Dr?Prince?Agyemang Yeboah, the Medical?Superintendent of the Nsoatre Polyclinic in the Sunyani West Municipality, has advised kidney disease patients to depend on only doctors’ advice and desist from relying on herbal medication for cure. He warned that the intake of herbal medicines, especially those that were not certified by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), was unsafe for the kidney and the body in general. Dr Yeboah gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, stating that if detected earlier the disease at the first stage, was easier to manage and prevented from spreading to the fifth stage, which could become very critical and difficult to control. He said the kidney was an important organ because it?kept the whole body?in balance by helping to produce red blood cells, controlling blood pressure and removing waste and excess water from the body. Dr Yeboah explained that although?some other diseases and disorders could cause kidney failure, high blood?pressure?and diabetes were usually the main causes of the disease.??? He said what made voluntary health checkup important for kidney function test once or twice in a year, was that people with issues with the organ might not have or show any symptoms, until at the fifth stage, which chronic, where the foot start swelling with vomiting after eating and loss of appetite. Dr Yeboah said the only option at the chronic stage was to put the persons on dialysis?for the blood to be sieved to take away the dirt,?so that the person could live. He therefore advised the public to drink more water, about four sachets daily to clear all left?waste in the body through the urine, adding that there was the need for people to check their lifestyles, eating habits by reducing the intake of meat, oil, avoiding smoking and alcoholism. There was also the need for the people to go to the hospital in case of sickness for proper diagnosis and treatment rather than resorting to self-medication and drug abuse, especially with the intake of too many pain killers, which could easily damage the kidneys. Another antidote, he advised, was for the citizenry to stay and sleep in a very hygienic environment to get enough oxygen to protect the kidneys, because the disease would be irreversible if acquired. Dr Yeboah appealed to the government as a matter of promoting efficient health services delivery, to procure and provide dialysis machines for all regional and if possible, district hospitals to ensure accessible and affordable care for patients.? ?
Source: Ghana News Agency