Tina Turner Urged Fans to Take Care of Their Kidneys Months Before She Died

In one of her final social media posts, Tina Turner opened up about having kidney disease and warned fans to prioritize their health.

A spokesperson for the legendary singer announced her death on Wednesday, stating that she died "after a long illness." She was 83.

Two months before, Turner marked International World Kidney Day with an important message on Instagram.

"Today is International World Kidney Day. Why is it important? Because kidneys fail without pain," she wrote. "And that's why I'm telling you today: Show your kidneys love! They deserve it."

She then opened up about her own journey with kidney disease and expressed regret for not leaning on "conventional medicine."

"My kidneys are victims of my not realising that my high blood pressure should have been treated with conventional medicine," she added. "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."

The Best singer continued her story on the Show your Kidneys Love website, which revealed that her kidneys failed due to hypertension. Her husband of nearly 10 years, Erwin Bach, donated one of his kidneys "to save her life."

Documenting her story, Turner shared that she was diagnosed with hypertension in 1978, "but didn’t care much about it." Seven years later, a doctor prescribed her daily pills to treat the condition.

"I didn't give it any more thought," she said.

Her health took a turn when she had a stroke in 2009.

"This is when I first learned that my kidneys didn’t work that well anymore."

She shared that her "fatal dislike" for taking prescribed pills caused her to try homeopathic treatment, which worsened her condition.

"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," the icon wrote at the time. "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."

She was then on dialysis for nine months before undergoing her transplant.

Turner detailed her life after the operation, one that she described as "a never ending up and down."

"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," wrote Turner. "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."