Lifestyle and Environment Aspects Challenging Kidney Health

Both acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease (AKI, CKD) are increasingly reported conditions, with a potentially growing clinical and economic impact. This is due to the potential increase in the number of patients reaching advanced stages of kidney failure, requiring high-risk renal replacement therapies with a high clinical and economic impact, and to a predictable increase in both cardiovascular (CV) and overall morbidity and mortality. Over the past few decades, increasingly clear evidence has accumulated that unhealthy dietary and lifestyle habits are associated with an increased incidence of both AKI and CKD. This is driving the medical community to act to raise awareness among the general population and policymakers of the need to implement programs aimed at correcting unhealthy lifestyle and dietary habits to maximize preventive effectiveness in keeping our kidneys, and consequently our CV system, healthy for as long as possible. This narrative review addresses some of the best-known and other less-aware issues in the field of dietary and lifestyle factors that can be effectively modified in our daily lives.