Hypertension is currently one of the most common chronic diseases with the highest incidence rate in the world. It is estimated that 1 billion people in the world suffer from hypertension. Data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) in the United States show that the prevalence rate of hypertension is on the rise year by year.
However, the degree of hypertension control in our country is not optimistic. Many friends are worried about the impact of antihypertensive drugs on the kidney. Some even dare not take antihypertensive drugs for fear of hurting the kidney.
Let’s introduce the harm of hypertension to the kidney and the effect of antihypertensive drugs on the kidney.
Friends who do not have the patience to watch can directly remember this conclusion: hypertension hurts the kidney more than antihypertensive drugs. Never dare not take medicine because you are afraid of side effects. It is an act of [throwing watermelons and picking sesame seeds] that does more harm than good.
Hypertension hurts the kidneys
Epidemiological studies show that chronic kidney disease caused by hypertension has become the 2nd or 3rd cause of uremia in developed countries.
China’s dialysis registration data in recent years show that renal damage caused by hypertension is also the third cause of uremic dialysis (the first two are chronic glomerulonephritis and diabetes).
Why does hypertension hurt the kidney so much?
As we all know, our blood circulates in blood vessels, and blood flow will exert pressure on blood vessels, which is blood pressure.
The kidney is an excretory organ, The whole body’s blood carries various metabolic wastes through the kidney, filtering out excess water, ions and metabolic wastes to form urine and excrete them. Therefore, the kidney is full of blood vessels. When blood pressure is high, these blood vessels will become thicker and thicker in order to resist excessive pressure. The cost of this change is to narrow the blood vessel lumen.
The blood vessels in the kidney become very thin, which is not conducive to the filtration of toxins, but also cannot guarantee the blood supply to the basic kidney, resulting in ischemic atrophy of the kidney. At this time, the volume of the kidney will become smaller and the surface will [wither], like dried apples, which we call granular pyknotic kidney.
This process is relatively slow for most hypertension patients. According to the survey of patients suffering from hypertension for 5 years, only 10% of patients have increased creatinine (a sign of renal function decline). For the elderly and patients with systolic blood pressure greater than 160 mmHg, only 2% ~ 5% will progress to uremia within 10 to 15 years.
Therefore, most hypertensive patients in our country do not realize the severity of hypertensive renal damage at the initial stage of onset. There are many patients who find renal dysfunction, even have progressed to uremia, and then control blood pressure.
To make matters worse, this kind of kidney damage is irreversible, that is, once it occurs, it cannot be cured.
Who hurts the kidney more, hypertension or taking medicine?
Hypertension is a chronic disease, which requires long-term and regular medication to control blood pressure. Therefore, many people will think that taking medicine will cause damage to the kidney, so they refuse to take medicine or stop taking medicine when they see their blood pressure is normal.
It is true that the kidney will be damaged by some drugs, but for western medicine, the common drugs causing kidney injury are antibiotics, contrast agents, immunosuppressants and anti-tumor drugs.
At present, there are five types of antihypertensive drugs commonly used in the market, only angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) and angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB), which have a greater risk of renal function decline (commonly called XXX Puli or XXX Sartan). Other antihypertensive drugs are safe to the kidney under normal doses.
Moreover, it should be noted that although ACEI and ARB antihypertensive drugs lead to the risk of renal function decline, they also play a protective role in the kidney and are the two best drugs to prevent the aggravation of hypertension and renal damage. The two are not contradictory. When renal ischemia is not serious, the two drugs have positive effects and will have negative effects when it is serious.
Therefore, hypertension patients should not only take medicine, but also go to the hospital regularly to check various indicators.
As patients and ordinary people, should how protect kidneys?
As a patient with hypertension, regular medication and regular reexamination are the two most important things. Diet control and exercise can help control the disease, but they cannot replace them. If creatinine elevation has already occurred, these two things should be paid more attention to. In addition, contact with unknown foods and drugs should be avoided to increase kidney burden.
For ordinary people, the kidney is a very strong organ. It does not need to eat what health care products to protect it at ordinary times, nor will it be due to some reason [kidney deficiency]. As long as you control your weight, rest regularly, and do not eat indiscriminately, you can have a pair of healthy kidneys. Not doing it is the greatest protection for your body.
To sum up, hypertension patients want to protect their gods. They should take good care of their diseases. They should not be afraid of medical treatment. Minor diseases are too big to regret.