37-million adult Americans suffer from kidney disease. That’s well over one in ten. Unfortunately, kidney disease is often detected late when most kidney function is gone.
Dr. Anitha Vijayan is Medical Director of Intermountain Kidney Services, and she still sees patients herself.
“I have patients who I’ve followed for 15 to 20 years. I also love hearing patients tell me about their children or their grandchildren...how they've watched them grow up over time. I enjoy that connection with my patients and really enjoy taking care of them over that long period of time.”
That really speaks to the fact that you can live a long and healthy life with kidney disease if you catch it.
Kidneys show how resilient and adaptable the human body is. They also show just how much we ask our bodies to handle.
There are lots of things that can go wrong with kidneys. Some of it is the result of genetics. Others, the result of our environment, and some the result of what we put in our bodies - loads of sugar, salt, and artificial additives.
“The kidneys probably will not do a good job of getting those things out of our system,” said Vijayan.
Working at their peak, kidneys filter out the bad stuff, and they recognize and distribute protein.
Think of the kidney as a colander, and protein is cooked pasta.
“If you're straining pasta of the water, dirty water, you know, that goes out, but the pasta stays in. But if you have a leak in that strainer, you know if the strainer is bad, then the pasta goes through, right? So, that’s protein.”
One of the problems detecting kidney disease is how well the organs work…until they don’t.
“The surprising part of kidney disease, which I think a lot of people fail to understand, is that it is really silent until it reaches like when your kidney function is probably less than 10%,” said Vijayan.
That’s the worst thing about being a kidney specialist. Seeing too many patients too late.
“I had a 28-year-old who had not seen a doctor because you know, I think most people in their 20s and 30s don't think they're unhealthy to enough to go to a doctor, and by the time he came to see me his kidney function was already 15%,” said Vijayan.
Dr. Vijayan has a simple request. The next time you see your primary care doctor, ask for a kidney risk score, which involves a blood test to measure kidney function called creatinine. The tests are simple, cheap, and can save you from years of suffering.
