According to WebMD, kidney disease is is a condition that affects over 850 million people in the world. In more relative terminology, that means two times the amount of diabetics, and over 20 times the number of those with cancer or HIV and/or AIDS.
A Larger Problem
Many people don’t know the extent to which kidney disease is a legitimate and serious health concern.
“It is high time to put the global spread of kidney diseases into focus,” said David Harris, current president of the International Society of Nephrology.
David Harris and his colleague and outgoing president, Adeera Levin, both explained that kidney disease often comes with no early distinguishable symptoms. Many who are diagnosed with kidney disease, moreover, are unaware of the health implications. Among these implications include increased risk for infections, heart problems, kidney failure, and hospitalizations.
Chronic kidney diseases are those that last more than three months. According to the numbers, 10% of men and 12% of women in the world have chronic kidney disease.
What is Chronic Kidney Disease?
Chronic kidney disease, or CKD, is defined as lasting damage to the kidneys that progressively gets worse over time. Because the kidneys function in filtering waste and excess fluids from the blood, chronic kidney disease can cause a dangerous amount of buildup of these toxins. As a result, unhealthy levels of electrolytes, wastes, and fluids can cause health complications. Symptoms of chronic kidney disease include jaundice, stunted growth, liver diseases, nausea, high blood pressure, and a lot more. Treatment for chronic kidney disease includes cholesterol medication, diuretics, calcium, vitamin D, anemia medication, and high blood pressure medications. To learn more about CKD, click here.
The Implications
Due to the seriousness of chronic kidney disease, those who are affected by it often need a kidney transplant or dialysis. According to the source, a maximum of 10.5 million patients are in need of these, but many will not have this need met as a result of cost.
Adding to all of this, over 13 million people in the world have acute kidney injury. This often results in chronic kidney disease or even kidney failure in the future.
“Using all these sources of data, and existing estimates of acute and chronic kidney diseases, we estimate approximately 850 million kidney patients — a number which surely signifies an ‘epidemic’ worldwide,” said Levin.
Because kidneys play such a crucial role in the body, including removing waste and filtering toxins as well as keeping the level of fluids in balance, this is sometimes more serious than meets the eye.
To make matters worse, often times those with kidney diseases don’t feel physically ill. Despite this, they could still be at risk for a plethora of different health problems.
For example, death by heart disease due to CKD is high. In 2013 alone, 1.2 million heart disease deaths could be attributed to CKD.
“The number of people with kidney diseases is alarmingly high, but the public is not aware of this reality. These patients have outcomes and kidney diseases impose a heavy financial burden on health care budgets,” said Mark Okusa, American Society of Nephrology president.
By raising awareness of these high and potentially dangerous numbers, we could maybe help those around us take more action regarding their health. To learn more about this worldwide problem, click here.
