burden of renal failure for millions of people worldwide, while also reducing one of the largest costs in U.S. healthcare.”

The team has established the feasibility of an implantable model in animal models and plans to be ready for clinical trials in five to seven years.

End-stage renal disease, or chronic kidney failure, affects more than 500,000 people per year in the United States alone, and currently is only fully treated with a kidney transplant. That number has been rising between 5-7 percent per year, Roy said, in part because of the kidney damage associated with diabetes and hypertension.

Yet transplants are difficult to obtain: a mere 17,000 donated kidneys were available for transplant last year, while the number of patients on the transplant waiting list currently exceeds 85,000, according to the Organ Procurement ant Transplant Network.

Roughly 350,000 patients are reliant on kidney dialysis, Roy explained, which comes at a tremendous cost. The Medicare system alone spends $25 billion on treatments for kidney failure – more than 6 percent of the total budget – while the disease affects only 1 percent of Medicare recipients, he said. That cost includes almost $75,000 per patient each year for dialysis, according to the U.S. Renal Data System.

Dialysis also takes a human toll. A typical dialysis schedule is three sessions per week, for 3 to 5 hours per session, in which blood is pumped through an external circuit for filtration. This is exhausting for patients and only replaces 13 percent of kidney function, Roy said. As a result, only 35 percent of patients survive for more than 5 years.



A model of the implantable bioartificial kidney shows the two-stage system. Thousands of nanoscale filters remove toxins from the blood, while a BioCartridge of renal tubule cells mimics the metabolic and water-balance roles of the human kidney.

With the limited supply of donors, that means thousands of patients die each year waiting for a kidney.

The implantable device aims to eradicate that problem. The two-stage system uses a hemofilter to remove toxins from the blood, while applying recent advances in tissue engineering to grow renal tubule cells to provide other biological functions of a healthy kidney. The process relies on the body’s blood pressure to perform filtration without needing pumps or an electrical power supply.

The project exemplifies the many efforts under way at UCSF to build collaborations across scientific disciplines that accelerate the translation of academic research into real solutions for patients, according to Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy.

“This is a perfect example of the work we are doing at UCSF to address some of the most critical medical issues of our time, both in human and financial costs,” Koda-Kimble said. “This project shows what can be accomplished by teams of scientists with diverse expertise, collaborating to profoundly and more quickly improve the lives of patients worldwide.”

The creation of the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences – a joint department in the UCSF schools of Pharmacy and Medicine – was itself an effort to promote translational research at UCSF by forming collaborations across biomedical specialties. Roy is also a founding faculty member of the UCSF Pediatric Device Consortium, which aims to accelerate the development of innovative devices for children health, and a faculty affiliate of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) at UCSF.

His team is collaborating with 10 other teams of researchers on the project, including the Cleveland Clinic where Roy initially developed the idea, Case Western Reserve University, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, and Penn State University.

The first phase of the project, which has already been completed, focused on developing the technologies required to reduce the device to a size that could fit into the body and testing the individual components in animal models. In the second and current phase, the team is doing the sophisticated work needed to scale up the device for humans. The team now has the components and a visual model and is pursuing federal and private support to bring the project to clinical use.




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