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High blood pressure and kidney disease: what it does to the kidneys, who is more likely, the numbers and tests, the medicines, and everyday steps
For adults with high blood pressure who want to protect their kidneys, or who were told high blood pressure is hurting their kidneys, and the people who help them. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says: how high blood pressure harms the kidneys and how damaged kidneys raise it more; how common both are; who is more likely; the symptoms, and why there often are none; what the two blood pressure numbers mean and the blood and urine tests for the kidneys; ACE inhibitors, ARBs and diuretics; sodium, the DASH eating plan and protein; and activity, weight, smoking, alcohol and stress. It builds the questions to ask and prints a card for writing down each reading. Nothing is saved.
Right now
- Chest pain, trouble breathing, a sudden very bad headache, weakness on one side, trouble speaking, or someone who cannot be woken? Call 911 (ours).
- New or worse swelling in the legs, feet or ankles? Tell your health care team soon (ours). If it comes with chest pain or trouble breathing, call 911.
- Thoughts of suicide, or all too much? Call or text 988, any hour, free (ours).
More help
- On this site: When it’s your kidneys · How the kidneys work · Eating with kidney disease · Diabetic kidney disease · Kidney failure: choosing a treatment · Kidneys, bladder and urine: find the right page.
- Blood pressure and heart: When it’s high blood pressure · Blood pressure log · Heart failure.
- For you: When you want to quit smoking · When you can’t afford your medicine · When you need a doctor and can’t pay · Get ready for your appointment. In an emergency: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
Kidneys, bladder or urine, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for bladder infections, kidney stones, blood in the urine, bladder pain, bladder leaks, the prostate, kidney disease and bedwetting, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- Medicines and your kidneys: the blood pressure medicines, your pharmacist and your list, NSAIDs, and a plan for sick days: medicines and your kidneys: how to tell an ACE inhibitor (-pril), an ARB (-sartan) and a water pill; one pharmacy and one up-to-date list; NSAIDs in pain, fever and cold medicines; the questions to ask before you get sick; and why being dehydrated changes things.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse or dietitian has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 21, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page High Blood Pressure & Kidney Disease and its Spanish twin, both last reviewed in March 2020; the numbers on it are NIDDK’s, from the CDC and NHLBI sources it cites. One line comes from another NIDDK page, and says so: that ACE inhibitors and ARBs are not safe during pregnancy is from NIDDK’s page Diabetic Kidney Disease (February 2017). The medicines named are the kinds NIDDK names, with no brands and no doses, and we give no blood pressure goal number: NIDDK says to ask for your own. Ours: the 911 and 988 lines; telling your team soon about new swelling; never stopping or changing a medicine on your own; calling soon if you take a blood pressure medicine and are or may become pregnant; writing each reading down; the questions to ask; the card; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: NIDDK’s chart of the causes of kidney failure, its section on clinical trials, and the other NIDDK pages it links to, which we did not read. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.