Young woman took diet pills and ended up with chronic renal failure

If you take diet pills indiscriminately, be careful of getting kidney disease. A young woman, about 25 years old, went to the pharmacy to buy diet pills on her own. She took them three times a day for about half a year. Suddenly, she developed symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, and vomiting. After medical examination, she was found to have chronic renal failure. The internal medicine doctor said that the woman had high blood pressure, and diet pills contain diuretics, antihistamines, laxatives and other ingredients. Taking too much can cause kidney damage, so people must be careful.

Taking weight-loss drugs of unknown origin can easily cause kidney disease and eventually lead to lifelong dialysis. (Photography by Huang Zhiwen)

Chen Yancheng, a nephrologist at Taipei Municipal Wan Fang Hospital, pointed out that the kidneys are a pair of organs composed of one million micro-capillaries. The blood in the whole body flows through them at a rate of 1200CC per minute, constantly cleaning out excess waste from the body. Substances such as uric acid, urea nitrogen, creatinine, and excess water are made into urine and then discharged into the bladder. When the bladder is full, it is discharged from the body.

Once kidney disease reaches the end stage, the kidneys will be unable to excrete toxins from the blood and the person will die of self-poisoning; or the body will be unable to excrete excess water and will suffer from edema. At the same time, the kidneys also produce and secrete hormones such as erythropoietin and vasopressin. When the kidneys are damaged and cannot function, every organ in the body will be affected.

Chronic kidney disease is an irreversible disease. According to statistics from the National Institutes of Health, there are currently about 2 million people suffering from kidney disease in Taiwan, with approximately 20,000 new cases each year. Clinically, chronic kidney disease often has no obvious symptoms, and approximately 80% of patients are not diagnosed. The more common symptoms are swelling of the limbs and eye sockets, soreness on both sides of the waist, pain in the lower abdomen, fatigue, high or low blood pressure, and symptoms of anemia.

Taiwan has the stigma of being the "dialysis kingdom," with more than 2 million people suffering from kidney disease, and terminally ill patients need to rely on dialysis to survive. (Photography by Luo Huiwen)

The three highs are the risk group for kidney disease

People with a family history of kidney disease, diabetics, hypertensive patients, people over 65 years old, gout patients, drug abusers, proteinuria patients, smokers, and those who are too obese are all at high risk of kidney disease. In addition, most patients suffer from kidney disease due to long-term poor control of blood sugar and blood pressure. Many people are diagnosed with end-stage renal disease every year, and diabetes is the most common cause of this disease, accounting for about one-third of all cases.

Doctors now know that using antihypertensive drugs to control high blood pressure can effectively slow the occurrence of kidney disease. The blood pressure of kidney patients with hypertension and diabetes should be controlled below 130/80 mmHg. One or more antihypertensive drugs should be given to effectively control blood pressure and prevent the occurrence of kidney disease.

To prevent kidney disease, people should develop the "three mores, three lesses, four don'ts and one no" habit, namely: more fruits and vegetables, more exercise, more water, less oil, less salt, less sugar, don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, don't stay up late, and don't take medicines of unknown origin. If you are overweight or have diseases related to the three highs, you also need to control them. In addition, it is recommended that people over 40 years old go to the hospital for regular check-ups every year to achieve the goal of preventing kidney disease.