Are You At Risk for Kidney Disease?

There are over 120,000 Americans currently waiting on life-saving organ transplants, and three out of every four, or 75% of them are waiting on kidneys. With March, National Kidney Month, quickly coming to an end, we would like to briefly share a few of the factors that can lead to your risk of kidney disease being elevated.

Kidney (Photo credit: Joshua Schwimmer)

These factors include :

1. diabetes,
2. hypertension (high blood pressure),
3. family history,
4. being elderly (60+ years of age), and
5. a history of kidney stones.

If you have one, or more, of these risk factors, you should have your kidney function tested. As with most medical ailments, such as cancer, early detection is vital to treating the disease. Please do not wait until your health deteriorates if 1 of the 5 factors above apply to you. With early detection there are a number of things that can be done to treat kidney disease, such as :

• reducing salt (sodium) intake,
• reducing blood pressure,
• reducing blood sugar,
• getting more exercise,
• drinking more water,
• quitting smoking, and
• not using pain medication excessively.

Just remember - early detection is key as there are often no symptoms associated with the onset of kidney disease.

With such a large percentage of the current transplant waiting list being made up of people who need a kidney, we also would like to encourage you to visit our website, www.SaveLivesTN.org, by clicking here to learn how to become a registered organ donor.

Source :article on www.OurMidland.com titled "Check Risk Factors During National Kidney Month"

Related articles

• A Look At the Importance of Kidney Health (ny1.com)
• March is National Kidney Month! (talk-diabetes.org)
• Controlling other health issues reduces kidney disease risk (louisianaweekly.com)
• Elderly more at risk of chronic kidney disease - AKU edu (sjpaderborn.wordpress.com)