Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy (Especially After 60)

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⏰ IN A RUSH?

Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• Your kidneys perform a lot of vital functions, including:

  • Filtering out waste products

  • Balancing hydration / salts

  • Balancing pH

  • Making hormones

  • Regulating red blood cell production

  • Vitamin D conversion

  • …and more

• There are high risk groups for kidney damage, and those include:

  • If you’re over 60

  • If you have diabetes

  • If you have cardiovascular disease

  • If you have high blood pressure

  • If you believe, or know, you have existing kidney damage

• You can help keep them in good working order, by:

  • Hydrating

  • Not smoking

  • Managing our blood sugar levels

  • Managing our blood pressure

  • Watching our OTC pill intake

  • Getting regular kidney checkups (these are quick and easy urine/blood tests)

• Being unable to hear things well is not just an inconvenience; it’s also a [causal, fixable] risk factor for age-related cognitive decline.

  • Today’s sponsor, Yes Hearing, are offering a whole package of at-home hearing-related care (and high-quality, stylish hearing aids), for 40% less than standard retail price.

Read on to learn about these things and more…

👀 WATCH AND LEARN

Why you're bloated (and how to fix it)

In this video, Sadia explores common causes and solutions for minor day-to-day bloating that comes and goes naturally.

If you’ve been experiencing prolonged bloating that doesn’t resolve, or if you’ve unintentionally lost weight or experience nausea during mealtimes, be sure to see a doctor or dietitian.

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Reasons you might be bloated:

• 0:23 | Simply eating

• 2:23 | Undigested carbs

• 4:36 | Constipation

• 7:48 | Too much salt

• 8:37 | Swallowing air

Sadia's recipes (timestamps on the left; links to text versions on the right)

• 5:13 | Blueberry oatmeal

• 5:31 | Vanilla chia pudding

• 5:47 | Pearl couscous salad

• 6:31 | Sweet potato spiced chili

Bonus content:

• 9:39 | Bloopers!

🩸 MAIN FEATURE

Keeping your kidneys happy: it’s more than just hydration!

Your kidneys are very busy organs. They filter waste products, balance hydration, pH, salt, and potassium. They also make some of our hormones, and are responsible for regulating red blood cell production too. They also handle vitamin D in a way our bodies would not work without, making them essential for calcium absorption and the health of our bones, and even muscular function.

So, how to keep them in good working order?

Yes, hydrate

This is obvious and may go without saying, but we try to not leave important things without saying. So yes, get plenty of water, spread out over the day (you can only usefully absorb so much at once!). If you feel thirsty, you’re probably already dehydrated, so have a little (hydrating!) drink.

Don’t smoke

It’s bad for everything, including your kidneys.

Look after your blood

Not just “try to keep it inside your body”, but also:

• Keep your blood sugar levels healthy (hyperglycemia can cause kidney damage)

• Keep your blood pressure healthy (hypertension can cause kidney damage)

Basically, your kidneys’ primary job of filtering blood will go much more smoothly if that blood is less problematic on the way in.

Watch your over-the-counter pill intake

A lot of PRN OTC NSAIDs (PRN = pro re nata, i.e. you take them as and when symptoms arise) (NSAIDs = Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, such as ibuprofen for example) can cause kidney damage if taken regularly.

Many people take ibuprofen (for example) constantly for chronic pain, especially the kind cause by chronic inflammation, including many autoimmune diseases.

It is recommended to not take them for more than 10 days, nor more than 8 per day. Taking more than that, or taking them for longer, could damage your kidneys temporarily or permanently.

Read more: National Kidney Foundation: Advice About Pain Medicines

See also: Which Drugs Are Harmful To Your Kidneys?

Get a regular kidney function checkup if you’re in a high risk group

Who’s in a high risk group?

• If you’re over 60

• If you have diabetes

• If you have cardiovascular disease

• If you have high blood pressure

• If you believe, or know, you have existing kidney damage

The tests are very noninvasive, and will be a urine and/or blood test.

For more information, see:

Kidney Testing: Everything You Need to Know

Take care!

❤️ OUR SPONSORS MAKE THIS PUBLICATION POSSIBLE

Is it time to say “yes” to better hearing?

Getting a hearing aid can be life-changing. Not just for the obvious immediate benefit of being able to hear things properly, but also, being unable to hear things well is a [causal, fixable] risk factor for age-related cognitive decline.

So, if you've been wondering whether a hearing aid could help you (or perhaps you already know!), here's a great opportunity to find out, at 40% lower than retail price, plus an extra discount if you use the code below.

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But the best part? You won’t even need to leave your home to receive care.

PS: the extra discount code is "LABORDAY23", and is valid until Monday the 4th of September

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

🌏 AROUND THE WEB

What’s happening in the health world…

• Micrometers-thin battery charged by saline solution that could power smart contact lenses

• Recommendations to reduce cardiovascular risk in patients with diabetes published

• How being in space impairs astronauts' immune systems

• Nanoscale view of proteins opens window to treat neurodegenerative illness

• Patients with heart conditions should practice good hygiene to prevent infective endocarditis

• New approaches to rebuilding and regenerating lung cells

• Hip arthroplasty can be appropriately considered for nonagenarians

More to come tomorrow!

📖 ONE-MINUTE BOOK REVIEW

The Beautiful Cure: The Revolution in Immunology and What It Means for Your Health – by Dr. Daniel Davis

This one is not just a book about the history of immunology and a primer on how the immune system works. It is those things too, but it's more:

Dr. Daniel Davis, a professor of immunology and celebrated researcher in his own right, bids us look at not just what we can do, but also what else we might.

This is not to say that the book is speculative; Dr. Davis deals in data rather than imaginings. He also cautions us against falling prey to sensationalization of the "beautiful cures" that the field of immunology is working towards. What, then, are these "beautiful cures"?

Just like our immune systems (in the plural; by Dr. Davis' count, primarily talking about our innate and adaptive immune systems) can in principle deal with any biological threat, but in practice don't always get it right, the same goes for our medicine.

He argues that in principle, we categorically can cure any immune-related disease (including autoimmune diseases, and tangentially, cancer). The theoretical existence of such cures is a mathematically known truth. The practical, contingent existence of them? That's what takes the actual work.

The style of the book is accessible pop science, with a hard science backbone from start to finish.

Bottom line: if you'd like to know more about immunology, and be inspired with hope and wonder without getting carried away, this is the book for you.

Click here to check out The Beautiful Cure, and learn about these medical marvels!

Wishing you the best of health in every way, every day,

The 10almonds Team