This year's holiday months are showing us their most extreme face and testing our limits. Temperatures that only a few years ago we would have expected at most somewhere in tropical seaside destinations have today become an ordinary and exhausting reality of our days. When the mercury in the thermometer stays dangerously long around forty, when heated concrete radiates warmth late into the night and the air literally turns into a heavy, breathless mass, our body switches into emergency mode.
While we instinctively seek out air-conditioned rooms, buy litres of ice cream, look for a piece of shade or spend hours immersed in the cool water of lakes and swimming pools, our body is making an invisible, all the more intense effort to keep its inner balance. We all feel it on our own skin – we are more tired, more listless, our usual spark is missing and our sleep loses its quality, because the body does not rest even at night. We notice how our skin perspires enormously, we feel our heart beating faster as it does its best to move the blood along and cool the surface of the body.
There is, however, one paired organ whose quiet exhaustion we do not see in the mirror and do not feel straight away, even though it carries the very greatest load in this demanding time – our kidneys.
What happens in our body?
To truly understand why lasting high temperatures are such a great burden for our body, we need to look for a moment at how this perfect little world works. The kidneys are far from being some passive reservoir for fluids. They are high-performance chemical laboratories and the most important purifying station of our body.
Every single day, a respectable 200 litres of blood flow through these two unassuming bean-shaped organs. Their unceasing task is to filter this blood deeply, to separate the beneficial substances from the accumulated toxins and metabolic waste. Besides this they regulate blood pressure, take part in the creation of red blood cells and keep a careful balance of critically important minerals such as sodium, potassium and calcium.
In the winter months, when we naturally lose less fluid through the skin and warm ourselves by sipping herbal teas, this filtering process works relatively smoothly and without greater fluctuations. As soon as extreme summer heat arrives, however, the rules of the game change radically.
Summer heat and the domino effect in the bloodstream
Heavy perspiration, which is our only natural cooling mechanism, causes a radical loss of water in the system. If we do not make up for this deficit at once with adequate, regular drinking – and hand on heart, drinking as much clean water in 40-degree heat as the body really evaporates is quite a challenge – our bloodstream begins to behave differently.
The blood slowly loses its natural volume, it becomes more viscous, heavier and thicker. Imagine how much harder a household pump has to work when, instead of clear water, it pushes thick syrup through fine little sieves. This is exactly the exhausting process that is happening inside you these days. The kidneys have to spend an enormous amount of energy on the basic filtering itself.
When the filtering system cannot keep up, a chain reaction begins. The urine becomes strongly concentrated, takes on a dark, deep yellow colour and a sharper, more distinct smell. In such a dense, unnatural environment, dangerous crystals of salts gather far more quickly. This creates an almost ideal ground for the forming of extremely painful kidney stones. A concentrated environment without regular flushing is at the same time a perfect, open invitation for unwanted bacteria, which can multiply here at a rocketing pace.
The 5 most common summer missteps by which we unknowingly harm ourselves
We make most of these mistakes in the good faith that we are simply trying to get through another hot day. Which habits undermine our kidneys the most?
- The illusion of hydration (caffeine and alcohol) - An iced coffee on a sun-baked terrace, a chilled mixed drink with a little umbrella by the pool or a cold beer seem to be the most perfect refreshment. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Caffeine and alcohol are among the strongest diuretics. This means that they make the body release considerably more fluid than it actually took in through them. So instead of a rescue and hydration, we give the kidneys only more overtime with breaking down chemicals, needless sweeteners and toxins.
- The wet swimsuit syndrome - This is an absolute summer classic that almost every woman knows well. We come out of the pleasant water and convince ourselves that the hot sun will surely dry us in a little while. We stay sitting on the blanket in a wet swimsuit, and so create a cool, damp microclimate in the sensitive area of the pelvis. The local immunity of the mucous membranes drops sharply at that moment and bacteria find a free path upwards through the urinary tract. What seemed an unimportant little chill can, within a few short hours, turn into a painful inflammation of the bladder, which may quickly move higher.
- Extreme air-conditioning shocks - Moving from a sun-baked street, where the asphalt radiates 40 degrees, straight into a car or an office cooled to a flat twenty degrees is an enormous shock for an overheated body. Icy, artificial air blowing directly onto the uncovered area of the lower back and hips causes the blood vessels to contract immediately. Circulation in important inner organs becomes poorer, which again creates perfect conditions for inflammatory processes to arise.
