Tina Turner's Warning About the Negative Spiral of High Blood Pressure and Chronic Kidney Disease

Two months before rock legend Tina Turner died this week at age 83, she warned fans on Instagram to take high blood pressure seriously. On World Kidney Day, March ninth, Turner wrote, "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's post provided a valuable teaching moment about the link between uncontrolled high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. Unmanaged hypertension puts pressure on the kidneys. When the kidneys become damaged, toxins and fluids build up within the body, increasing blood pressure. Doctors call this process a negative spiral. Over time the twin conditions can lead to heart disease, stroke, and premature death. Hypertension and chronic kidney disease are also silent conditions. Many people only realize they have them after the damage has begun. 

Turner shared, "I have been suffering from hypertension for a long time, got diagnosed in 1978, but didn't care much about it. I can't remember ever getting an explanation about what high blood pressure means or how it affects the body. I considered high blood pressure my normal. Hence, I didn't really try to control it. In 1985 a doctor gave me a prescription for pills of which I was supposed to take one a day, and that was it. I didn't give it any more thought. After suffering a stroke in 2009 because of my poorly controlled hypertension I struggled to get back up on my feet. This is when I first learned that my kidneys didn't work that well anymore. They had already lost thirty-five percent of their function."

Turner went on dialysis and wrote of how she later required a kidney transplant and that her heart muscle became damaged and her vessels hardened. She wrote, "If I had known how high blood pressure and kidney disease are connected, I would have been spared a lot of suffering."

Too often, especially given the pressures of managed care, doctors fail to explain the connection between high blood pressure and kidney disease and how they can cause other chronic diseases.  

Turner wrote, "the struggle for healing is also a struggle for accurate information." TV interviews Turner did in the early 1980s about her marriage and how she left Ike Turner made her a role model for other women in abusive situations to change their lives for the better. Hopefully, Turner's "show your kidneys love" post will inspire Americans with high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease to ask questions and learn why controlling these conditions is crucial to their health.