Can Rheumatoid Arthritis Negatively Affect Kidney Function

Rheumatoid arthritis is a common auto-immune disease which is characterized by joint pains because the disordered immune system will attack the patient’s joints. For those that have already developed kidney damages, rheumatoid arthritis can have some negative impact to their kidney functions.

Rheumatoid arthritis will affect the patient’s kidney functions from the following aspects. Knowing these can help patients have effective prevention and early treatment before renal damages become too advanced to be reversed.

Rheumatoid arthritis can cause patients to develop rheumatoid vasculitis which can cause damages to the arteries of various organs and tissues, including the kidneys. If there is inadequate blood supply to the kidneys, kidney functions will be affected.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients have to take some drugs and medications to help ease their joint pains. It has been found that long term use of several rheumatoid arthritis drugs can cause renal damages such as cyclosporine, minocycline, etc. Therefore it is necessary to tell your doctor if you have kidney disease to replace for some natural drugs or therapies. Massage is an physical therapy that can help ease pains for the patients and it is natural and safe and has no side effect to the patients. Proper massage can also help enhance kidney functions.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients often develop gout which will have certain impact on affecting kidney functions. Because of high uric acid level and crystal buildup in the patient’s body, patients are easy to develop stones in their kidneys and bladder and some patients can even develop gouty kidney disease, therefore it is very necessary to have regular checks so as to have early detection and early treatment in the early stage of kidney damages or the damages can become too serious to be reversed.

Besides, immune disorders and immune dysfunctions can have definite impact on the kidney functions. Therefore it is very important for kidney disease patients to seek proper and early treatment to bring their rheumatoid arthritis well under control. For those that have no kidney problems, early and effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis is also very necessary.