Kidney & Heart
Disease
Are Kidney and Heart Disease Related?
If you look at it, both kidney and heart diseases are two
totally different subjects. The kidney disease involves the
excretory system, while the heart disease involves the cardio-vascular
system. But, when you study closely, you can see that there
are many ways in which heart disease can develop in the wake
of kidney disease.
Now, let’s look at some most common possible links:
1. Red blood cells formation
Kidneys produce erythropoietin which is a hormone needed
for the formation of red blood cells in the bone marrow. If
a person is inflicted with kidney disease, the hormone production
can be inhibited or stopped altogether which in turn influences
the production of red blood cells.
Eventually, this will result to anemia which in turn forces
the heart to work harder to oxygenate the body. Over a certain
period of time, this extra effort thickens the walls of the
heart on the left side which then causing left ventricular
hypertrophy or LVH as it is known in medical terms. LVH has
been identified as the leading cause for heart attack and
death.
2. Regulating blood pressure
Kidneys produce an enzyme which is called rennin which regulated
blood pressure in the body. When our kidneys are damaged,
this enzyme is produced in overload amount, which causes extremely
high blood pressure. In turn the high blood pressure stresses
the heart leading to fatal hear attacks and/or strokes.
3. Hardening of the arteries due to increase of calcium
and phosphorus in the blood
Our kidneys are in charge of controlling and maintaining
the balance of calcium and phosphorus in the blood. When our
kidney is sick, there is high build-up of these substances
in the body that causes the arteries to harden and narrow.
This in turn leads to coronary heart diseases and high risk
of heart attack.
4. High homocysteine (an amino acid) levels
The kidneys are responsible to regulate the homocysteine
levels in the blood by removing the excess whenever it is
found. When the kidneys are diseases, they will fail in this
function therefore allowing the levels of homocysteine to
increase. This in turn deposit on the walls of the arteries
forming the dreaded plaque which is instrumental in bringing
about strokes and heart attacks. Eventually, the increased
levels of this amino acid are known to damage the lining of
blood cells resulting in blood clots which can lead to fatal
heart attacks.
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