Side Effects of Hemodialysis and How to Prevent them

Hemodialysis is a lifesaving substitutive therapy for patients with end stage renal failure (ESRF). However, the patients often have to encounter various side effects of hemodialysis. Most of these side effects can be managed if the patients can follow the recommendations of their doctors and keep a strict dietary habit.

1. Hypotension

Hypotension is a common side effect of hemodialysis. It is occurs when too much fluid is removed out of body during dialysis. When the patients experience hypotension, they usually have nausea, dizziness and so on. The patients should let their doctors know this issue and ask them to program the dialysis machine so as to guarantee proper amount of fluid to be removed out of body.

Another reason for hypotension is medicines for hypertension. The patients should decline or do not take that medicines after asking for their doctors' advices, unless their doctors prescribe the medicines. In addition, limiting fluid intake also can prevent low pressure during dialysis.

2. Muscle cramps

Many patients may have muscle cramps during hemodialysis. The muscle cramps can cause discomfort and pain in the legs. There are various causes of muscle cramps. Sometimes when fluid is removed too fast or too much fluid is taken out of body, the patients will have muscle cramps. The patients should let their doctors know this problem at once and ask some remedies.

3. Infection

In hemodialysis,the fistula or graft access is very likely to be infected or inflamed. Pressure caused by clothing and sleeping on the side of where the access is located and some bacteria invasion often can cause infection and inflammation on access. The patients should monitor the access daily to ensure it works well.

4. Itching

Many patients on hemodialysis often have skin itching. It is commonly caused by the high phosphorous level in body. As hemodialysis can not remove phosphorous effectively, it will accumulate in body thus causing itching. Therefore, the patients should keep a low phosphorus diet or take a phosphorus blinder with their doctors' guidance.


Patients on hemodialysis should communicate with their doctors closely during their hemodialysis period and let them know about the abnormal reactions caused by dialysis so as to adjust their dialysis in the first time.

Causes and Symptoms of Diabetic Nephropathy

Diabetic Nephropathy is a serious complication of Diabetes. Usually, many patients with a long history of Diabetes have renal damage in varying degrees. In the United States, Diabetes is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease and kidney disease.

In fact, not all patients with Diabetes will develop Diabetic Nephropathy. Some researches show that the patients who do not control their blood sugar effectively are susceptible to renal damage. Each of our kidneys are composed of about 1 million nephrons that help remove extra water out of body and keep electrolyte balance in our body. High blood sugar level can damage the tiny vessels in the nephrons by thickening scarring them thus causing kidney damage over time. As a result, the nephrons will lose their normal filtrating function. Without timely proper treatment, the kidney damage will lead to Renal Failure gradually.

In the early stage of Diabetic Nephropathy, the patients may not have any symptom. That is the reason why most patients can not get timely treatment. As the disease progression, it will cause a series of symptoms. Diabetic Nephropathy is divided into five stages. The patients have different symptoms in the five stages.

1. Proteinuria

If the patients with Diabetic Nephropathy, it proves that their disease has developed into the fourth stage. In the stage 2 and 3, the patients often have intermittent or persistent microdose albumin in urine. After the disease develops into the fourth stage, the urine protein will increase gradually and even have amount urine protein in 3~5 years.

2. Edema

With the appearing of proteinuria, edema will occur. When the protein loss in urine causes hypoproteinemia, the patients usually have serious edema and even have hydrothorax and ascites.

3. High blood pressure

High blood pressure is an early symptom of Diabetic Nephropathy. In the stage 2 or 3 of Diabetic Nephropathy, the patients may have high blood pressure. In the early stage, the patients usually have intermittent high blood pressure and gradually it will develop into persistent high blood pressure. High blood pressure can increase the secretion of urine protein, which is an risk in aggravating kidney damage.

4. Kidney damage

Before stage 4 of Diabetic Nephropathy, the renal function usually declines very slowly. However, after the appearance of persistent proteinuria, especially amount urinary protein, kidney damage progresses very fast and have renal insufficiency gradually.


Therefore, the patients with Diabetes should do renal test, urine test and blood test regularly so as to find the disease and receive treatment in the first time.

Side Effects of Insulin on Patients with Juvenile Diabetes (Type 1 Diabetes)

Type I Diabetes also named as Juvenile Diabetes is commonly found among people blow 35 years old. It belongs to insulin-dependence disease. Once a person is diagnosed with Diabetes, he has to depend on insulin injection in the rest of his life. Although insulin is an effective therapy for patients with Juvenile Diabetes (Type 1 Diabetes), it can still cause a series of side effects.

1. Body weight gain

It is a common side effect of insulin. Insulin can promote the building-up of protein and fat. Therefore, if the patients do not limit their food intake and keep too much calorie intake after injecting insulin, it will cause them to gain weight gradually.

