The special diet that dialysis patients have to keep

_Pixabay

Dialysis patients has a special diet to follow because their kidneys that regulates a lot of tings in the body is not working anymore and one of these are the fluid intake. They need to limit of fluids that they ingest and that includes not only from the drinks but also from the foods like fruits and soups. They need to control their fluid intake because they cannot urinate anymore. If they get overloaded or waterlogged with water, two things might happen, one is their lungs could get filled with water and if severe enough, could lead to inability to breathe if not death due to basically drowning.

Secondly, waterlogged patient's blood pressure could rise which may lead to heart complications like enlargement of the heart because it gets overworked if not a heart attack or stroke depending on the condition of the heart or patient. This leads us to the next thing that the patient have to control which is their blood pressure. Depending on the severity or intensity and type of their blood pressure and kidney condition if it can be prolonged if it has still a function or not, then they should take an antihypertensive drug and keep it. Sometimes the cause of hypertension should be eliminated then you can very well treat the blood pressure problem more easily than masking the symptoms. Abnormality in the blood pressure typically is just a symptom itself and not the actual disease.

Fluid intake must be controlled	Special medications and supplements

The other one important thing that a dialysis patient have to look out for is their phosphorus intake. Foods high in phosphorus are often the foods high in uric acid or the foods that causes the blood uric acid to rise. But usually dieticians tell the patients to avoid more than a cup of milk or it's equivalent per day because dairy products are high in phosphorus. They should also avoid phosphoric acid-containing softdrinks like the famous colas that we see in the advertisements. Patients with high phosphorus in their body tends to have an itchy skin and the severity of the itchy skin depends upon how high the phosphorus is in their blood.

If prolonged, a patient with a high phosphorus in their system will show signs of bone abnormalities like what happened to me. I now got the features of leontiasis and kyphosis or the collapse of the spinal bone. Now, the patient can be prescribed with phosphorus binders which bind with the phosphorus in the foods that they eat so that they won't absorb it and it will just pass through their poop. At the same time, they also need to take calcium supplements in prescribed amounts plus some vitamin D or in it's other form so that their blood calcium levels won't go low. But overdoing the calcium intake could lead to a bad constipation issue.

Cheese	Coke is high on Phosphorus

Aluminum intoxication is also a problem, they just need to avoid aluminum pots and pans where foods will be cooked. Leavening agents in bread also contains aluminum and it is widely used in commercial bread products. Aluminum in the body causes, ringing of the ears, pretty bothersome if you are in a quiet place, the weakening of the body due to the fact that it accumulates also in the brain, which controls the muscles and it weakens the bone as well.

Included in the patient's diet is the iron supplement which is important because their blood needs to get more oxygen due to the fact that their bone marrow cannot produce enough blood for the body especially if they are not having erythropeitin therapy where it replaces the needed hormone that tells the bone marrow to produce blood for the body to use. The marrow cannot make blood without enough iron stored in the body.

Potassium has to be also controlled because too much potassium could make the heart stop beating. Foods that are high in potassium are fruits like banana and vegetables. Also, the sodium intake must also be controlled because too much sodium in the diet can cause thirst which will make the patient drink more water which may lead to being waterlogged that might lead to other complications to the lung and heart.

Bananas	Salt

They also must look out for taking food supplements without the guidance or knowledge of their doctors and or dieticians because this may lead to the supplements interacting in a bad way to the medications that they are taking or just a mere toxin to their body. Supplements include regular vitamins with minerals because there is a special vitamin designed and formulated for dialysis patients and that is recommended so that they won't get overloaded with minerals tat also can lead to other health problems if left unsupervised.

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