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National Kidney Month March 2018

The National Kidney Foundation is the leading organization in the U.S, dedicated to the awareness, prevention and treatment of kidney disease for hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals, millions of patients and their families, as well as tens of millions of Americans at risk.

Free Screening

On March 8th 2018 World Kidney Day and throughout the month of March 2018

National Kidney Foundation (NKF) is offering free screenings to those most at risk for kidney disease, anyone with diabetes, high blood pressure or a family history of kidney failure.

Testing locations and information can be found on the calendar at The National Kidney Foundation web site.

Share your family health history!

If you’re planning a family reunion, print or download a copy of the Family Reunion Health Guide and watch this YouTube Share your Family History on why it is so important. It provides three ways you can get family medical history, so you ask the questions that will help get the right information.

With the African American community being at significantly greater risk for kidney disease it makes sense that we use every available time and place to gather information that will be valuable long after we are gone.

Start filling in the gaps today!

Kidney Disease Statistics for the United States

From the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases NIDDK.

  • The overall prevalence of chronic Kidney Disease CKD in the general population is approximately 14 percent.
  • High blood pressure and diabetes are the main causes of CKD. Almost half of individuals with CKD also have diabetes and/or self-reported cardiovascular disease (CVD).
  • More than 661,000 Americans have kidney failure. Of these, 468,000 individuals are on dialysis, and roughly 193,000 live with a functioning kidney transplant.
  • Kidney disease often has no symptoms in its early stages and can go undetected until it is very advanced. (For this reason, kidney disease is often referred to as a “silent disease.”)
  • The incidence rate of End Stage Renal Disease ESRD in the United States rose sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, leveled off in the early 2000s, and has declined slightly since its peak in 2006.
  • Compared to Caucasians, ESRD prevalence is about 3.7 times greater in African Americans, 1.4 times greater in Native Americans, and 1.5 times greater in Asian Americans.
  • Each year, kidney disease kills more people than breast or prostate cancer. In 2013, more than 47,000 Americans died from kidney disease.

Understanding All-Things-Kidney!

A diagnosis of kidney disease means that a person’s kidneys are damaged and cannot filter blood the way they should. This damage can cause wastes to build up in the body.

Kidney disease can cause other health problems, such as heart disease.

If you have kidney disease, it increases your chances of having a stroke or heart attack.

Major risk factors for kidney disease include diabetes, high blood pressure, and family history of kidney failure.

A Few Fast Facts

  1. The overall prevalence of CKD in the general population is approximately 14 percent.
  2. High blood pressure and diabetes are the main causes of CKD. Almost half of individuals with CKD also have diabetes and/or self-reported cardiovascular disease (CVD).
  3. More than 661,000 Americans have kidney failure. Of these, 468,000 individuals are on dialysis, and roughly 193,000 live with a functioning kidney transplant.
  4. Kidney disease often has no symptoms in its early stages and can go undetected until it is very advanced. (For this reason, kidney disease is often referred to as a “silent disease.”) • The adjusted incidence rate of ESRD in the United States rose sharply in the 1980s and 1990s, leveled off in the early 2000s, and has declined slightly since its peak in 2006.
  5. Compared to Caucasians, ESRD prevalence is about 3.7 times greater in African Americans, 1.4 times greater in Native Americans, and 1.5 times greater in Asian Americans.
  6. Each year, kidney disease kills more people than breast or prostate cancer. In 2013, more than 47,000 Americans died from kidney disease.

Reminder on Abbreviations:

  • CKD, chronic kidney disease
  • CVD, cardiovascular disease
  • DM, diabetes mellitus

The five stages of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) are:

  • Stage 1: Kidney damage with normal kidney function (estimated GFR ≥90 mL/min per 1.73 m2) and persistent (≥3 months) proteinuria.
  • Stage 2: Kidney damage with mild loss of kidney function (estimated GFR 60-89 mL/min per 1.73 m 2) and persistent (≥3 months) proteinuria.
  • Stage 3: Mild-to-severe loss of kidney function (estimated GFR 30-59 mL/min per 1.73 m2).
  • Stage 4: Severe loss of kidney function (estimated GFR 15-29 mL/min per 1.73 m2).
  • Stage 5: Kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplant for survival. Also known as ESRD (estimated GFR <15 mL/min per 1.73 m2).

A deeper Kidney Understanding

Use the “Reminder on Abbreviations” and the “The five stages of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)” from above, to help you understand the following Kidney disease factoid list.

