March is Kidney Awareness Month

BARNESVILLE, OHIO – This month is National Kidney Month, and WVU Medicine Barnesville Hospital hopes to raise awareness of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and educate the public on reducing their risk of getting CKD in the future.

Carissa Allen, P.A.-C., a physician assistant at WVU Medicine Morristown Family Medicine, shared the following information on kidney disease:

In the United States, more than 37 million adults are estimated to have kidney disease. Around 90 percent of individuals suffering from CKD are unaware that they have it.

 There are several risk factors for kidney disease, including:

• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Family history

Anyone that is older than 18 years old with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or a family history of CKD should be screened.

There are certain populations that are also at increased risk for developing CKD, including people of Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian American, or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander descent.

Chronic kidney disease in the early stages often has no symptoms; having routine labs drawn to detect it is crucial for prevention. You can do this by meeting regularly with your primary care provider.

If your kidney function is abnormal, creatinine levels in your blood rise due to the kidneys not excreting through your urine. Your glomerular filtration rate, or GFR, will then be calculated. This number takes your age, gender, creatinine, and ethnicity into account and helps healthcare providers determine a stage of chronic kidney disease.

Working closely with your primary care provider to help manage your blood pressure and diabetes can help prevent CKD from developing or advancing.

Avoiding medications like NSAIDs, which include ibuprofen and naproxen, can also be incredibly protective for kidneys.

You should also work with your doctor to maintain a healthy weight and facilitate a weight-loss program or regimen, if this is appropriate for you. Maintaining a healthy exercise program of at least 30 minutes daily is also kidney protective. Finally, if you smoke, you should work on quitting.

End-stage renal disease does have treatment options including dialysis, which removes excess fluid and waste from your body when your kidneys are no longer able to do so. This occurs when the body loses 85-90 percent of its kidney function. There are approximately 380,000 individuals in the United States, including children, that depend on dialysis. Finally, a kidney transplant is the only other option for individuals with end stage renal disease.

To learn more about chronic kidney disease, visit CDC.gov/Kidney-Disease.