My sister has high blood pressure. While lifestyle choices and medication keep her blood pressure in healthy ranges she can't seem to shake the edema. Despite her best efforts, her feet and ankles remain swollen and puffy. While my blood pressure is within healthy range, as soon as the weather gets hot and humid, I'm dealing with swollen feet, too.

Our bodies are designed to move water through our systems. Edema is a condition where excess fluid is retained between cells. There are many reasons you may have edema including immobility, pregnancy, heat/humidity, medications, high blood pressure, trauma, and kidney disease. If you have swollen feet, take heart. There are plenty of things you can do:

• Elevate your legs above heart level. You can use a leg wedge to raise your legs up while sleeping.
• Wear support socks.
  
• Increase your activity -- walking is a perfect exercise for helping edema.
• Avoid standing or sitting in one place for a long time. (If you are sitting for a while, try raising your feet up a bit.)
• Ask your doctor if a short-term course of diuretics would be advisable.
• If you're on high blood pressure medication, talk to your doctor about possibly modifying your medications. (Do not make any changes without speaking to your doctor.)
• Drink plenty of water.

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10 hours. Six operating rooms. Nine surgical teams. And six new kidneys.

Johns Hopkins surgeons performed six simultaneous kidney transplants -- a surgery believed to be the first of its kind. Five of the six transplant candidates had family members willing to donate a kidney, but were incompatible for their family member. When a sixth donor -- an altruistic donor who was willing to donate to anyone in need -- stepped in, the final necessary piece of the puzzle was found. The others who were willing to donate may not have been a match for their family member, but they were matches for others who were waiting for a transplant. The surgeries were successful, and the lead surgeon reports that all donors and transplant recipients are doing well.

While most donated kidneys come from deceased donors, live donors are preferred because the success rates are higher. The six patients in this series of operations were matched through a live donor matching system created by Johns Hopkins.

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It appears as though there may be a risk to drinking diet soda after all, although it has nothing to do with the alleged risk of obesity. Rather, there is evidence to suggest that drinking dark-colored diet cola (and dark-colored regular cola) can increase your risk of kidney disease.

Based on a report published in the journal Epidemiology, drinking two or more dark-colored sodas -- such as Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and similar generic brands -- per day doubles your chances of kidney disease.

The phosphoric acid found in dark colas, but not in clear sodas such as Sprite and 7-Up, is what gives it its unique taste, but also what may lead to the development of kidney stones. This, in turn, can potentially lead to complications and disease.

I suppose this is yet another reason to just stick to plain ol' water.

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To those older men who take testosterone supplements to replace that sexual drive and muscle mass as natural testosterone product decreases, be aware that a new study involving rats indicated that kidney damage and high blood pressure could be the result of taking these products.

It's odd that the dropping production of testosterone has been linked to cardiovascular disease and now testosterone supplements are being linked with the same thing. This latest study seems to refute earlier findings, and indicates that testosterone production actually contributes to possible heart ailments. However, these findings are from rodent studies, not humans.

But renal failure? The rats in this study showed increased protein levels in their urine -- a tell-tale sign of kidney problems. The suggestion of the researchers was for doctors to use extra-special care when prescribing testosterone products to male patients. That should be a rule of thumb at all times.

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If you are obese and also have kidney disease, you may be more likely than normal-weight kidney patients to have hyperparathyroidism, according to new U.S.-based research.

The condition apparently raise the risk of heart problems and death, which is quite a nice reason to try and achieve a normal weight if you're suffering from kidney disease -- and carrying a bunch of extra weight.

The most recent study showed that there was a significant correlation between obesity and hyperparathyroidism in the nearly 500 patients looked at in the study. Ever the better reason to see a nutritional specialist, fitness expert and your physician to begin a program of weight loss if you're considered obese (body-mass index of 30 or higher).

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It's quite something to read that kidney disease in the U.S. has risen by 16% recently, but in retrospect, it's not hard to see why. The kidney is the master filter for the body (thank goodness we have two of them), so all garbage the body takes in is hopefully screened by the kidneys then flushed out of the body using -- well, you know.

I'm not sure even master designs like the human kidney can stand up to the onslaught of chemically-enhanced foods and beverages that the typical American consumes each and every day, though. The body was not designed to process nutritionally-deficient food like what many of us eat these days, so how can we expect the kidneys to function at optimum levels?

I'm no fan of renal complications or kidney transplants, but perhaps some citizens are.

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