Ms. Guo, 36, noticed that her urine had turned red after she was infected with the new coronavirus. At that time, she didn't pay attention to it, but since then, she has a cold once a quarter, and sometimes although the symptoms are not severe, the color of her urine will deepen and even turn red after each cold, and she will get better after two days. Ms. Guo thought that she was not obviously unwell, so she waited for the medical examination arranged by the company.
Later, when Ms. Guo got the physical examination report, she was surprised to find that there were red blood cells and proteins in her urine, and the blood test showed that the blood creatinine had also risen. She rushed to the hospital, and on the advice of the doctor, she had a kidney puncture test, and the pathological results showed that she had a disease called "IgA nephropathy".
The full name of IgA is immunoglobulin A, and its essence is a protective antibody. When our body's respiratory tract, digestive tract and other mucosal tissues are infested by bacteria and viruses, IgA is produced to protect the body. But sometimes the body produces abnormal IgA for various reasons, and they combine with its antibodies to form immune complexes, which are deposited in the kidneys, causing kidney damage, called "IgA nephropathy".
In the early stages of IgA nephropathy, it may only manifest as abnormal urine color, or even no symptoms at all, and only incidental abnormalities in the physical examination. If symptoms such as fatigue, edema, and backache occur, kidney function is often significantly impaired. Hearing this, Ms. Guo couldn't help but be afraid, and was glad that she had the habit of regular physical examinations.
The latest international guidelines show that about a quarter of patients with IgA nephropathy slowly progress to kidney failure within 20-25 years. In recent years, studies have even shown that almost all patients are at risk of kidney failure during their life expectancy. Therefore, in order to slow the rate of disease progression, it is important for patients with IgA nephropathy to seek guidance from a specialist for both pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments (e.g., lifestyle changes).
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that IgA nephropathy is a disease of "good and evil", that is to say, IgA nephropathy is mainly due to the lack of righteous qi in the human body and the invasion of evil qi into the human body. Positive deficiency is common in spleen deficiency, kidney deficiency and lung deficiency, the kidney is the "innate foundation", the spleen is the "acquired foundation", and IgA nephropathy is congenital and acquired, which can easily lead to the invasion of the human body by evil poisons such as wind evil and damp heat, resulting in repeated external sensations.