March is National Kidney Month. According to the Kidney Foundation of Canada, the theme is, “Kidney Health for Everyone Everywhere.”

Statics show that four million Canadians are shown to have kidney disease from various causes. One in 10 Canadians suffers from kidney disease or illness.

It is important, particularly during the global pandemic, to take care of our overall health and not overlook the importance of taking care of ourselves.

Dr. Adam Nielsen with the Maple Leaf Health Centre in Cochrane explains the importance of staying hydrated to keep your kidneys healthy. “The kidneys love to filter your blood, so when you are not staying hydrated then the kidneys really don’t like that. So, making sure that you’re drinking enough water and not just relying on coffee, tea, pop, alcohol, different things like that saying that oh, I’m hydrating because I’m getting all those things. Lots of those things have diuretics in them as well so even though you’re bringing in lots of fluid you’re actually peeing out a lot of that fluid as well and at the end of the day, the kidneys really don’t like that.”

Dr. Nielsen says it is also important to make sure your blood pressure is in range and that your sugar levels are good as they all are important factors that can affect our kidneys.

It is really important that we stay on top of our health with a healthy lifestyle. Nielsen figures that it is safe to say that 2020 maybe got away from us a little bit whether it was exercise, whether it was alcohol, whether it was our diets. He adds, “Maybe 2021 is the year to get back on top of some those things and making sure that it is not becoming the new norm.”

One thing is for sure, March may recognize kidney health, but our kidneys will thank us for making healthy choices every month of the year.

For more information go to kidney.ca.