Acidosis is a very common problem with kidneys. This article is going to give you the basic facts on what acidosis is, what causes it, what the symptoms are should you have it, and finally how kidney acidosis can be treated. Hopefully, after reading this, you'll be able to recognize if you have acidosis and know what to do about it.
Basically, what acidosis is, is too much acid in the blood. But how does this occur? What happens in our bodies that causes this to happen? To understand this, you need to understand how your body works, which I will now put into very simple terms.
The cells in your body turn the food that you eat into energy and also repair damaged tissues in your body. This is done through a number of chemical reactions. These chemical reactions produce acids. When too much acid is produced, this is what is known as acidosis. What the kidneys do is excrete the acid into the urine and return an alkaline element to the blood. This is what happens under normal conditions.
A person suffering from renal tubular acidosis essentially has kidneys that are not excreting acid into the urine. This results in the person's blood remaining too acidic. If this problem is not taken care of, it can lead to a number of more serious problems such as kidney stones, bone disease, growth retardation and even renal failure.
This condition is very easy to test for. A simple blood test to check for acid base levels is all that is needed.
Unfortunately, there are very few physical symptoms of this problem such as pain. The symptoms are more what actually happens when somebody is suffering from renal tubular acidosis, which is the growth retardation and things of that nature. Of course with kidney stones, there is usually a great deal of pain. However, kidney stones can be caused by other factors which don't have to be from renal tubular acidosis.
The goal of treatment for this disease is to restore the normal Ph levels of the blood. Children in particular need alkaline treatments in order to prevent them from getting rickets. Many adults will not require treatment at all as the condition will usually clear up on its own. Medications such as sodium bicarbonate are used to treat this condition.
Left untreated, renal tubular acidosis can be very serious. Fortunately, treatment for this problem is very easy, non invasive and effective if caught early.
To YOUR Health,
Steve Wagner
