Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has almost become a household name these days. The number of patients that I see now with CKD has surpassed all the previous years. What could be the reason for this?
In my opinion we are living in a culture of disease where we believe that after a certain age diabetes and hypertension are normal. We just go to the doctor and take medications for these. The fact that we have been diagnosed and will require medication for the rest of our life doesn’t seem to bother us much because this is what everybody is doing.
Unfortunately, both diabetes and hypertension can result in chronic kidney failure. The combination of these is even more deadly. The kidneys are organs of excretion and help throw out impurities from our body, including medicines, chemicals etc. As the medicine load on the body increases, the kidneys are further under pressure.
When the kidneys are damaged serum urea, BUN or creatinine are high and electrolyte imbalance can occur. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) can lead to decreased haemoglobin, vitamin D and high PTH, upsetting the calcium levels too.
CKD, is quite prevalent today and all too often leads to dialysis or kidney transplant. Kidney transplants are not always the best solution because the recipient needs to be on immunosuppressants for the rest of their life and the resulting lowered immunity can lead to yet other infections, complications and death.
Wouldn’t it be better to consider our health as the only insurance that really works and take care of it NOW?
