Treatment for chronic kidney disease

There's no cure for chronic kidney disease (CKD), but treatment can help relieve the symptoms and stop it getting worse.

Your treatment will depend on the stage of your CKD.

The main treatments are:

• lifestyle changes – to help you stay as healthy as possible
• medicine – to control associated problems, such as high blood pressureand high cholesterol
• dialysis – treatment to replicate some of the kidney's functions, which may be necessary in advanced (stage 5) CKD
• kidney transplant – this may also be necessary in advanced (stage 5) CKD

Lifestyle changes

The following lifestyle measures are usually recommended for people with kidney disease:

• stop smoking if you smoke
• eat a healthy, balanced diet
• restrict your salt intake to less than 6g a day – that's around 1 teaspoon
• do regular exercise – aim to do at least 150 minutes a week
• manage your alcohol intake so you drink no more than the recommended limit of 14 units of alcohol a week
• lose weight if you're overweight or obese
• avoid over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, except when advised to by a medical professional – these medicines can harm your kidneys if you have kidney disease…