Combating Chronic Kidney Disease with Exercise

More than 20 million Americans adults have chronic kidney disease and because of the difficulty of seeing warning signs late detection is common. The leading cause of death in patients with chronic kidney disease is cardiovascular disease.

Poor physical functioning is perhaps the most pervasive and disabling disturbance in patients with advanced kidney disease especially more pronounced in patients on dialysis.

Exercise is not very appealing when you have extreme fatigue and nausea from a chronic illness such as kidney disease. But more and more information is coming forth regarding the benefits of low intensity exercises and combating chronic kidney disease.

A recent University of Delaware research team studied early stage chronic kidney disease patient’s not on dialysis and patients with kidney transplant to take part in an exercise program. The study showed that the exercise program improved blood vessel health and exercise capacity. Patient’s also reported improvement in that everyday quality of life as a result of becoming active. This can potentially translate into improved blood pressure, control blood sugar control, cholesterol level, weight control and reduce heart problems.

Studies have suggested that physical exercise can also provide benefits for dialysis patients. Exercise can also be done during dialysis and it helps the body expelled toxins such as urea more efficiently.

Simple exercise programs carried out at home improve your walking performance and quality of life. A recent Canadian study showed that even low intensity exercise can impart a benefit. This study required each subject to complete 3 different protocols, 1 dialysis session with no exercise, 1 with lower intensity exercise and 1 with higher intensity exercise. While exercise may make the dialysis procedure more efficient there was no difference between low and high intensity exercises in terms of dialysis efficiency.

Something as simple as walking has a positive affect. Start by walking 10-20 minutes a day and go slow. Once confident you can increase the time as needed. You can walk up and down the hall in your house, go to the mall or just go walking down the driveway to pick up the mail.

Another simple exercise is to sit and stand in one position 5 times a day. If standing is not possible then just moving the arms 5 times a day can be useful.

I like to move it move it.

Done by:

Dr Ahmed Rehan