[Share] Healthy lifestyle and health tips

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• Improves your athletic performance
• Improves your overall quality of life
• Improves your short term memory
• Increases your muscle strength & tone
• Helps boost your immunity system
• Increases mental concentration
• Improves quality of sleep
• Gives you more energy
• Better mental clarity
• Improves skin tone
• Improves self esteem
• Improves your posture
• Improves your balance
• Improves your flexibility
• Greater physical stamina
• Helps to shred excess fat
• Increases general productivity
• Slows down the aging process
• Improves ability to deal with stress
• Reduces your risk of memory loss, anxiety, obesity, cancer, stroke, drug dependency, depression, hypertension, type II diabetes, upper respiratory, infections, excessive health care costs, etc
  

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• Clean your eyes with pure cold water regularly. This is one of the best ways to keep eyes healthy and disease free.
• Avoid looking directly at the sun, artificial light or shining objects. Direct rays of bright light can damage the retina.
• Roll your eyes up and down and then side to side. Now move your eyes in a circular motion. Repeat this exercise five to ten times to relax your eyes.
• Maintain a good distance from the computer screen - sit approximately 22 to 28 inches away from it. Sitting too close of too far may increase the strain on eyes.
  

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Kidneys are the unsung body. Their functions is to remove toxins and excess water from the blood in the form of urine, and make the hormones that maintain blood pressure, produce red blood cells and keep the bones healthy. Although people have two kidneys, their function can be carried out by just one.

What is Haemodialysis?
When kidneys are severely damaged by diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), infection or inflammation or affected by stones or cysts so that their function is reduced to below 15%, they are no longer able to filter the blood and make urine. Toxins then build up in the body along with excess fluid, leading to end-stage kidney (renal) disease (ESRD), or kidney failure when the kidneys shut down.

There are basically two types of renal replacement therapy or treatment that replaces kidney function. One type is Haemodialysis which filters waste, removes extra fluid and balances electrolytes comprising sodium, potassium, bicarbonate, chloride, calcium, magnesium and phosphate. Haemodialysis is usually recommended for people who cannot cope with carrying out peritoneal dialysis, such as those who are visually impaired, have dementia or are in a poor state of health.

The other type is peritoneal dialysis when blood vessels in the abdominal lining (peritoneum) fill in for the kidneys, with the help of a fluid (dialysate) that flows into and out of the peritoneal space. This is usually recommended as the first form of treatment for children who are two years of age or above, those who still have some limited kidney function or adults who do not have other serious health conditions, such as heart disease or cancer.

How is access created?

In Haemodialysis, blood is drawn and filtered through a man-made membrane called a dialyser, or artificial kidney, and then the filtered blood is returned to the body. The average person has about 10 to 12 pints of blood, but during dialysis only one pint (about two cups), is outside the body.

There needs to be an access created to get the blood from the body to the dialyser and back to the body, and there are three types.

The first is Arteriovenous (AV) fistula. This requires advance planning because a fistula takes some time after surgery to develop - in rare cases, as long as 24 months. The advantage is that a properly formed fistula is less likely than other kinds of vascular access to form clots or become infected, and properly formed fistulas tend to last many years - longer than any kind of vascular access. A surgeon creates an AV fistula by connecting an artery directly to a vein, usually in the forearm, causing more blood to flow into the vein. As a result, the vein grows larger and stronger, making repeated needle insertions for Haemodialysis treatments easier.

If the patient has small veins that won't develop properly into a fistula, an AV graft which is a vascular access that connects an artery to a vein using a synthetic tube, or graft, can be implanted under the skin in the patient's arm. The graft becomes an artificial vein that can be used repeatedly for needle placement and blood access during Haemodialysis. A graft doesn't need to develop as a fistula does, so it can be used sooner after placement, often within 1 or 3 weeks. Compared with properly formed fistulas, grafts tend to have more problems with clotting and infection and need replacement sooner. However, a well-cared-for graft can last several years.

If  the kidney disease has progressed quickly, a patient may not have time to get a permanent vascular access before starting Haemodialysis treatments. In such a case, a venous catheter which is a tube inserted into a vein in the neck, chest, or leg near the groin can provide temporary access. It has two chambers to allow a two-way flow of blood, and once a catheter is placed, needle insertion is not necessary. However, they are not ideal for permanent access. They can clog, become infected, and cause narrowing of the veins in which they are placed. If a patient needs to start Haemodialysis immediately, a catheter will work for several weeks or months while a permanent access develops.

The AV fistula is the access most recommended by the dialysis community, but the patient and doctor will decide which access is best.

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When you go for Haemodialysis, a nurse or technician will check your vital signs and record your weight. The weight gain will show how much excess fluid needs to be removed during the treatment. You are then hooked to the machine. If you have a vascular access (AV fistula or AV graft) two needles are used, one to take blood out of the body, the other to funnel it back. If you have a central venous catheter, two tubes are connected to the tubes that lead to the dialyser and back to the body. Once you are hooked up, the dialysis machine is programmed and treatment begins.

The dialysis machine acts as a big computer and a pump. It keeps track of blood flow, blood pressure, how much fluid is removed and other vital information, and mixes the dialysate, or dialysis solution which is the fluid bath that goes into the dialyser to help rid the blood of toxins. The pump keeps the blood flowing by creating a pumping action on the tubes.

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The key to Haemodialysis is the dialyser, also known as the artificial kidney because it filters the blood - the job of the kidneys. It is a hollow plastic tube about a foot long and three inches in diameter, containing many tiny filters. These come in different sizes so doctors can prescribe the best one for their patients. There are two sections, the section for dialysate and the section for the blood, divided by a semi-permeable membrane so that two won't mix together. The membrane has microscopic holes that allow water and waste to pass through but not blood cells.

Dialysate, also called dialysis fluid, dialysis solution or bath, is a solution of pure water, electrolytes and salts, such as bicarbonate and sodium, whose purpose is to pull toxins from the blood into the dialysate. This works through a process called diffusion. In the blood of a Haemodialysis patient, there is a high concentration of waste, while the dialysate has a low concentration. Due to this difference, the waste will move through the semi-permeable membrane to create an equal amount on both sides. The dialysis solution is then flushed away along with the waste. The electrolytes in the dialysis solution are also used to balance the electrolytes in the patient's blood. Extra fluid is removed through a process called filtration, when the fluid is separated by higher pressure on the blood side than on the dialysate side.

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Blood needs to flow through the dialyser for several hours to adequately clean the blood and rid the body of excess fluid, and in-centre Haemodialysis is generally done three times a week for about four hours each session. Your doctor will prescribe how long your treatment will be, usually between 3 to 5 hours, most commonly 4 hours. Some feel that dialysis takes a long time, but compare this with healthy kidneys which work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Dialysis must do the job in only 12 or so hours a week.

Talk to your doctor if you are interested in home Haemodialysis (HHD) or in-centre nocturnal dialysis. You may also want to check if additional treatment, such as the longer nocturnal Haemodialysis or short daily Haemodialysis will be covered by your insurance.