About Kidney Disease

It is estimated that twenty-six million people in the United States have Chronic Kidney Disease or CKD. The earlier the disease is diagnosed and treatment started the better the overall outcome. People who have hypertension, diabetes, and those with a genetic disposition all are at a higher risk of developing kidney disease.

What The Kidneys Do

Those with healthy kidneys normally do not understand what they do or what would happen if they failed. Think of your kidneys like a filter for your blood that takes out all the wastes and removes this waste from your body, because this is the function of your kidneys. If the kidneys are functioning normally the wastes and fluids in your body are normal. When the kidneys fail, this “filter” can no longer clean the blood properly and therefore wastes can remain in the body and fluids can become unbalanced.

Learning the Facts About Kidney Disease

The National Kidney Foundation website offers several facts concerning kidney disease as well as resources that can be very useful to those suffering from failing kidneys. Those that are in kidney failure that have little function are placed on dialysis. This is a treatment that requires the patient to go to a clinic three or more times each week and let a machine (dialysis) take their blood out while the machine cleans it and then pumps it back into body, thus doing the work of the kidneys.

When a person's kidneys are functioning at 10 percent or less it is considered end-stage renal failure and they are put on the transplant list unless they have a relative that is donating one of their kidneys.