How should kidney patients exercise?

People with kidney disease should walk, cycle, swim, dance, and avoid strenuous physical activity or strong impacts on the lumbar region that can easily cause further damage.

Chronic kidney disease has 5 stages. Of which, stage 5 is the stage that requires renal replacement therapy, including hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis or kidney transplantation. Dr. Ho Tan Thong, Department of Nephrology - Dialysis, Center for Urology - Nephrology - Andrology, Tam Anh General Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, said that in addition to following the instructions for drug treatment, diet, lifestyle and exercise also contribute to maintaining and improving the health of kidney patients.

Exercise has a positive effect on overall health, bringing many benefits to people with kidney disease such as lowering blood pressure, reducing cholesterol, and controlling blood sugar. Maintaining regular and long-term exercise helps strengthen bones, increase endurance and muscle strength, maintain a stable weight, and improve sleep and blood circulation. Moreover, this activity also improves mental state, helping patients maintain a healthy lifestyle.

According to Dr. Thong, suitable sports for people with kidney disease are walking, cycling (with indoor equipment or outdoor activities), swimming, dancing, aerobics or activities that use the body's large muscle groups. Other activities such as light, simple gym exercises or gardening, housework... low intensity are also good.

Walking, cycling... are suitable sports activities for people with kidney disease. Photo: Freepik — Walking and cycling are suitable sports activities for people with kidney disease. Photo: *Freepik*

People with kidney disease should not participate in sports that are prone to collision, high intensity, antagonistic and require the opponent to match or exceed their strength such as soccer, basketball, tennis, martial arts, weightlifting, carrying heavy objects, performing yoga movements such as handstands and swinging.

Avoid exercises that put a lot of pressure on your lower back, such as lifting heavy objects or pushing weights up. These activities can put pressure on the kidneys and increase the amount of protein in your urine, which can make the disease worse.

Intense, excessive physical activity can cause muscle damage, muscle destruction and release of substances from the muscle. This can lead to renal tubular obstruction and acute kidney injury, requiring hospitalization for treatment. Sometimes the condition progresses so severely that several dialysis sessions are required for treatment. Patients should consult their doctor for advice on physical activity appropriate to their physical condition and underlying diseases such as cardiovascular disease, blood pressure, diabetes, etc.

Doctors recommend that people with kidney disease should exercise for about 30 minutes a day, several days or all days of the week, at an intensity that they feel most comfortable with. Once they get used to it, the exercise time can be increased to 45 minutes or 60 minutes a day.

The most suitable time to exercise is in the morning and afternoon, avoid hot weather; prioritize exercising one hour after eating and one hour before going to bed. When you have a fever, have aching bones and joints, or have just eaten... avoid physical activity.

Hemodialysis patients should exercise on non-dialysis days. Peritoneal dialysis patients should exercise on an empty stomach, that is, when they are not soaking in peritoneal dialysis fluid.

You should warm up and move your body before starting, to help your body get used to it and avoid injuries when exercising suddenly. You can combine practicing with friends and relatives for more motivation.

During exercise, if symptoms such as difficulty breathing, palpitations, dizziness, chest pain, severe joint pain, swollen legs, foamy urine (thick foam, foam that takes a long time to dissolve or does not dissolve), pink or red urine appear, etc., the patient should stop and go to the hospital immediately. People who have had to stop exercising for one of the above reasons should consult a doctor before starting again.

Anh Thu

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