Covid-19 and Kidney Damage

 In a worrying report, research shows that Covid-19 can lead to kidney damage. 

Covid-19 has been studied a great deal during the pandemic and researchers are finding evidence that it cause a whole host of problems, including acute renal failure. Research reported here gives you the technical details - for those with the deep medical knowledge, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is a membrane receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

As with al things Covid-19, the more research done and the longer the period over which it is investigated, the more knowledge will be available. This article summarises some of the things found so far.

Some worrying things to consider are that it looks like 81% of patients in intensive care with Covid-19 developed Acute Kideny Injury, with the virus more likely to target the kidneys than other parts of the body. And age seems to be a factor as well, with those over 60 being twice as likely to have problems as those under 60. In fact many of the factors that affect the severity of Covid-19 are similar in those who get Acute Kidney Injury.

Get on Your Bike!

A recent news report (April 2021) claims that cycling during dialysis could dramatically improve the heart health of patients with kindey failure, and lead to significant savings for the UK's NHS.

Yes, cycling DURING dialysis. Okay, on a specially adapted bicycle during regular dialysis sessions. Not going out on the road with a dialysis machine strapped to your back!

The research was carried out by the University of Leicester, supported by the charity Kideny Research UK and the Natioanl institute for Health Research Leicester.

The heart suffers long-term effects when you are on dialysis, and the hope was that regular exercise would reduce the problem. And after six months of using the bicycle for 30 minutes during their dialysis sessions, investigations revealed  several improvments in the patients. This sounds like a cheap way to improve a patient's health and thus reduce the need for treatment for heart problems assiciated with dialysis. It's based on the well-known fact that regular exercise will improve your health, so why not do some excerise while hooked up to your dialysis machine.? After all the time spent travelling to a centre, sitting around doing nothing but reading a book while connected to your machine, then travelling home means you have spent a very inactive day. cycling like this makes you healthier, reduces problems and saves money. What more could you want?

You can read the whole article here.