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How to control leg swelling in someone with polycystic kidney disease (PKD)? With PKD, an alteration of the renin-angiotension-aldosterone system can cause us to retain sodium. It is possible for this to result in noticeable leg, ankle and thigh swelling. Salt restriction might prove helpful. Besides, the following list are few things we have tried that were successful in relieving edema.
1. Food
PKD patients should prepare everything themselves. In this way, there is no added salt. They also need to avoid milk, dairy, bread, rolls, cakes, prepared foods, meat, eggs, wheat, corn and soy. These are common allergic foods.
Chicken broth, beef broth, and cabbage juice can be consumed to assure that patients would get adequate amounts of daily essential amino acids. When liver is not functioning well, it is unable to produce sufficient albumin. Albumin is a protein that is necessary to keep the fluid contained within the walls of the blood vessels so it does not seep into the tissues causing edema.
2. Juice, vegetable with diuretics
PKD patients can drink vegetable and fruit juices with a diuretic effect. Nettle juice is a non-alcoholic organic extract. High in potassium and has diuretic properties while lowering uric acid. Freshly squeezed grapefruit juice eliminates leg swelling while traveling.
3. Chinese medicine
The above tips can relieve leg swelling to some extent, but cannot control the condition completely. Since the enlarged kidney cysts are the root cause of swollen legs in PKD, the treatment should shrink kidney cysts and stop them from further enlarging. Once kidney tissue is restored, kidney will function better in eliminating wastes and fluid from body. In this way, water retention will be fundamentally solved. Chinese medicine have proven effective in shrinking kidney cysts, repairing damaged kidney tissues and improving renal function.
