If you’ve been diagnosed with immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgA nephropathy or IgAN), have you ever wondered what exercises you can safely participate in? You’re not alone. Many people diagnosed with chronic health conditions, including chronic kidney disease like IgAN, wonder if they can still exercise and, if they can, what exercises they should do. Let’s chat about how you can participate in exercise, how it can affect your prognosis, and what types of exercises might be best.

Is Exercise Safe for People With IgAN?

Exercise is a great way to get your blood pumping and reduce your risk for certain diseases. One study found that regular exercise reduced the mortality rate of people with kidney disease by 50 percent. Suffice to say, exercise is good for you.

Research has found that exercise is beneficial for people with kidney disease and can reduce the mortality rate by 50 percent.

IgA Nephropathy and Exercise Safety

Part of the kidney’s job is to stop large amounts of protein, like albumin, from getting through the filters and into your urine. So if a lot of protein is in your urine, that could mean the kidney is not doing its job as usual. One of the signs of IgA nephropathy is protein and/or blood in your urine.

Under normal conditions, exercise causes a shift in our albumin levels and can actually cause some to end up in our urine. One of the fears people with kidney disease may have about exercising is that it might increase protein in the urine and therefore speed up the disease process.

Exercise in people with IgAN does, in fact, increase protein in the urine, just like it does in those without kidney disease. However, the increase only lasts a couple of hours and does not make it unsafe for people with IgAN to exercise.

Exercise and Kidney Disease

Physical activity not only helps manage chronic conditions, but it also helps to reduce your risk of worsening disease. It can be part of your treatment plan’s lifestyle changes.

Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, and Insulin

IgAN can have other medical complications, such as:

• High blood pressure
• Cardiovascular disease
• Progression to chronic kidney disease and kidney failure

Exercise can help control blood pressure and reduce cholesterol levels, helping to manage your overall health as well as your kidney health. Exercise can also have beneficial effects on insulin resistance in people with kidney disease. This can be especially important if you also have diabetes or are prediabetic.

Kidney Health

Exercise has been shown to improve inflammation in people with kidney disease. IgAN is due to a buildup of IgA antibodies (a protein that normally helps fight germs) in your kidneys, which can cause inflammation. Reducing inflammation can be beneficial in managing the disease. One study showed that exercise might also help with maintaining renal function in people with IgAN, which can slow the progression of the disease.

Exercise has been shown to improve inflammation in people with kidney disease.

Heart Health

Since IgAN can increase your risk of heart failure and heart attacks, it’s important to take preventive measures to manage your heart health. Exercise can improve the overall function of your heart and lungs. People with kidney disease can have scarring of the heart muscle tissue, which can also be reduced with exercise.

Your heart’s ability to recover from exercise is an important indicator of heart health. One study looked at heart rate recovery — how quickly your heart returns to a normal rhythm after exercise. The study found that a slower heart rate recovery after walking was associated with a worse prognosis for IgAN. Exercising regularly can train your heart to have improved recovery after exercise and, therefore, improved heart health.

Muscle and Bone

Exercise has a well-known effect of increasing muscle mass and bone density. People with IgAN can experience bone loss, especially if one of the medications prescribed for treatment is a corticosteroid. Exercise can help to stimulate bone growth, improve bone density, and reduce bone loss.

People with kidney disease can have difficulty building and maintaining muscle as a complication of reduced kidney function. Exercise has been shown to stimulate cells that build muscle, helping counteract the effects of kidney disease on muscles.

Mental Health

Exercise can also have a positive effect on mental health. It’s been shown to reduce depression symptoms in people with IgAN and improve their quality of life. Exercise can help reduce stress, which is a common symptom among people with chronic illnesses, and improve overall mood.

What Exercises To Try

When starting a new exercise program, it’s always best to consult with your medical team first. They will provide you with the best guidelines for what your body can handle based on your overall health level and the stage of your IgAN. It’s especially important to consult your doctor if you have additional conditions such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, swelling, or fatigue.

The frequency you see your nephrologist will depend on your IgAN stage, treatment plan, and how often you’re looking to make exercise changes. Your doctor might recommend that you work with other medical professionals to help you with exercise programming and monitor your response to exercise.

Exercise Suggestions

There are tons of different ways to stay active, so if one method doesn’t work for you, you have plenty of other options. This can be a mix of aerobic exercise, which gets your heart pumping, and resistance exercise, which helps to keep you strong. Some options include:

• Walking
• Hiking
• Biking
• Yoga
• Tennis or pickleball
• Swimming
• Low to moderate intensity resistance training
• Chores around your house

There are tons of options, so find what works for you. You can also consult with an exercise specialist, such as a physical therapist, exercise physiologist, athletic trainer, or even personal trainer, to get more ideas.

How To Start Incorporating Daily Activity

Exercise is most helpful when it’s done regularly. It’s best to try to work your way up to doing some form of activity daily, if possible. One key to making exercise a regular habit is to find something that you enjoy. Another trick is finding ways to fit it more conveniently into your schedule so it doesn’t feel like a big deal; it just becomes another part of your daily routine (much like brushing your teeth).

The key to incorporating exercise into your routine is to start slowly and find an activity that you enjoy doing.

Starting with something easy is a great way to begin. This can be as simple as walking around the block. As you start to build up your exercise tolerance, you’ll want to check in with your health team to make sure that your body is handling the exercise load well. Your medical team can check your kidney function and make adjustments to your treatment and exercise plan as needed. Be sure not to push yourself too hard to avoid overexertion. When exercising, also make sure to stay hydrated, as many activities can cause you to sweat and lose fluids.

Exercise is just part of a well-rounded treatment program for your kidney disease. Be sure to talk with your medical team about how it fits into the overall plan. If you have any specific questions regarding what exercises might be right for you or where you should start, consult your medical team.

Join the Conversation

On myIgANteam, people share their experiences with IgAN, get advice, and find support from others who understand.

If you have IgAN, what have been some of your favorite ways to stay active? Let others know in the comments below.