Nephrotic syndrome

A slight disturbance in renal functioning can play havoc with life.

Proteins are vital nutrients that are the building blocks of human body. The need to assimilate and retain proteins is always high on the agenda and it is the semantic organ, the kidney, which is on the task all the time efficiently with the help of its functional sieve, the glomerulus. It is only when there is a disturbance in functioning that there is a loss of protein in the urine and such a condition which is more common in children than in adults is called Nephrotic syndrome.

Typically, children between the ages of one and half to five years are affected.

A child who wakes up with a swelling on the eyelids or all over the face needs to be investigated for such a problem. With help of proteins the blood soaks up water from the tissues and filters it out. The tissues burdened with water appear as a swelling initially over the face and gradually all over the body like abdomen etc.

There is low level of proteins in the blood due to loss. There is more of salt and water in the tissues.

The urinary output becomes less and the child appears to put on weight due to water retention.

This is not a disease but a symptom of diseases which affects the glomeruli. For example the Minimal Change Disease wherein there is not much of a change on physical examination of when a biopsy of the kidney tissue is done.

It could also be due to some diseases like Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis and Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis. In both these conditions there is a hardening or sclerosis of the filtering units which comes in the way of their functioning. In some cases it could be right from the time of birth called congenital nephropathy.

The challenge is to see that these changes are countered and homoeopathic medicine is known to be an ideal complementary in such situations. To see that gradual retention of water is reduced remedies like Apis, Apocyanum help and to see that the glomeruli are pushed to function, Arsenic, Phosphorus are of immense value and to see that further hardening of the glomeruli is stopped remedies like Plumbum met take centrestage. The bright part of this disease is that the degeneration is only short lived and the kidney recoups back to normal functioning. The month of March is a time when awareness of kidney function is spread and nephritic syndrome which affects bright kids should be known by one and all so that initial symptoms insist the parents to consult a physician at the earliest.