Kidney and Heart Disease
From a distant look you would think that kidney and heart diseases are totally unrelated. This is because kidney disease involves your excretory system, while heart disease involves your cardio-vascular system. However, whenever you look more closely at these things you will see that there are a lot of ways that heart disease can occur once you have kidney disease. Here are some of the links that you should understand:
- Your kidneys produce erythropoietin, a hormone that is required whenever red blood cells are formed in the bone marrow. This can be either inhibited or completely stopped resulting in anemia. If you are anemic your heart is forced to work harder to provide oxygen to your body. When this takes place the left side of your heart’s walls will thicken. This condition is known as left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). LVH is one of the leading causes of heart attacks and death.
- Your kidneys also produce an enzyme that is known as rennin. It is regulated by your body’s blood pressure. Whenever your kidneys are damaged, too much of this enzyme will be produced causing your blood pressure to become extremely high. This will stress the heart, which can result in fatal heart attacks and strokes.
- Your arteries may grow hard due to an increased level of calcium and phosphorus in your blood. It is the kidneys’ job to control and maintain this balance. If the kidneys are diseased then a lot of these substances will build up in your body. In turn your arteries will grow hard and narrow and you may develop coronary heart diseases, which will lead to a high risk of heart attack.
- The kidneys’ job is to regulate the blood’s homocysteine levels by removing any excess. Whenever your kidneys become diseased they will fail to function and thus your homocysteine levels will increase. This homocysteine will then be deposited on the arteries’ walls and thus you have a higher chance to have either a stroke or a heart attack. Your blood cells’ lining will also be damaged and thus you will have blood clots that result in fatal heart attacks.