December 04, 2009
All You Need to Know About Chronic Kidney Disease
If you’re not familiar with what chronic kidney disease is, let me explain – your kidneys play the role of filtering waste from your body and removing excess water from your blood. When they stop functioning normally, toxins and water build up in your body and cause complications. When you suffer from chronic kidney disease, your kidneys slowly begin to deteriorate and finally stop functioning after a certain period of time. You will need dialysis and/or a transplantation to survive at this point. It’s a painful and uncomfortable disease, so if you’re at risk, you need to know all you can about chronic kidney disease so you can do what you can to prevent it:
• According to the 2009 annual report prepared by the U.S. Renal Data System, the incidence of chronic kidney disease has increased by more than one percent in the U.S. Medicare population.
• Diabetes is the leading cause of chronic kidney disease, so if you have this disease or at risk of contracting it because of your lifestyle and/or hereditary factors, you must take adequate care to prevent becoming a casualty.
• Besides diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, age and a strong family history of kidney disease are indicators of your risk to chronic kidney disease.
• African Americans and Hispanics are more prone to this disease than Caucasians.
• A study published in the Journal of American Society of Nephrology has found that over 650,000 Americans are likely to develop end-stage renal disease by 2010.
• When you have chronic kidney disease, you are likely to be beset by cardiovascular problems and anemia.
• Children with chronic kidney disease are prone to hypertension. This increases their risk of cardiovascular disease.
• If you have chronic kidney disease, you are at a higher risk for a stroke.
• With the rising incidence of hypertension, coronary artery disease and hypertension because of our lifestyles, there is bound to be an increase in chronic kidney disease.
• Early screening and diagnosis can help you prevent and avoid the need for dialysis. So if you have diabetes or are at risk for it, ensure that you get your kidneys checked regularly. It’s easy enough to get tested for kidney damage – all you need to do is provide a urine sample for testing. If your urine is found to have traces of albumin according to the microalbumin test or if your blood shows high levels of creatinine, then you could start treatment to avoid kidney failure which is an inevitable consequence of kidney damage if you don’t get treatment at the right time.
This article is contributed by Carol Smith, who regularly writes on the topic of ultrasound tech school. She invites your questions, comments at her email address: smithcarol.311@rediffmail.com