… As Don Advocates Living A Healthy Lifestyle
The Deputy Medical Director (DMD), General Hospital Ijede, Dr. Olumuyiwa Balogun-Oluwa, has called on the general public to cultivate the habit of eating right by taking a balanced diet, lots of water (minimum of about 3.5 litres daily) and engaging in daily exercise in order to prevent kidney diseases.
The DMD, who was speaking at an event organised by the Hospital to mark World Kidney Day, explained that living a healthy lifestyle is synonymous to having your kidneys functioning optimally, adding that eating the right type of food and balancing it would automatically prevent other underlying factors that could give rise to kidney diseases.
He said, “Kidney disease means when the kidneys are not functioning optimally. It could be divided into pre-renal, renal and post-renal. Pre-renal means abnormality arising before the kidney, renal means malfunctioning of the kidney substance while post-renal means abnormality arising in terms of the outflow of urine and its backflow, which can affect the function of the kidney itself.
Speaking further, Balogun-Oluwa said hypertension has been the primary cause of kidney damage worldwide and that Nigerians should ensure they control their blood pressure which would automatically reduce the incidence and prevalence of kidney damage, noting that “When you stop hypertension, you reduce the tendency of being diabetic”.
He pointed out that, according to research, 2.5% -35.8% of the entire world population have been diagnosed with kidney diseases, stressing that 1.7 million people have kidney disease in Nigeria.
Maintaining that the management of patients with kidney disease symptoms requires increased education in order to help improve their health-related quality of life, the DMD said regular visitation to the Nephrologists, where the patient will be adequately managed in order to prevent further damage and promote improvement, is essential.
“Preventing hypertension and diabetes will give a long lasting healthy kidney because its functions are innumerable and critical to the well being of man, even dialysis is only scratching the surface”, he asserted.