2. Ametropia

If the patients keep a high blood sugar level before insulin injection, they are very likely to have ametropia in the primary stage of using insulin. This side effect is just only temporary. With prolonging of using time, the patients will be able to control their blood sugar stably. This side effect will also disappear.

3. Edema

Insulin can cause mild retention of water and sodium. Consequently, some patients may have mild edema in face and limbs.

4. Sensitive reaction

It is mainly found among Diabetes patients using animal insulin including local and systemic sensitive reaction. If the patients are affected by local sensitive reaction, they will have maculopapule itching. For patients with systemic sensitive reaction, it can cause urticaria. What’s worse, some patients may have anaphylactic shock.

5. Partial lipodystrophy

The patients often have partial lipodystrophy in the injection site, which is mainly found among patients with animal insulin injection.

6. Decline sensitivity to insulin

For patients with a long history of insulin injection, their body will produce antibody of insulin. Consequently, the effect of insulin will decline.

7. Hypoglycemia

Generally, it is caused by excessive insulin injection. In order to avoid hypoglycemia in using insulin, the patients should begin with a small dosage of insulin in the early time and then increase the insulin dosage gradually until reaching a satisfactory controlling of blood sugar.


As insulin can cause so side effects to patients, it is very necessary and important for them to choose a good Diabetes treatment in time.

Dialysis Patients Should Prevent Heart and Blood Vessels Diseases

Dialysis patients are more likely to have heart and blood vessels diseases for kidney disease, high blood pressure and other health problem. Therefore, it is very important for Dialysis patients to take preventive measures to prevent heart and blood vessels problem.

1. Keep high blood pressure within control

For the patients with kidney disease, their doctors usually prescribe them antihypertensive medicines including angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). These medicines are beneficial for protecting of heart and blood vessels. Moreover, the patients should limit the water and sodium intake properly so as to preventing fluid from building up in body and increasing blood pressure.

2. Control blood sugar within control

For patients with Diabetic Nephropathy, they should monitor their blood sugar as often as their doctors told them and adjust the insulin dosage properly under their doctors’ guidance.

3. Reduce high cholesterol levels

High cholesterol level can increase the chance of developing heart and blood vessels diseases dialysis patients. Therefore, it is very important for dialysis patients to keep a low-fat diet and exercise more.

4. Treat anemia

Anemia is a common symptom for patients with kidney disease. This can make the patients feel tired thus increasing the chance of developing left ventricular hypertrophy. The patients should increase the iron intake and depend on erythropoietin to alleviating anemia.

5. Keep a good emotion

For dialysis can disturb patients’ normal life and brings much pain to them. Therefore, the dialysis patients often feel upset depressed, torturous. These bad emotions can affect the dialysis effect seriously. Moreover, they can increase the incidence of heart and blood vessels diseases. The patients with kidney disease should keep a correct attitude towards dialysis. If they can arrange their life properly, dialysis will not affect their life too much.


If dialysis patients can take effective preventive measures against heart and blood diseases, they will be able to decline their incidence greatly.

How to Prevent Hyperuricemic Nephropathy

Hyperuricemic Nephropathy is renal damage caused by hyperuricemia. For abnormal metabolism of purine, more uric acid is produced, but can not be discharged out of body normally thus causing uric acid level in blood to increase. Therefore, controlling hyperuricemia is the key to prevent and treat Hyperruricemic Nephropathy.

1. Control diet

The patients with Hyperuricemic Nephropathy should avoid eating food with high purine such as animal offal, fish, and sea food and so on. In addition, they should limit the intake of meat for it contain too much purine and also can make urine become acidic. In addition, they should control the protein intake and keep its intake within 1 gram/ kg per body weight.

2. Drink more water

Keep the urine output volume between 2000~3000 ml is beneficial for the discharge of uric acid. If the patients drink more water before sleeping, it can promote the discharge of the small kidney stone and prevent infection.

3. Alkalify urine

Alkalifying urine can prevent the formation of uric acid stone and also can promote the dissolving of uric acid stone. It is proper to keep PH within 6.5~6.8.

4. Treat hyperuricemia in time

The patients should take some medicines that are effective in lowing uric acid under the doctors’ guidance. The medicines include two types: one can promote the discharge of uric acid and the other can restrain the formation of uric acid. The medicines which can increase the discharge of uric urine can decline the reabsorption of uric acid by renal tubular. However, if the patients have renal insufficiency, the medicines can improve the discharge of uric acid thus causing uric acid crystal, which can aggravate the disease. Therefore, this part of patients is not suitable to take the medicines.


If the patients can keep a proper heath care and prevent and treat hyperuricemia in time, they will be able to avoid or treat Hyperuricemic Nephropathy effectively.

Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy and Immunotherapy for Chronic Glomerularnephritis

Liming is a 56-year-old female patient from Qinghuangdao City, Hebei Province. The patients began to have edema in eyelids for overwork in 1999 so he went to the local hospital to receive treatment. The examination result at that time showed that proteinuria (+ + +), BLD (+), normal renal function. He was diagnosed with Glomerularnephritis in the hospital. The doctors prescribed him some Chinese medicine decoction, but he did not have improvement after the treatment.

In 2005, he went to a hospital in Shandong Province to receive treatment, but the proteinuria did not have improvement. Until April, 2010, his creatinine level increased to 130 umol/L for colds so he began to take some medicines helping expelling of toxin. However, his creatinine level always fluctuated between 200~270umol/L.

For further treatment, he went to our hospital. The examination results showed that urine protein: 5.5g/24hours, serum creatinine: 539umol/L. Then he received the symptomatic treatment and Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy and two times Immunotherapy.

For relapse of the disease, he went to our hospital for the second time in October, 2011. The examination results showed that hemoglobin: 87g/L, serum creatinine: 451umol/L (the patient did not pay attention to diet and always overworked), proteinuria 5.08g/24hour. Then he was diagnosed with Chronic Glomerularnephritis, renal insufficiency (Renal Failure), renal anemia, and renal hypertension. The patients received the symptomatic treatment, Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy and the third time of Immunotherapy. The comparison of examination results before and after treatments.

remarks	time	Urine protein/24hours	Serum creatinine	BUN	hemachrome	carbon dioxide combining power
The first stay in hospital	2011-5-18	5.5	539	19.1	87	18.5
The second time	2011-10-11	5.08	451	18.6	93	22.3
Examination result when leaking hospital	2011-11-10	3.28	328	15.21	102	25.2

Discussion:

How to delay the progression of kidney disease and improve the incidence of the patients is the main research theme. The combined application of Immunotherapy and Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy has brought good therapeutic effect in treating kidney disease. The therapeutic mechanism is as follows:

After micro-Chinese medicines enter into kidney lesions, they can dilate renal arteries thus increasing renal blood flow volume. As a result, it can block the renal fibrosis process and remit the renal ischemia and anoxia.

In addition, micro-Chinese medicines restrain the platelet from releasing blood coagulation factors thus preventing the formation of microthrombus in glomeruli and improve the ischemia and anoxia in the damaged glomerular blood capillaries.


The Immunotherapy in blood cord have strong self-reproduction ability and potential of differentiating and regenerating ability. After they are infused into body, they can reach kidney lesions by blood circulation and homing ability. Then through self-regenerating, differentiating, proliferation to repair and substitute the damaged renal cells and rebuild the immunity system. Therefore, the patients can reach a good therapeutic result.

Pathogenesis and Treatment of Hyperuricemic Nephropathy

Hyperuricemic Nephropathy is a kind of kidney damage caused by hyperuricemia. Hyperuricemic Nephroapthy is the diagnosis result in the traditional medicines. Based on the modern cytology, it refers to the pathological changes in renal tubular epithelial cells.

The pathogeny of Hyperuricemic Nephropathy is the metabolic disorder of purine. More uric acid is produced or less is excreted thus causing hyperuricemia. If the patients can not control hyperucemia over time, it will cause uric acid to deposit in renal mesenchyme tissues and medulla. In the acute period, there are inflammatory cell infiltrations around urate. Then the glomerular basilar membrane thickens, glomeruli have fibrosis, renal tubular atrophy degeneration, mesenchyme blood vessels widen. From pathology, it is chronic interstitial nephritis and is also called renal tubular epithelial disease. The urate crystal causes inflammatory reaction thus damaging the renal tubular epithelial cells and causing the mesenchymal fibroblasts and renal tubular epithelial cells to have phenotypic transformation and release inflammatory medium. As a result, renal tubular epithelial cells and mesenchymal fibroblasts to transfer into myofibroblastsm, which then lead to renal interstitial fibrosis. In the period of inflammatory reaction period, the patients nearly do not have any symptom.
However, once it develops into the period of fibrosis formation, the urinary routine examination shows hematuria, proteinuria, and declined specific gravity and so on. Also the patients themselves also can feel increased excessive urination at night.


From the pathology of Hyperuricemic Nephropathy, repairing the damaged renal tubular epithelial cells and block renal fibrosis is the key in treating the disease. On this point, traditional Chinese medicines play an important role. Meanwhile, the western therapies have its unique effect in treating the inflammatory reaction. Therefore, the combined application of traditional Chinese medicines and western therapies can give a good therapeutic effect for the patients with therapies just treat the inflammatory reaction caused by the disease, but not treat the disease from its fundamental causes Hyperuricemic Nephropathy.