Kidney disease is a "silent killer" to pay attention to early signals and regular physical examinations

Source: Science and Technology Daily

Recently, an article circulated on the Internet "Old Professor Personal Experience: How Terrible Is salt Additives", saying that the salt at home contains potassium ferrocyanide, which leads to kidney problems, and after switching to table salt that does not contain potassium ferrocyanide, the symptoms disappear.

"First of all, it should be clear that potassium ferrocyanide is a legal food additive." Wu Shaojie, deputy dean of the School of Food Science and Engineering of Jiangsu Ocean University, introduced that according to China's food safety related standards, potassium ferrocyanide and sodium ferrocyanide can be used as anti-caking agents, added to salt and salt substitute products, but there are quantitative regulations.

In a large shopping mall in Beijing, the reporter found 9 kinds of table salts such as sea salt, bamboo salt, and deep well rock salt, 4 of which contain potassium ferrocyanide. On an overseas shopping website, a number of foreign-produced table salts also indicate the addition of sodium ferrocyanide.

Cyanide is a well-known highly toxic substance, more than the word "ferrous", can it be used as a food additive? Wu Shaojie told reporters that cyanide is very easy to form a complex with metal ions with strong stability, so the toxicity of ferrocyanide is very low. "Cyanide encounters ferrous ions, just like the 'devil' is firmly locked, the toxicity is passivated, and it can no longer make waves."

According to the data, the limit for sodium ferrocyanide in the United States is 13 mg per kilogram, and the EU standard for ferrocyanide is 20 mg per kilogram. "China's standards are even stricter than those in Europe and the United States." Shen Lei, chief physician of the Department of Nephrology of the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, said, "Instead of worrying about salt additives, residents should pay more attention to the excessive intake of salt, which may cause hypertension and chronic kidney disease." ”

In February 2020, a paper published online in the international medical journal The Lancet showed that as of 2017, there were more than 130 million people with chronic kidney disease in China. Shen Lei introduced that kidney disease is generally insidious, there is no obvious discomfort in the early stage, so it is not easy to detect, known as the "silent killer", and it is necessary to pay attention to some signals that appear in the body.

Signal one: after getting up in the morning, eyelid or facial edema, edema of the lower limbs after activity, can not be relieved after rest; signal two: always waist acid fatigue, poor spirits, unexplained loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting; signal three: deep urine color, increased foam in the urine, and long-term absence, or significant increase in nocturia; signal four: sudden increase in blood pressure, which young people should pay special attention to.

Shen Lei said that regular physical examination can detect kidney abnormalities in time, and people with high blood pressure, diabetes, family history of kidney disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, obesity, gout, long-term use of Chinese herbal medicines and analgesics and other drugs are high-risk groups, and more attention should be paid to screening.

Shen Lei introduced that excessive salt intake is an important factor in the onset of hypertension, and hypertension is closely related to kidney disease. "Ordinary people want to limit their salt intake to normal levels, especially 'invisible salt', such as soy sauce and other spices and many snacks, containing a lot of sodium chloride." She advises that people with kidney disease should pay attention to the content of sodium chloride in the ingredient list and minimize salt intake when buying food.