The Seven Golden Rules

In the better-late-than-never category comes my shout out for World Kidney Day, which was yesterday.

I love their slogan: “Protect your Kidneys, Save your Heart.”

As an organ, the kidneys are a lot like offensive lineman in football; they do all the hard work but remain mostly anonymous. They sit motionless in the back of the body,quietly and humbly filtering salt, water and toxins from our bodies. Though some may think that pee smells bad, or is gross, not having “healthy” pee is a real problem.  No one ever thinks of their kidneys until they malfunction.

Though the inner workings of the kidney–with all its convoluted loops, capsules and ion exchangers–are more complicated to understand than the heart, keeping your kidneys healthy is simple: just make heart-healthy choices.

Only kidney peeps give their rules a far more creative name…

The Seven Golden Rules:

• Stay fit and active.
• Keep your blood sugar under control.
• Monitor your blood pressure.
• Eat well and stay thin.
• Do not smoke.
• Do not take over-the-counter pills on a regular basis. (NSAIDs–Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are even harder on the kidneys than they are on the heart.)
• Check your kidney function if you have any of these risk factors. (Note: Unlike Echos and ECGs, a kidney function test is objective; the level of creatinine comes with an easy to read ‘H’ or ‘L’.)

That’s it, I have to go…

JMM