Wednesday, December 12, 2012

What Vitamins & Minerals Help With Kidney Function

To keep the body healthy, it is important to make sure that you get plenty of vitamins and minerals. Every organ of the body has certain vitamins and minerals that it needs in order to keep it healthy and functioning properly, and the kidneys are no different. In order to do their job and keep the body free of toxins, they need certain vitamins and minerals to work at their optimum level and to keep from malfunctioning, or even failing altogether.


Vitamins Important for Good Kidney Function


Vitamins play an active role in the health of our bodies, as well as individual organs. Without vitamins, our organs would shut down, become sickly and not work to do their jobs. Two of these organs that need certain vitamins and minerals to stay healthy are the kidneys. Vitamin A is a very important vitamin for the kidneys. Vitamin D is needed by the kidneys. It supplements them as well as helps break it down. If there is kidney failure, most patients will receive supplemental vitamin D in their hemodialysis.


Minerals Important for Good Kidney Function


Potassium is a very important mineral used in the kidneys. It is a mineral that helps with fluid control in the body, which your kidneys play a big role in when it comes to elimination of fluid. Phosphorus is another mineral important in kidney function. These minerals help to keep the kidneys functioning in the way of fluid control. They are what is known as electrolytes. If the kidneys do not get their electrolytes, they cannot help control fluid levels in the body.


Dangers Related to the Vitamins and Minerals


Taking vitamins and minerals over the counter can sometimes cause build-ups of them and an overload. It is best to see your doctor first, before embarking on taking vitamin and mineral supplements. Your doctor can do a blood work-up to see if in fact you are deficient in any vitamins or minerals. If you are, he can tell you which ones, and how much of a supplement you need to get your levels back in order. By assuming you can take whatever the over-the-counter supplements offer, this may do more damage to the kidneys.


The Benefits of Good Kidney Function


The benefits of good kidney function is that the kidneys help rid the body of wastes that collect. If they cannot eliminate waste properly, the waste can build up in the body, especially the blood, and cause toxic levels of poisons to collect. This can shut down the kidneys and cause you to go into renal failure. Kidneys also help to breakdown certain vitamins and minerals, such as the vitamin D, and if they cannot break down what they are supposed to, they can fail from toxic levels of vitamins and minerals.


Signs of Kidney Disease


Signs of kidney failure could include having to get up in the middle of the night to urinate. This could be a sign if you are not used to having to do this. Blood in the urine is another sign, as well as a foamy, bubbly urine. You also may have pain associated with urinating, or pressure, and trouble emptying your bladder all the way. Any abnormalities in your urination, you should let your physician know. It may be that you are in need of particular vitamins and minerals to correct the problem, medication or that it is something more serious.

Tags: vitamins minerals, certain vitamins, certain vitamins minerals, Good Kidney, Good Kidney Function