March is National Kidney Month, which gives people a chance to talk about kidney health.
“The kidney is a very important organ,” Dr. Kompal Parmar said. “For us, it’s very important, because it helps to eliminate toxins from our body, it does help us to keep our electrolyte balance.”
Dr. Parmar is a family medicine physician with Covenant Medical Group.
Dr. Parmar said the kidney also helps with your blood.
“Kidneys are also very important for secreting a hormone called erythropoietin, which helps with our blood, so to make our blood, so it helps to have us not getting anemic,” she said.
Dr. Parmar had some advice on what to do to keep your kidneys healthy, like drinking a lot of water.
She also said to check the drugs you are taking. “We should avoid taking too much of the anti-inflammatories if we can.”
Dr. Parmar said keeping your diabetes and blood pressure under control can also help your kidneys.
There are some signs to look for that may tell a doctor something isn’t right with your kidneys.
“Just pay attention to your urine if you have cloudy urine,” Dr. Parmar said. “Pay attention to your lower extremities, if you’re having some leg edema, or swelling in your face, that gives us an idea something’s not going right with the kidneys.”