- Holding in urine while travelling - We are travelling on holiday, standing in long queues of traffic, on the beach, or we simply do not feel like looking for clean public toilets. Holding in urine, especially in the summer months, means one thing only: bacteria that would otherwise be washed out of the body naturally and at once are given luxurious time and space to multiply.
- Waiting for the feeling of thirst - Relying in summer on drinking only when you feel thirsty is a great mistake. Thirst is not the first signal that fluids are needed; it is already a warning that the body is genuinely dehydrated and the cells are beginning to suffer. At that moment the kidneys are already working in the difficult emergency mode we mentioned.
How to know that it is time to pay attention?
Our body speaks to us constantly and patiently, we only need to know how to listen properly. Reduced kidney function and overload usually do not show themselves straight away with sharp, unbearable pain. It begins very quietly, with soft signals. Have you ever noticed that you wake up in the morning with swollen eyelids or a swollen face? Do you feel your legs are heavy and painfully full after coming home from work, and do your favourite rings suddenly press uncomfortably into your fingers? Water retention is one of the first warning signals that your inner filter is losing its breath and cannot manage the fluids it receives effectively. Later a dull, vague ache in the lower back may join in, which we mistakenly take for a stiff spine from a draught, along with a deep, unexplained tiredness lasting all day, which not even an afternoon coffee can lift.
The way back to balance
The foundation for getting through this demanding time is, understandably, prevention and awareness. The alpha and omega is drinking clean water (ideally at room temperature, so that the body does not experience a temperature shock) and eating foods rich in natural fluids, such as watermelons or good honest cucumbers. It means not forgetting dry clothes right after swimming and protecting your lower back with a light cardigan from the direct draught of air conditioning.
Sometimes, though, not even the most careful drinking routine is enough and the body simply needs focused, loving support. When we at Panakeia saw what an enormous burden today's summers are for women's health, we decided to create a gentle safety net. We joined the deep knowledge of traditional, time-honoured herbalism with modern methods and developed the KIDNEYS Tincture.
Instead of a needlessly overcomplicated blend, we chose with precision and care honest extracts from three strong plants. These herbs not only complement one another, their effects are said to multiply each other, creating the most complete gentle support for your urinary system:
- Common goldenrod (the queen of purity): This unassuming yellow plant is rightly considered the absolute ruler of urinary wellbeing in European herbalism. It contains remarkably precious flavonoids and saponins, which are said to work as a gentle yet highly effective natural diuretic. Its main gift is said to be the ability to dilute concentrated urine, and so to flush the whole system actively and deeply. It is traditionally reached for to keep fine sand from settling and to help wash unwanted germs out of the body long before they can cause any trouble.
- Field horsetail (nature's little rescuer): An ancient soothing wonder, exceptional in the world of phytotherapy thanks to its remarkably high content of biologically available silica. It works as a perfect building and repairing material for irritated mucous membranes. If you have already made the wet swimsuit mistake we mentioned, or a draught has caught you and you feel the first unpleasant signs of discomfort, horsetail steps in as an emergency helper. It is said to soothe sensitive tissues swiftly, to ease stinging, to calm inflammatory processes and to support the quick renewal of cells actively.
- Silver birch (the mistress of drainage): The delicate little leaves of this beautiful tree are literally masters of drainage and gentle detoxification. They are rich in betulin and an enormous amount of beneficial essential oils. Birch extract gently but firmly is said to stimulate kidney function and to help a weary body release retained lymph. It is exactly the key ingredient that frees you from the unpleasant feeling of heavy, swollen legs and brings back into your step that longed-for sense of lightness.
Natural summer care
The form we chose for this product is certainly no coincidence. Liquid herbal extracts in the form of a tincture are absorbed into the bloodstream through the mucous membranes in the mouth and stomach far more quickly and several times more effectively than classic teas. What is more, let us be honest – in 40-degree heat very few of us feel like standing in the kitchen over a boiling kettle and sipping a hot drink.
Make our new addition your own pleasant, caring habit. It is enough to add 20 drops three times a day straight into your favourite glass of clean water. Not only will you support your daily drinking routine completely naturally and proactively, you will at the same time give your body the most concentrated strength of nature. It will help your body move through all the challenges of extreme summer days safely, without discomfort and with lightness. Pause for a moment, breathe deeply and think above all of yourself and your body. It manages an incredible amount for you every single day. You deserve to live through this beautiful summer time in full health, vitality and without limits.