Your kidneys play a very important role when it comes to cleansing the body of toxins. These two little hardworking organs positioned in your lower back filter all your blood, around 6 litres of it, twice every hour, filtering out any dangerous impurities and discarding them out of the body by way of the urine.

The kidneys are selective filtration organs, they hold back vital nutrients such as minerals, vitamins, glucose and amino acids, returning these back to the bloodstream yet allow wastes to be efficiently eliminated from the body.

Once protein has been used by your body, the end product called urea is eliminated from the body by way of the kidneys. The kidneys keep the urea balance, and too much urea can be even life threatening.

The kidneys are most important to your health, and like the liver which we will talk about in another post, perform an amazing amout of functions. For example, they help with the production of red blood cells, assist in the control and regulation of blood pressure, and even help maintain the body’s acid/alkaline balance which is of most importance when it comes to psoriasis. You can read all about acid and alkaline and psoriasis in my book The Psoriasis Diet.

What most people are not aware of is that kidney disease, just like heart disease, is silent, and the symptoms may not show up until the situation becomes critical. When you have psoriasis, you will want to keep your large intestine, kidneys, liver as well as your lungs all in optimal shape. This will ensure that the most important elimination organs are functioning at their best, which in turn will help to optimize your chance of beating psoriasis. If you keep these organs functioning at their very best then you may be able to keep those psoriatic plaques at bay forever. I have seen this occur in many cases of psoriasis, and for this reason wrote a book entirely on the subject of internal cleansing and detox for my Psoriasis Program.

Just like the large intestine, there are many potential signs and symptoms of problematic kidney function, and it is therefore most important for you to know the symptoms of kidneys that are not functioning optimally.

I have listed the most common signs here for your convenience, and if you recognize any of these then I can highly recommend you take action. Some you may be familiar with, others perhaps not, but if you have psoriasis any symptoms in this list then you are well advised to improve the health of your urinary system. It is important to recognize the symptoms of kidney diseases so that you can correct any problems early on.

Kidney Symptoms To Be Aware Of:

The kidney detox is an important consideration when it comes to psoriasis recovery. We spoke earlier of the kidneys, and their importance when it comes to cleansing and detox. The kidneys are a regulatory organ, they help to control the levels of electrolytes, and when salt is dissolved its elements sodium and chloride become important electrolytes, responsible for transferring the electrical activity within your body.

The kidney is also responsible for blood pressure regulation as well as ensuring you have a correct acid base balance (pH levels); kidneys even stimulate the production of red blood cells within your body. Each day your kidneys process a staggering 230 liters of blood (400 pints) and manage to remove an incredible 2.2 liters (4 pints) of wastes!

Without optimal kidney function, toxic wastes would simply build up in our blood stream causing infection, inflammation and we would soon develop kidney stones or they would fail altogether causing premature death. It is important to remember the kidney damage takes place ever so slowly and gradually – and generally without symptoms, and if left untreated, kidney disease can become irreversible leading to kidney failure.

The kidneys are also responsible for excreting many different waste products, toxins and chemicals from your body. These toxins are many and varied and can come from a wide variety of sources, including chemicals and toxins in your food and water, pharmaceutical drugs, environmental chemicals (pesticides, etc.), alcohol residues, various forms of pollution and radiation and many other potential toxins. When the kidneys fail to function optimally, these toxins can potentially cause many different health problems like headaches, high blood pressure, nausea, itchy skin, fatigue and a host of other problems.

I have always found it amazing that a lot of emphasis is placed on liver and bowel detoxification, but nobody ever speaks of kidney cleansing or detoxification when it comes to psoriasis. I did notice that Dr. John Pagano in his book “Healing Psoriasis” mentions the kidney’s role in cleansing and psoriasis, one of the first books I have seen that makes the connection between optimal kidney function and skin health.

Kidney Disease More Likely with Moderate to Severe Psoriasis

An analysis of the medical records of 143,883 psoriasis patients in the United Kingdom found that people with severe psoriasis were twice as likely to acquire chronic kidney disease as those whose psoriasis was mild or who had no psoriasis at all. The analysis is reported in the British Medical Journal.1

It certainly makes a lot of sense to improve the functioning of your kidneys if you have psoriasis, especially if your psoriasis is severe of chronic. Why wait until you are taking many different kinds of drugs to control symptoms, drugs which are linked with kidney and liver toxicity?

There are many different herbal medicines, juices and different dietary supplement formulations that will help tone and detoxify the kidneys; some of these include parsley, basil black cherry, celery, watermelon (rich in potassium and very high in water), golden rod and corn silk.

Kidney Cleansing