As the world pays tribute to the Queen of Rock’n’Roll Tina Turner, she also left this earth with a very clear message to us all, and that is to take care of our kidneys.

Turner passed away at her home in Switzerland on Wednesday after a long illness. While the exact cause of death was not immediately clear, her lifelong battle with hypertension is well documented. She was first diagnosed with hypertension in 1978.

Her uncontrolled high blood pressure, which she admittedly ignored for a large part of her life, resulted in her suffering a stroke in 2009, leading to dialysis treatment, and eventually she needed a kidney transplant, but it was not without complications.

Her husband Erwin Bach offered her one of his kidneys, and the operation took place in April 2017. While largely a success, Turner still experienced symptoms which included nausea and dizziness, and her body tried to reject the donor kidney as it frequently happens after a transplantation.

Towards the end of her life, she threw her support behind a new international campaign for kidney health, spearheaded by the European Kidney Health Alliance.

She wrote on Instagram on 9 March this year:

My kidneys are victims of my not realising that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine. I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication. For far too long I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion.

Turner wrote on a Show Your Kidneys Love blog post about her catastrophic decision to at one point abandon prescription drugs for controlling her hypertension, and turning to homeopathic medicine, which only worsened her renal disease and wiped out any kidney function she still had left.

I had not told my doctors about my experiment, and when my next routine check-up was due, I was excited to see if the homeopathic medication had decreased my blood pressure and improved my kidney function. Rarely in my life had I been so wrong. I had not known that uncontrolled hypertension would worsen my renal disease and that I would kill my kidneys by giving up on controlling my blood pressure. I never would have replaced my medication by the homeopathic alternatives if I had had an idea how much was at stake for me. Thanks to my naivety I had ended up at the point where it was about life or death.

Turner says had she known how high blood pressure and kidney disease are connected, often referred to as the ”silent killer”, she would have been spared a lot of suffering.

ALSO READ: Tributes to the Queen of Rock Tina Turner

Facts about Hypertension

In South Africa more than 1 in 3 adults live with high blood pressure and it is responsible for 1 in every 2 strokes and 2 in every 5 heart attacks.

The South African Medical Journal estimates that 10% of people worldwide suffer from some degree of chronic kidney disease, meaning that it is likely some 5 million South Africans over 20 years old may be affected by CKD, which significantly impacts their quality of life.

High blood pressure can constrict and narrow the blood vessels, which eventually damages and weakens them throughout the body, including in the kidneys.

If your kidneys’ blood vessels are damaged, they may no longer work properly. When this happens, the kidneys are not able to remove all wastes and extra fluid from your body. Extra fluid in the blood vessels can raise your blood pressure even more, creating a dangerous cycle, and cause more damage leading to kidney failure.

How to protect your kidneys

According to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, there are several ways to keep your kidneys healthy. They include:

• Make healthy food choices
• Make physical activity part of your routine
• Aim for a healthy weight
• Get enough sleep
• Stop smoking
• Limit alcohol intake link
• Explore stress-reducing activities
• Manage diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease