Chronic Kidney Disease: The Silent Disease

Are you at risk for the silent disease?

You know when you have a headache, sore throat, a cold or the flu. But do you know if you have Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), a potentially fatal condition that's often called "the silent disease" because it frequently isnt detected until it has reached the later stages?

Now is the perfect time to take this test from the National Kidney Foundation to see if you are at risk for Chronic Kidney Disease. If any of the following statements below apply to you - you may be at risk:

• You have diabetes
• You have high blood pressure or heart disease
• You have a family history of chronic kidney disease
• You are 60 years of age or older
• Your ethnic background is African-American, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander

The above are risk factors for CKD. If they apply to you, you may have CKD.

What Does a Healthy Kidney Do?

• balance your body's fluids by filtering and releasing wastes and excess fluids from your body as urine
• regulate your body's fluid level and important minerals in your blood such as sodium, potassium, phosphorus and calcium
• remove drugs and toxins from your body
• release hormones into your blood that control blood pressure, make red blood cells and keep your bones healthy.
• When you have chronic kidney disease, your kidneys can no longer perform these functions properly.

The leading causes of CKD are diabetes and high blood pressure. Diabetes increases pressure inside the kidney's filters. Over a period of time, this pressure damages the filters, which then leak protein into the urine. High blood pressure, or hypertension, means that the pressure of your blood against the walls of your blood vessels increases. If left untreated, hypertension can lead to CKD, heart attacks and strokes.

If you have any of the risk factors or symptoms here, or don't know whether or not you have any of the risk factors mentioned, ask your doctor immediately for tests, including blood and urine tests that can determine how your kidneys are functioning. If left unchecked, CKD can lead to cardiovascular disease, among other serious health problems, as well as kidney failure.

For more information, call the National Kidney Foundation of West Tennessee , 901-683-6185.

LINK | National Kidney Foundation of West Tennessee

LINK | Test Your Kidney IQ