How long you can live on dialysis

We, humans, perform multitudinous activities within our bodies that we aren’t aware of. But these activities carry very vital roles for our survival. Our bodies perform them at every second of our lives. Excretion is one of those activities, and the most important one. 

· What is excretion?

The process of exiting accumulated toxic waste from our body is called excretion. 

All living organisms excrete each day to keep our system clean. In humans, we remove excretion in the form of sweat, urine, and feces etc. In urine, it contains urea, creatinine, potassium and many other components. 

We, humans, are blessed with great systems by the universe to maintain balance. For example: To digest the food, we have been given a digestive system. 

Just like that, we are aided by the excretory system.

It consists of two kidneys, ureter, aorta, renal artery, renal vein, urinary bladder and urethra. 

The formation of the urine takes place in the kidneys, which have millions of nephrons that are responsible for all the urine produced in the body. Also known as the functional unit of the kidney.

Dialysis 

But what if we aren’t able to remove the waste from our bodies?

What will you do if garbage gets accumulated in your home? It would stink in your whole home, and you won’t be able to stay a second in your home. So, just imagine how would your body manage if one of your kidneys fails? 

Our whole body will swell with the excess water and waste products. No energy would remain in your body, it would happen since our body hasn’t excreted the waste it has produced and as the rule of nature, we need to clean our body. We need to remove nitric wastes from our bodies. And if the waste gets accumulated over the period, it could throw you in the most hazardous situation. Like, it can lead to seizure or coma, and unwittingly it will drop you to your death. 

But over time, people have found that we can remove waste from our body even if one of our kidneys fails to work. 

Process of dialysis

What is dialysis 

Dialysis: The process of removing toxic wastes from our body through the help of mechanical equipment when our kidney fails to work is called dialysis. 

Dialysis can be divided further into two types 

1. Hemodialysis

2. Peritoneal dialysis 

Both processes remove waste from our blood, but they have minor differences. 

 In Hemodialysis, they use a machine known as an artificial kidney to remove the waste from the blood. The blood gets exported outside the body, and then it passes through the filter (artificial kidney). Then the blood flows back to the body. 

Whereas in Peritoneal dialysis, a tube (catheter) is inserted into the abdomen. The lining of the abdomen acts as a natural filter and waste gets removed from our body. The waste that has filtered from the body is removed and discarded. 

But the question arises how long a person can live on dialysis? 

The survival on dialysis depends on the age of the patient. Expected life under dialysis 5 to 10 years. However, it is difficult to determine the life expectancy after the treatment for end-stage kidney failure as several factors influence one’s life expectancy. Health problems of the patients also determine the chances of life expectancy. It also depends on how severely you are affected by kidney disease.  

So many factors influence the life expectancy of the patient. But at the same time, there are so many strange cases in which people have lived 20 to 30 years.

The life expectancy under dialysis depends on the way of living and the medical treatment you are getting. But so many people.