- Tina Turner expressed regret over not taking care of her kidneys two months before her death.
- In one of her final Instagram posts, the singer opened up about her experience with kidney disease.
Tina Turner expressed regret over not taking better care of her kidneys in an Instagram post shared two months before her death.
The legendary singer, best known for her her hits "What's Love Got to Do With It" and "The Best," died on Wednesday after a "long illness." She was 83.
Turner's cause of death hasn't been shared, though the eight-time Grammy Award-winning singer experienced a number of health issues in recent years, including intestinal cancer, a stroke, and kidney failure.
Turner said she thought her body was 'untouchable' for too long
In one of her final Instagram posts, which she shared on March 9, Turner opened up about how she put herself in "great danger" by initially ignoring the symptoms and severity of kidney disease.
Symptoms of kidney disease can include a lack of energy or problems concentrating, trouble sleeping, dry or itchy skin, the need to pee more than usual, blood in urine, puffiness around the eyes, swollen ankles and feet, a lack of appetite, and cramping muscles.
"Today is International World Kidney Day. Why is it important? Because kidneys fail without pain. And that's why I'm telling you today: Show your kidneys love! They deserve it," her post began.
"My kidneys are victims of my not realising that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine," she continued. "I have put myself in great danger by refusing to face the reality that I need daily, lifelong therapy with medication."
"For far too long I believed that my body was an untouchable and indestructible bastion."
Turner then directed her followers to a website where she described her experience with kidney failure in more detail.
In the lengthy post, the singer said that she was first diagnosed with hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, 45 years ago in 1978. Around this time, Turner was touring and she said that she "didn't care much about" it.
High blood pressure is the second leading cause of kidney disease, according to the American Heart Association. A lot of blood flows through the kidneys' filters, so if uncontrolled blood pressure causes the arteries around the kidneys to narrow, the vessels can become hard or weak and unable to get enough blood to the organs.
As her condition worsened, in part because she sought out homeopathic alternatives to conventional medication, she began dialysis which she described as a "depressing" process that left her connected to a machine for hours.
Kidney disease is treated with dialysis as a last resort, when they aren't able able to clear toxins by themselves and the person has complete or near-complete kidney failure. Dialysis does the job of the kidneys, removing toxins and extra fluid from the blood.
For those in the earlier stages of kidney disease, doctors try and treat the cause of the problem, for example, high blood pressure, with medication.
Turner's husband donated his kidney to her
In 2017, Turner's second husband Erwin Bach donated one of his kidneys to the singer, which her body tried to reject and resulted in more hospital admissions. At the time of writing, Tuner said that the "problems are still not quite resolved."
Rejection after a transplant usually happens when the immune system attacks the organ because it sees it as a foreign body, and can happen even if a person takes immunosuppressant drugs.
Speaking about the "Proud Mary" singer on MSNBC's "The Beat With Ari Melber" on Wednesday evening, singer Cher said that Turner was "really sick" in her final years and confirmed that she had continued to use a dialysis machine in her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland.
"She fought this sickness for such a long time and she was so strong as you think she would be, but I know towards the end, she told me once, she said, 'I'm really ready. I just don't want to put up with this anymore,'" she added.
In addition to the statement from her family, the news of Turner's passing was also shared a statement posted to her Instagram page.
"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Tina Turner. With her music and her boundless passion for life, she enchanted millions of fans around the world and inspired the stars of tomorrow," the statement read.
"Today we say goodbye to a dear friend who leaves us all her greatest work: her music. All our heartfelt compassion goes out to her family. Tina, we will miss you dearly."