What should you pay attention to during the Spring Festival? These special groups are recommended to do this

The Spring Festival is the peak season for kidney disease attacks, and the main cause is bad living habits such as overeating. Even those with healthy kidney function should form the habit of protecting their kidneys as early as possible.

When faced with a lot of fish and meat, the key is to control the total intake.

Food enters the digestive tract through the mouth. The part that cannot be absorbed by the digestive tract is excreted through the intestines. The nutrients absorbed by the intestines are metabolized by the liver, and the residue that cannot be used by the body is excreted by the kidneys.

Knowing this, it is not difficult to understand the following truth: the more you eat, the more your kidneys need to excrete. In particular, eating a lot of protein or foods high in toxins will put a lot of pressure on the kidneys because the kidneys are designed to handle excessive carbohydrates, toxins and protein products.

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When it comes to diet during the Spring Festival, these special groups of people should pay attention!

During the festival, people are used to eating a lot of protein and carbohydrate-rich foods, which will put an extra burden on the kidneys and also affect the liver, pancreas and heart function.

For healthy people with normal kidney function, these generally do not cause serious effects. However, patients with some underlying diseases (including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, etc.) may induce abnormal kidney function , even if the kidney function indicators were still within the normal range during the last physical examination - this is because kidney function has a safety factor, and damage below a certain threshold will not be immediately manifested.

1

Kidney disease patients

For people with kidney disease, even normal amounts of food can put stress on the kidneys. People with chronic kidney disease and kidney stones need to be especially careful not to overeat—consuming large amounts of carbohydrates, protein, and fat can worsen kidney dysfunction.

During holidays, it is easy to eat more than the total amount: not only will the size of each meal be too large, but also the longer time and frequency of eating may lead to a surge in the total amount of food consumed. In this case, it is meaningless to specifically distinguish which foods contain more harmful ingredients, because the intake of almost all nutrients and harmful ingredients is increasing.

Therefore, the simplest and most effective way to control it is to reduce the intake.

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2

People who are prone to kidney stones

For people who are prone to kidney stones, a big meal may also contain many substances that promote the formation of kidney stones. Often after a long vacation, hospitals will receive more patients with kidney stones, some of whom are new patients and some of whom are recurrent patients. The stones of these recurrent patients have become smaller after treatment, but they have become larger after the vacation, causing obstruction and pain symptoms. Repeated attacks of kidney stones will eventually cause irreversible renal damage.

3

Gout patients

For gout patients, overeating during the holidays is also a serious challenge, especially drinking, which is the fuse of gout attacks. Here we need to clarify a common misunderstanding: many people always think that gout patients cannot drink beer, but drinking liquor is fine. In fact, as long as alcohol is consumed, it is easy to aggravate gout symptoms, and the problems caused by high-proof liquor are actually likely to be more serious (because alcohol is consumed faster and more).

Gout not only causes joint pain, but also increases the risk of kidney stones. Avoiding alcohol and maintaining a normal diet are the keys to avoiding gout attacks and kidney damage.

To choose a healthy diet and a healthy lifestyle during the Spring Festival, we give the following suggestions (except the last one, the rest are also suitable for healthy people):

People with strong taste can use spices instead of salt;

Eat more green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli and green peppers;

Less frying, more baking;

Be cautious when drinking delicious broth;

Avoid foods with added sugar;

Go from whole milk to 2% fat milk until you are used to fat-free (skim) milk;

Eat whole grain foods, such as whole wheat, brown rice, oats, etc., and eat less refined flour and refined rice;

Make a habit of reading food labels and choose foods that are low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and sugar;

If you can’t give up snacks, you’d rather eat a bag of sugar-free popcorn than a piece of cake;

Peel an orange instead of drinking a glass of orange juice;

Maintain adequate drinking water. Dehydration can induce acute renal dysfunction and aggravate existing renal dysfunction. Maintaining adequate drinking water can ensure effective perfusion of the kidneys, thereby reducing the risk of renal damage;

Avoid stopping medication: Medication compliance of patients with hypertension and diabetes will affect the control of the disease and the progression of renal dysfunction. Many people forget to take medication during the holidays, so remember to take medication on time to ensure that the supply of medication during the holidays is not interrupted due to the holidays.

Reference Links

https://www.durhamnephrology.com/top-five-tips-for-kidney-care-over-the-holidays/https://www.advancedurologyinstitute.com/how-can-you-take-care-of-your-kidneys-during-the-holiday-season/

Planning and production

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by: Science Popularization Department of China Association for Science and Technology

Producer｜China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: Dr. Li Changqing, a gastroenterologist in the United States

Reviewer: Tang Qin, Director and Researcher of the Science Popularization Department of the Chinese Medical Association

Planning丨Fang Xuanchang

Editor: Wang Mengru