(NaturalHealth365) Did you know that 14% of people in the United States have chronic kidney disease?  This health condition can be serious and incredibly life-changing, especially if a person requires dialysis for advanced kidney disease.  And, nobody wants to require dialysis – which is the use of a machine to filter your blood because your kidneys can no longer do the job.

Keep in mind, dialysis is a time-consuming process that usually takes about 4 hours, 3 sessions per week!  So, today, we’ll highlight ways to avoid a problem.

Known risk factors for chronic kidney disease include diabetes, smoking, and high blood pressure. But now, new research out of BMJ Open adds another risk factor to the list: gout.

Millions of people currently require gout treatment.  This new paper suggests that to relieve your gout symptoms and protect your kidney health, it’s more important than ever to adopt a healthy diet for gout and kidney stones.

Gout, a common inflammatory condition, linked with increased risk for poor kidney function

Interestingly, the medical community has known for a long time that having kidney disease can increase your risk for gout. But it turns out that this relationship is bi-directional.

A team of researchers out of the United Kingdom analyzed health data of nearly 69,000 adults with gout and over 500,000 adults without gout. After following these individuals for nearly 4 years on average, they discovered that having gout increased a person’s risk for chronic kidney disease by almost 30%.

Gout is a type of inflammatory arthritis that affects at least 8.3 million Americans.  The condition happens when a metabolic by-product called uric acid builds up in the blood.

When this happens, crystals can form and lodge in joints throughout the body, especially the knees and big toes.  The result?  Painful, red, warm, and stiff joints.  But high levels of uric acid isn’t just bad for joints. This study suggests that uric acid build-up caused by gout can harm your kidneys, too.

By the way, there’s another condition that causes a build-up of compounds within the body: kidney stones.  These are hard calcium masses in your kidneys that can cause severe pain.

And while individual (tiny) kidney stones usually don’t cause serious damage, having them can increase your risk for kidney disease.

Since it turns out that gout and kidney stones can increase your risk for chronic kidney disease, the natural next question is: How can I modify my lifestyle and diet to reduce my risk for gout, kidney stones, and kidney disease?

And what does a diet for gout and kidney stones look like?

Want to protect your renal function? Follow this diet for gout and kidney stones

One of the greatest things about adopting a healthy diet and lifestyle is that it’s highly efficient – that is, a solid nutrition plan can protect you from many types of chronic disease, including kidney disease. But if you’re specifically worried about gout and kidney stones, be sure to follow a sensible plan that includes:

• Eat plenty of locally grown, organic fruits and vegetables
• Drink clean, fresh (purified) water – on a daily basis
• Make your own homemade lemonade

In addition to eating nutrient-rich foods, consider adding more lemon wedges to your filtered water (antioxidants + hydration) or taking a high quality vitamin C supplement, which has been found to reduce the risk of gout significantly.

Again, staying well hydrated is crucial for kidney health.  So, be sure to drink clean, pure water – on a regular basis.  This will ensure that your urine color will not get too dark – which is a sign of dehydration.

Lastly, knowing what to avoid is important, too.  Talk to your doctor about cutting back on or eliminating foods like alcohol, red meat, and shellfish, which have been shown to increase the risk for kidney stones and gout.  And, of course, avoid as many other environmental toxins as you can.

Purify the air you breathe at home; don’t buy toxic personal care or household cleaning products and buy local (organic) foods – as much as you can.  All of this will help to reduce the toxic burden placed on the kidneys – day to day.

Sources for this article include:

Kidney.org
BMJ.com
Medicalnewstoday.com
NaturalHealth365.com
NIH.gov