Swelling is a common symptom of chronic kidney disease. It may be local or appear in the whole body. With the development of the disease, swelling worsens. Then how to treat leg swelling in stage 4 kidney disease?

How does leg swelling occur in stage 4 kidney disease?

Generally, there are two main causes of swelling. One is the protein loss in blood and the other one is water-sodium retention.

Protein loss in blood. Protein helps to maintain blood volume in the blood vessel. The heavy loss of protein in blood will result in the reduction of the blood volume. The fluids moves into the interstitial space, causing swelling.

Water-sodium retention. The impaired kidneys are no longer able to excrete sodium in blood. Therefore, water-sodium retention will occur, leading to swelling.

How to treat leg swelling in stage 4 kidney disease?

a. To reduce protein loss. Your doctor may prescribe you some drugs, like ACE inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers, which are used to lower high blood pressure to reduce protein loss into urine.

b. To reduce sodium intake. If the intake of sodium exceeds the ability of kidneys to discharge sodium, swelling happens. So you should well control the sodium intake. Try to avoid foods that contain high sodium, like salted foods, restaurant foods, fast foods and so on. For specific diet plan, you can ask the online doctor.

c. To discharge the sodium in blood. Normally, dialysis is the common treatment for patients with stage 4 kidney disease whose kidney function is low. It can help kidneys discharge the extra sodium in blood.

d. To improve kidney function. Though dialysis can help alleviate leg swelling, it cannot solve the problem fundamentally. To treat leg swelling in stage 4 kidney disease completely, you should focus on improving kidney function. Hot Compress therapy, which is a natural and innovative Chinese therapy. It aims at repair the damaged kidney cells and improving kidney function. If you want to know more or try this therapy, you can send me an email to renal-disease@hotmail.com.