Why High Blood Pressure After Kidney Transplantation

High blood pressure is very common among patients after kidney transplantation and it is one of the major risk factors that can affect the life span of transplanted kidney and the patient’s survival rate. There is a strong connection between high blood pressure and illness progression among post-transplant patients. The risk of failure of the transplanted kidney will increase proportionately with elevated blood pressure.

Kidney transplant patients need to have immunosuppressants for the rest of their life to lower the rick of organ rejection. These drugs such as cyclosporine and tacrolimus are the major cause of high blood pressure for kidney transplantation patients. Therefore it is very necessary and important for patients to have regular checks of their blood pressure in the morning and in the night so as to have early detection and seek early and effective treatments. Since high blood pressure is one of the leading causes of kidney damages, timely and well control of high blood pressure can help protect the transplanted kidney from potential damages.

Headache is one major sign of high blood pressure, therefore if the patient complains about headache, check the blood pressure. If it is higher than the normal level, seek proper treatment as soon as possible. Besides regular measurements of blood pressure, it is necessary for the patients to have routine checks of their kidney functions so as to clearly know the current kidney functions conditions.

If your high blood pressure is not very serious, you can have some natural remedies such as massage, acupuncture, tai chi, qi gong, medicated bath can all help lower high blood pressure. What is more important, they have no harms or side effects to the patients.

Besides, proper modification of eating habits and lifestyles can all help control high blood pressure and protect residual kidney functions for kidney transplant patients such as low-salt diets, control body weight, proper and regular exercises, etc.

When high blood pressure is well controlled, many symptoms can be relieved and the life span and survival rate of kidney transplantation will be greatly improved.