As the mercury rises, one must drink plenty of water throughout the day. Ask any doctor, and he/she will tell you how critical the water intake is to prevent the onset of kidney diseases. Ideally, one should drink at least three-five litres of water per day. Also, urologists say that people need to pass at least 1.5-2 litres of urine every day to stay healthy. If it falls below this limit, one runs the risk of higher concentration of certain materials such as calcium, oxalate and uric acid, which could lead to kidney stone formation. Drinking water can ward off urinary tract infections. Plus, a lot of fluid will help you avoid dehydration.
Vikram Vuppala, founder and CEO of the dialysis centre chain NephroPlus, also recommends fitness training. Take up a sport that interests you - it could be a game like table tennis or other exercises such as jogging, cycling or walking. It will especially help those who are not able to do routine workouts at the gym. Exercising for an hour a day and five days a week helps prevent lifestyle diseases like diabetes and delays the onset of kidney diseases in people suffering from high blood sugar. It is good for the heart and also crucial otherwise as uncontrolled hypertension leads to renal problems.
A simple serum creatinine test, priced at Rs 100 or so, is a good way to check kidney health. Creatinine, a waste product in the bloodstream, is generated by muscle functions and is filtered through the kidneys. Serum creatinine tests are done to check creatinine level in the blood, indicating how well the kidneys are functioning. As there are not too many early signs of kidney diseases, annual health check-ups help and oral medication could be effective early on. There could be some alarm bells, though, such as extreme fatigue, frequent urination or swelling in the legs. HR departments could also push for such check-ups as late-stage ailments can prove expensive and cut down productivity.
In Robotics We Trust
Most urologists in India now go for robotic surgery that is minimally invasive. It is mostly required in cases where there is a need for high precision, and there are dangers in manual operations. It can be used for deep pelvic surgeries and certain types of prostate cancers. Although robotic surgery has been around for more than a decade, it has been increasingly used over the past three-four years for kidney, prostate and bladder cancers. In fact, robotics is applied not just for organ removal but also for reconstructive surgery. But the equipment alone - like da Vinci Surgical System costs around `10 crore and the treatment using such technology costs around Rs 5-7 lakh, double the cost of routine procedures. But the hi-tech systems are meant to be safer with better clinical outcomes than laparoscopic or open surgery.