In one of her last haunting interviews, Tina Turner warned others not to make the same “fatal” mistakes that cost her her health.
The 83-year-old music icon died on Thursday (AEDT), with the cause attributed to a “long illness”.
Just two months ago, the pop legend told of her own battle with hypertension and kidney disease, and why she blamed herself for the severity of her condition.
“My kidneys are victims of me denying the fact that my hypertension needed therapy with conventional medicine,” she revealed in an article published by Show Your Kidneys Love in March.
“I put myself at great danger by refusing to accept the reality that I required daily medication for the rest of my life.
“I considered my body an invulnerable and indestructible bastion for way too long.”
Turner said she had suffered hypertension since 1978, but had not given it much thought, and did not really understand its effect on kidneys.
“Hence, I didn’t really try to control it,” she said, explaining that kidney failure was silent and painless.
After suffering a stroke in 2009, Turner struggled to get back on her feet and learned that her kidneys had lost 35 per cent function.
Yet she continued to ignore medical advice and developed a “fatal dislike” for the daily medication she had been prescribed to control the high-blood pressure.
She instead chose to replace her conventional medication with homeopathic treatments.
“I had not told my doctors about my experiment, and when my next routine check-up was due, I was excited to see if the homeopathic medication had decreased my blood pressure and improved my kidney function,” she said.
“Rarely in my life had I been so wrong.
“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.
“I never would have replaced my medication by the homeopathic alternatives if I had 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.”
Doctors told Tina Turner that the consequences of her decisions were “irreversible”.
She had no choice but to undertake daily dialysis, hooked up to a machine for hours each day, in order to survive.
This was her life for nine months until her Swiss husband Erwin Bach offered to donate one of his kidneys in 2017.
Even after the transplant, Turner’s health problems were ongoing.
“The months after the transplantation were marked by a never ending up and down,” she said.
“From time to time my body tried to reject the donor kidney as it frequently happens after a transplantation.
“Every so often this required more hospital admissions. I kept feeling nauseous and dizzy, forgot things, and was scared a lot.
“These problems are still not quite resolved. I am on multiple prescriptions and take great care to follow my doctors’ orders meticulously.
“For I know that I can trust them and their therapies.”
Turner shared her story to encourage others to take care of their kidneys.
“Show your kidneys love! They deserve it,” she said.
