Following Tina Turner’s death on May 24 at age 83, it was reported that the legendary singer had died of natural causes.
The “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” had struggled with several health issues, however, including long-term kidney disease.
As recently as March 9, on World Kidney Day, Turner announced her support of an international campaign for kidney health via Instagram.
Turner shared in the post how her failure to seek treatment had harmed her health and endangered her life.
“I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication,” Tina Turner wrote in March 2023. (Getty Images)
Turner’s battle with kidney issues began in 1978, when she was diagnosed with hypertension.
Not realizing the danger that her high blood pressure posed, she never made much of an effort to control it, as she wrote in a story posted on ShowYourKidneysLove.com, a kidney awareness website.
“In 1985, a doctor gave me a prescription for pills, of which I was supposed to take one a day, and that was it,” she wrote. “I didn’t give it any more thought.”
It wasn’t until 2009, when the “poorly controlled hypertension” caused the singer to suffer a stroke, that Turner started to understand the function and purpose of the kidneys.
“This is when I first learned that my kidneys didn’t work that well anymore,” Turner wrote. “They had already lost 35% of their function.”
The singer continued taking blood pressure medication, but she believed it only made her feel worse.
Turner’s battle with kidney issues began in 1978, when she was diagnosed with hypertension that went uncontrolled for a long time. (Getty Images)
“I had not known that uncontrolled hypertension would worsen my renal disease and that I would kill my kidneys by giving up on controlling my blood pressure,” Turner wrote in the online story. “I never would have replaced my medication (with) the homeopathic alternatives if I had an idea how much was at stake for me.”
“Thanks to my naivety, I had ended up at the point where it was about life or death,” she wrote.
By this time, Turner was suffering from signs of late-stage kidney disease, including fatigue, nausea and irritability.
Turner’s only option was to start dialysis, which is a treatment that removes excess fluid and waste from the blood when the kidneys cannot function properly.
“The doctors made it very clear that the consequences of my decision were irreversible.”
Just two months after the Instagram post announcing her support of kidney health awareness and sharing her own story, Turner died in her Switzerland home.
What is kidney disease?
Healthy kidneys have three key jobs, per the National Kidney Foundation (NKF). They remove waste products and excess fluid from the body, help to control blood pressure and play a role in producing red blood cells.
Kidney failure, also known as renal failure, occurs when 85-90% of the organs’ function is gone and they can no longer work on their own. This causes extra fluid and toxic waste to build up in the body, which can cause life-threatening conditions.
Dialysis is a treatment that removes excess fluid and waste from the blood when the kidneys cannot function properly. (iStock)
The two primary causes of kidney disease are high blood pressure, as was the case for Turner, and diabetes.
“Hypertension can cause the blood vessels leading to the kidneys to become weaker, narrower or hardened, which can lead to decreased blood flow to the kidneys,” said Kersten Bartelt, a Wisconsin-based clinician and researcher who recently completed a study on chronic kidney disease for Epic Research, in an email to Fox News Digital.
Stage one is considered mild — “the kidneys continue to work almost as well as normal,” Drucker said.
During stage two, the kidneys continue to work adequately and there are minimal symptoms, if any.
In stage three, symptoms such as fatigue, swelling of the hands and feet, and dry skin most often begin, Drucker said. “The kidneys are losing their ability to adequately filter the blood.”
“There are approximately 100,000 Americans on the list for a kidney transplant — however, due to a shortage of donors, only about 25% are able to receive a donor kidney,” he added.
“There are approximately 100,000 Americans on the list for a kidney transplant — however, due to a shortage of donors, only about 25% are able to receive a donor kidney.”
People in renal failure require continuous treatment to stay alive. The two options for treatment are dialysis and a kidney transplant.
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“The dialysis treatments or transplanted kidneys will take over some of the work of your damaged kidneys and remove wastes and extra fluid from your body,” NKF states on its website. “This will make many of your symptoms better.”
As many as nine in 10 adults with chronic kidney disease are not aware that they have it.
People 65 years of age and older are at higher risk of the disease, making up 38% of the cases, compared to 12% of those aged 45 to 64 and just 6% of those aged 18 to 44.