Chronic Kidney Disease

  • Patient awareness is less than 10 percent for those with stages 1 to 3 CKD.
  • Awareness is higher among people with Stage 4 CKD, who often experience obvious symptoms.

cardiovascular Disease CVD and Chronic Kidney Disease CKD

  1. People with CKD are at high risk for CVD, and the presence of CKD often complicates CVD treatment and prognosis.
  2. The prevalence of CVD is 69.6 percent among persons ages 66 and older who have CKD, compared to 34.7 percent among those who do not have CKD.
  3. Atherosclerotic heart disease is the most frequent CVD linked to CKD; its prevalence is more than 40 percent among people ages 66 and older.
  4. The percentage of people who undergo cardiovascular procedures is higher among those with CKD than among those without CKD.

Kidney Primer

  • Acute Kidney Injury (AKI): Sudden and temporary loss of kidney function.
  • Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD): Any condition that causes reduced kidney function over a period of time. Chronic kidney disease may develop over many years and lead to end-stage kidney (or renal) disease (ESRD).
Dialysis:
Treatment to filter wastes and water from the blood. When their kidneys fail, people need dialysis to filter their blood artificially. The two main forms of dialysis are hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.
End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD):

Total and permanent kidney failure treated with a kidney transplant or dialysis.

Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR):
The rate at which the kidneys filter wastes and extra fluid from the blood; measured in milliliters per minute.
Proteinuria:
Condition in which the urine has more-than-normal amounts of a protein called albumin.

Kidney Transplants – Acute Kidney Injury (AKI)

  1. Less than one-third of the transplanted kidneys were from living donors in 2013.
  2. From 2012 to 2013, there was a 3.1 percent increase in the cumulative number of recipients with a functioning kidney transplant.
  3. Among candidates newly wait-listed for either a first-time or repeat kidney-alone transplant in 2009, the median waiting time to transplant was 3.6 years.
  4. The number of deceased donors increased significantly since 2003, reaching 8,021 in 2013.
  5. The rate of deceased donors among African Americans more than doubled from 1999 to 2013.
  6. In 2012, the probability of 1-year graft survival was 92 percent and 97 percent for deceased and living donor kidney transplant recipients, respectively.
  7. The probability of patient survival within 1-year post-transplant was 95 percent and 98 percent in deceased and living donor kidney transplant recipients, respectively, in 2012.
  8. Since 1996, the probabilities of graft survival and patient survival have steadily improved among recipients of both living and deceased donor kidney transplants.
Article Source: National Institutes of Health Kidney stats

Facts About Human Kidneys:

  1. The blood flow in kidneys is higher than the blood flow in heart , liver and brain .
  2. Kidneys measure around 4.5 inches in length.
  3. Kidneys are no bigger than a standard computer mouse or a cell phone .
  4. Each individual kidney weighs around 4-6 ounces.
  5. In case of new born human babies, the kidney to body weight ratio is 3 times the kidney to body weight ratio in adults.
  6. For the adults, kidneys form only 0.5% of the entire body weight.
  7. Exactly half of one single kidney is capable of doing the job that is performed by two kidneys together.
  8. Each individual kidney consists of at least 1 million and up to 2 million nephrons. Nephrons are nothing but very tiny filters that are capable of filtering blood and eliminating waste materials.
  9. In a single hour, kidneys receive around 120 pints of blood.

Lily&Q’s say…The early days of treating HIV usually involved serious medicines which often left us with other side effects than just barfing a few times or losing our hair.
Many early drug therapies like most all medicines are eliminated from the body through the liver or kidneys, but the HIV meds were unusually hard to clear and most were given in close to toxic quantities making things worse.
it was all they knew how to do back then.
If we were lucky enough to make it through the 1990’s without kidney damage that lead to dialysis we are “knocking on wood”…Not to be confused with the “Wood”…LOL!
Most people won’t have a symptom of illness with kidney disease until the damage is done, and transplant is the last stage option that isn’t easy to wait around for.
A couple of things: Encourage your friends, family, etc. to be organ donors. Granted they don’t want people with HIV to donate their organs, but organ donation is painless for the donator…Think about it and it might save one or more lives. A true gift that keeps on GIVING!
Living organ transplants are possible in some cases as well, and kidneys have a good chance of not being rejected like other organs. Plus Uncle Bob only needs 1/2 of a kidney so…Pleeeaassssee?

Secondly, try and do the right thing for your kidneys. Take good medical care of yourself. Being on powerful antiretrovirals for years or decades haven’t helped our kidneys at all…let alone if we have any other bad “body-wasting” habits like drinking or drugging. Seek professionals that can help with addiction and the behaviors that make it easy for us to be in bad habits maybe a little more than we should-Wink! For those who have successfully beat back an addiction-MORE POWER TO YOU! Keep your Kidneys happy with kinder & gentler behaviors!

Lastly know your HIV/STI status. Get prompt and sound medical intervention when an STI shows up and remember if you have any “flavor of an STI” then you are at much greater risk of contracting HIV.
Make your life about you and TEST for HIV & STIs TODAY – Know Your STATUS!