Wellness Wednesday is sponsored by Intermountain Health
The modern world challenges our bodies in ways they didn’t evolve to handle. And in modern America especially, our kidneys face test after test. But our kidneys do more than most of us realize, often to our detriment.
“I think the kidneys do lot more than what a lot of people realize,” said Dr. Gopal Chemiti is a board-certified nephrologist with Intermountain Health Kidney Services.
It’s Dr. Chemiti’s job to know more about kidneys than most of us ever will.
“Not only filtering and cleaning the blood, they also regulate your blood pressure, regulate your hemoglobin, regulate lot of electrolytes in your body, like sodium, potassium, acid levels. So, kidneys do lot more than just filtering the blood and getting rid of toxins,” he said.
Did you know that one in seven adults are affected by kidney disease in our country, but nine out of 10 of those people don't know it?
“That is biggest problem here is so many people have chronic kidney disease, but most of them — 90% of them, do not know they have chronic kidney disease…Chronic kidney disease in early on stages is silent disease, so people do not have any symptoms,” said Chemiti.
Break down the numbers, and that means about 39 million of us have chronic kidney disease and don’t know it.
So, what does that mean?
It means the kidney is in some stage of losing its ability to function. At stage one, two and three, you can slow down kidney disease.
“Unfortunately, by the time you reach stage four and stage five, it is too late, and only option will be in those patients will be starting dialysis, or if you are an eligible candidate, refer to transplantation,” said Chemiti.
You don’t want to need a kidney transplant. So, what can you do right now to keep your kidneys healthy?
“Early detection is very important. This is a very simple blood and urine testing which can be done by your primary care doctor on an annual physical evaluation.” said Chemiti.
Chemiti said this test will help patients and their doctors learn their Kidney Risk Score, which provides an estimate of a patient’s risk of kidney failure in the next five years.
The National Kidney Foundation also offers a free self-screening tool online that can help you determine if you are at risk for kidney disease. You can find that online at www.minuteforyourkidneys.org
