Physical exercise

How exercise helps you

There are many benefits of regular exercise: it not only has positive physical effects but also encourages a healthier lifestyle. A regular work-out gives you more energy to do things and a greater sense of control over your life. It’s good for your blood pressure, and may help to prevent heart problems.

It strengthens muscles and makes joints more flexible, so you’ll find it easier to do daily activities that involve movements such as reaching or bending. Being more flexible can also improve your sense of balance. All you have to invest is a bit of your time. In any case, you should always consult your physician before beginning any exercise plan. Ask him which kind of exercise you should do or if there’s any kind of exercise you should avoid depending on your health status and type of vascular access.

Benefits of exercise

Improve your digestion
Raise your energy levels
Sleep better
Lower your cholesterol levels
Reduce stress
Decrease risk of heart disease

Exercising can also give your appetite a boost, and help you absorb the important energy your body needs. Find out more about energy in our Good Food section.

Always good for you

Your exercise programme doesn’t need to be about sporting excellence – which would put too much strain on your system, anyway – but should concentrate on lighter exercise.

The most beneficial type of exercise is endurance training, which you should do regularly. Endurance sport gently activates muscles. It helps them grow at a slow, steady rate, supporting your bone structure.

This sort of exercise reduces body fat, lowers blood pressure and has beneficial effects on blood sugar and blood fat levels. It also strengthens the immune system over the long-term. Consult your NephroCare team about what exercise you can do and with what intensity. Here are some ideas to get you started:

For example, start each day with 10 minutes of gymnastics – arm circling, torso circling, simple leg lifts or jogging on the spot. This will get your circulation going as soon as you get out of bed. It improves your coordination and mobility and you’ll feel fit for the rest of the day!

Cycling and walking are activities that you can do as long and as much as you wish. Plus, they are great activities to do with other people!

Swimming and underwater gymnastics are particularly suitable for dialysis patients. Almost all the muscles in the body are strengthened, plus, joints and bones are maintained.

Use your daily tasks as an opportunity to keep fit: take the stairs instead of the lift; walk or cycle to the shops – it’s good for the environment and it’s good for you – a short walk before bedtime clears your head and promotes a more restful sleep.

Control your fluid intake

Exercise can make you sweat, and this may affect your fluid intake. You should discuss this topic with your dietician before you make changes to the amount of fluids you drink.

Find out more about fluid intake in our Good Food section

You can exercise at home

We created physical exercise tutorials for strength, aerobic, balance and flexibility, which patients can do at home. These videos are for patients which want to improve in physical exercise and look for exercises which only require regular household items. Please discuss with your care team which exercises are right for you.

Patient Engagement

Patient empowerment has a positive impact on patients’ emotional and physical well-being, and consequently, on their behaviour, satisfaction and treatment compliance.
We continuously interact with our patients to understand what matters to them and to support them in health-related topics:
• Introduction to dialysis
• Nutritional education
• Fistula care
• Staying active
• Holiday Dialysis Coordination

For more information please visit our patient section.

Patient Engagement

Patient empowerment has a positive impact on patients’ emotional and physical well-being, and consequently, on their behaviour, satisfaction and treatment compliance.
We continuously interact with our patients to understand what matters to them and to support them in health-related topics:
• Introduction to dialysis
• Nutritional education
• Fistula care
• Staying active
• Holiday Dialysis Coordination

For more information please visit our patient section.

Clinic Infrastructure

A key way for us to provide standardised treatment in workflow-orientated settings is to design the best possible clinical pathways, with tailored facility layouts and quality dialysis fluids.
With our clinic infrastructure set-up we aim to facilitate proper hygiene, safety and optimized patient supervision.

Therapies, Products and Medications

With NephroCare, we are able to provide an optimal therapy mix - in center, at home, in hospitals - fitting to our patient population and the needs of healthcare systems.
For tailored therapies our patients benefit from our experience in patient-specific therapy prescriptions with our Fresenius Medical Care products and high-quality medicinal products.
You can benefit from our innovative products and technology – Your wellbeing and safety is always the highest priority.
For further information about our advanced products please refer to the Fresenius Medical Care website.

Physicians, Nurses and Specialists

Highly-motivated, -trained and -experienced physicians, nurses and specialists are key in renal patient care.
In a clinical setting, not only technology and medical expertise are essential. Our professionals also provide a human and emotional link with the patients.
Please see our treatment options for more information.

Quality Management

To achieve the appropriate integration of these quality requirements into our structured processes.
A core element of our quality management system consists of corporate directives specifying key requirements for the processes in our NephroCare organisation, e.g. by setting standards for hygiene and infection control, good dialysis care, water, concentrate and dialysis fluid for haemodialysis and related therapies.

Clinical and Operational Performance

In order to provide sustainable and value-based healthcare, our multidisciplinary center teams of different professions come together to jointly manage our dialysis centers.
Monitoring tools support our professionals to measure the achievement of performance targets. It serves to guide continuous improvement.

Clinic Information System

No improvement without data. EuCliD^®, NephroCare’s proprietary clinical management system provides comprehensive information of each dialysis treatment and patient, allowing the medical staff in the NephroCare centres to take the right decisions to improve the treatment for each individual patient.

It facilitates the day-to-day work of the clinical staff, integrating processes into the data collection flow.
Directly linked to the dialysis machines, the monitoring system feeds patient data and medical parameters from dialysis sessions into the data management system, which also checks the data for completeness and plausibility.

Physical exercise

Benefits of exercise

Always good for you

Gymnastics

Control your fluid intake

You can exercise at home

Patient Engagement

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