Step by step: What your feet can reveal about your body \u2013 The Irish News<\/a><\/p>\nWhy is it important to look after our kidneys?<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cWe have two kidneys in our body, one on either side towards our back, and they are vital organs,\u201d says Loud. \u201cThey help regulate our blood pressure, keep our bones healthy, filter our blood and help get rid of the toxins, and are an important part of our excretion system.\u201d<\/p>\n
They also work very closely with the heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeeping your blood pressure healthy keeps your kidneys healthy,\u201d says Loud. \u201cIf your kidneys are not working so well, the heart has to pump harder and that places significant strain on the cardiovascular system.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Keep your kidneys healthy by eating a balanced diet
\n (Alamy\/PA\/Alamy\/PA) <\/p>\n
Here are eight simple ways to keep your kidneys happy and healthy\u2026<\/p>\n
Stay hydrated<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cStaying hydrated helps your kidneys filter out those toxins through your body and get rid of waste,\u201d says Loud. \u201cTry to aim for six to eight glasses of water a day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eat a healthy diet<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cEating lots of fruit and vegetables helps keep your blood pressure and cholesterol healthy \u2013 and if you\u2019re looking after your heart, you\u2019re looking after your kidneys,\u201d says Loud. \u201cEating your five-a-day is great, and even doing small things like adding fruit to cereal and using frozen vegetables, can all add up.<\/p>\n
\u201cTry to avoid ultra-processed foods, or only have them as an occasional treat.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Keeping hydrated helps your kidneys filter out toxins (Alamy\/PA\/Alamy\/PA) <\/p>\n
Check your blood pressure<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cYou can get your blood pressure checked very easily at a pharmacy, as many pharmacies have blood pressure machines,\u201d says Loud.<\/p>\n
Reduce your salt intake<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cTry to reduce your salt intake as too much can have a negative impact on your blood pressure and could increase your risk of kidney stones,\u201d says Loud. \u201cI would recommend replacing salt with herbs, lemon or garlic for extra flavour.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stay active<\/b><\/p>\n
Staying active is crucial for maintaining kidney health by helping to manage risk factors associated with kidney disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.<\/p>\n
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If you have diabetes or high blood pressure, having regular kidney checks is incredibly important (Alamy\/PA\/Alamy\/PA) <\/p>\n
\u201cAiming for around 150 minutes of exercise a week is a really good thing to do to keep your kidneys healthy, as it helps get all the blood pumping around your body,\u201d says Loud. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to run marathons \u2013 you could just do some yoga or go out walking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regular kidney check-ups<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cHigh blood pressure and diabetes are the two biggest risks for chronic kidney disease, so if you have diabetes or high blood pressure, having regular kidney checks is incredibly important,\u201d says Loud.<\/p>\n
Give up smoking<\/b><\/p>\n
Smokers are four times more likely than non-smokers to develop kidney failure, according to Kidney Care UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cSmoking can cause the build-up of fatty deposits in your blood vessels which means that your heart has to work harder to pump the blood around your body, which raises your blood pressure,\u201d explains Loud. \u201cIn addition, smoking can also increase your risk of kidney cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Smokers are four times more likely than non-smokers to develop kidney failure (Danny Lawson\/PA) <\/p>\n
Check your risk online<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cOur online kidney health checker is a quick and easy way to learn about your kidney health and to check your risk of kidney disease,\u201d says Loud. \u201cDepending on what the health check results say, you may be given a recommendation to go and talk to your GP about this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visit the online Kidney Health Checker to learn more about your kidney health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Relying too heavily on anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen for pain relief could negatively affect kidney health, warn experts.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[78],"tags":[179450,179451,10130,61571,9288,81243,12448,12773,19594,868,685,18,61977,5321,6059,9423,135,474,22203,2598,19,99908,17,50381,4162,93826,179452,693,462,96,18340,28461,520,2603,59583,149,14882,1595,31192,1601,33059,14883,4111,35918,144164,44571,7990,35435,21075,26849,92,94,447,9223],"class_list":["post-393523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-60s","tag-70s","tag-adult","tag-aged","tag-alzheimer","tag-antidepressant","tag-aspirin","tag-care","tag-closeup","tag-dementia","tag-disease","tag-eire","tag-elder","tag-elderly","tag-female","tag-glass","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-help","tag-home","tag-ie","tag-ill","tag-ireland","tag-lady","tag-loss","tag-mature","tag-med","tag-medical","tag-medication","tag-medicine","tag-memory","tag-middle","tag-morning","tag-old","tag-older","tag-pain","tag-painkiller","tag-patient","tag-pensioner","tag-person","tag-pharmacy","tag-pill","tag-prevention","tag-relief","tag-relieve","tag-senior","tag-supplement","tag-symptom","tag-tablet","tag-taking","tag-therapy","tag-treatment","tag-water","tag-woman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Relying too heavily on anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen for pain relief could negatively affect kidney health (Alamy Stock Photo) <\/p>\n![\"‘I](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CXJ6F6L2K5AWDGMNYC5OZOCBJA.jpg\")
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