Beware of five danger signals when nourishing kidneys in winter

The kidneys are important organs of the human body. Once there is a problem with the kidneys, it will easily show on the face and body, which is unbearable. Therefore, maintaining the body is inseparable from maintaining the kidneys, especially in winter, which is a good time for maintenance. So, how to take care of your kidneys in winter? Some principles need to be paid attention to in winter maintenance. For this reason, nutrition experts point out that you should be alert to five danger signals when maintaining your kidneys in winter. What are the five signals? Let's take a look at the specific introduction.

Beware of five danger signals when nourishing kidneys in winter

Winter is a great time to nourish the kidneys. However, many people do not know how to eat or how to maintain their kidneys. It is often easy for them to develop kidney disease due to improper diet and poor methods. So, how do we maintain our kidneys in winter? Before understanding the maintenance methods, let us first recognize the five dangerous signals that experts point out to be alert to when maintaining kidneys in winter.

1. Skin itching. For patients with end-stage renal disease, urea in the body cannot be excreted through urine and will be excreted through the skin, thereby irritating the skin. In addition, toxins accumulated in the body can lead to peripheral neuropathy and also cause skin itching.

2. Gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and vomiting. When kidney disease develops to the terminal stage, it will affect gastrointestinal function, leading to symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Therefore, if these symptoms occur, in addition to seeing a gastroenterologist, you should also pay attention to ruling out kidney disease.

3. Changes in urine volume. A normal person urinates 1000-2000 ml of urine per day, with an average of 1500 ml. Whether the amount of urine increases or decreases, it may be a manifestation of kidney disease. Especially for normal people, who rarely urinate at night, if you find that you have to get up several times at night and do not drink much water before going to bed, you should be more alert to kidney disease.

4. Edema. The kidneys are the organs that metabolize water in the human body. If the kidneys are not healthy, water will accumulate. Some people find that their eyelids, or feet and legs are swollen when they wake up in the morning. They should consider kidney problems.

5. Changes in urine characteristics. The normal urine color is transparent light yellow. If you drink less water or urinate for the first time in the morning, the color will be slightly darker. If your urine is red or contains a lot of foam, you should go to the nephrology department for a check-up.

Some of the above signs of kidney disease occur in the early stages, while others are already manifestations of the late stages. Therefore, it is not enough to rely solely on symptoms to judge whether your kidneys are healthy. It is important to attach importance to physical examinations, especially for the elderly and high-risk groups with diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and abnormal blood uric acid.

So, how to nourish the kidneys in winter?

In winter, the Yang energy in our body is stored inward, the Qi and blood tend to flow inside, and the skin becomes dense. In winter, many people find that they go to the toilet significantly more often. This is mainly because the skin is dense in winter, and the water in the body is not easy to leak out from the body surface. Instead, it is vaporized through the kidneys and bladder, and a small part of it is transformed into body fluid and spread throughout the body, while most of it is transformed into water and goes down to the bladder to become urine, which invisibly increases the burden on the kidneys. If it is not drained in time, it can easily lead to diseases such as nephritis, enuresis, urinary incontinence, and edema. Therefore, it is particularly important to nourish the kidneys in winter, and the best way to nourish the kidneys is through diet.

1. Sleep regulation

In winter, it is best for everyone to adjust their biological clock to "early to bed and late to rise". Going to bed early can maintain the body's yang energy and keep the body warm, which has the effect of nourishing the body's yin energy. Wait until sunrise before getting up the next day to avoid the cold and seek warmth. Many people like to sleep with their heads buried in the quilt, especially in the cold winter. This way of sleeping is extremely unscientific. If you cover your head when sleeping, the air in the quilt will not circulate, the oxygen will become less and less, and over time, the air will become turbid. If people sleep in such an environment, they will feel chest tightness, nausea, or wake up from their sleep, sweat, and feel tired the next day.

2. Warm food should avoid hard food

Among the foods we eat regularly, sticky, hard, raw and cold foods are mostly yin foods. If you often eat such foods in winter, it is easy to cause damage to the spleen and stomach. Many people like to eat hot pot in winter, but they don’t know that eating overheated food is likely to damage the esophagus. After these hot foods enter the stomach and intestines, they are easy to cause heat accumulation in the body and cause illness; many people think that eating cold drinks in winter is a good choice, but if the hot foods enter the stomach and intestines, they are easy to stimulate the spleen and stomach blood vessels, causing blood circulation in the body to be blocked, and the reduced blood volume will seriously affect the blood circulation of other organs and damage human health. Therefore, winter food should be warm and soft.

3. Increase bitterness and reduce saltiness

In winter, our kidneys are naturally more active. If we are not careful in our diet or consume a lot of salty foods, our kidney energy will become even stronger. Excessive kidney qi can greatly damage the heart, weaken the heart's strength, and thus affect the health of our entire body. Nutrition experts recommend that you eat less salty foods in winter to prevent excessive kidney water; eat more bitter foods to nourish the heart and enhance kidney function. Commonly used foods include: betel nut, orange, pork liver, lamb liver, kohlrabi, lettuce, vinegar, tea, etc.

Pay attention to keeping warm in winter

1. Warm head

The first part of our body that comes into contact with cold air in winter is our head. If the head is exposed to a cold environment for a long time, it is easy to be stimulated by the cold and cause blood vessels to constrict. The head muscles will become tense, which can easily cause headaches, colds, and even gastrointestinal discomfort.

2. Back warmer

All objects in nature have two sides, yin and yang, and the back of our human body is our yang side, which must not be exposed to cold. If the back is stimulated by cold, the cold air can affect local muscles or be transmitted to internal organs through the acupuncture points on the back, endangering health. In addition to causing back pain, a cold back can also affect the muscles and joints of the upper and lower limbs, and internal organs through the cervical and lumbar vertebrae, triggering various discomforts.

3. Warm feet

Some experts say that the feet are the second brain of our body, so they should not be exposed to cold. Once the feet are exposed to cold, it can reflexively cause the capillaries in the upper respiratory tract mucosa to contract, the cilia to beat slower, and the resistance to disease to decrease. The consequence is that viruses and bacteria take advantage of the situation, multiply in large numbers, and cause people to catch colds.

In the cold winter climate, many people who love sports give up sports because they can't stand the cold environment outside, not to mention those who don't like sports at ordinary times. But as the saying goes, "Exercise in the winter, and you will have fewer illnesses; be lazy in the winter, and you will have to drink more medicine." "Train in the hottest days of summer and the coldest days of winter." These sayings all show that exercise in winter is also very important, and insisting on physical exercise is very beneficial to your health.

In short, we should pay attention to the maintenance of our kidneys in winter, but we must not blindly carry out improper maintenance, otherwise, it will affect kidney function and health. So, when nourishing your kidneys in winter, you should be alert to five danger signals. These five danger signals have been introduced in detail above. Everyone should be vigilant. Once these signals are found, you should consult a doctor in time to find a solution.