Kidney Disease Epidemic: 60 Percent in US Will Fall Victim

[Clark]

http://www.newsmaxhealth.com/Headline/kidney-disease-filters-cardiovascular/2014/08/12/id/588188/

Kidney Disease Epidemic: 60 Percent in US Will Fall Victim
By Rick Ansorge

We usually don't give much thought to our kidneys. Most of us take it for granted that the body's filters will continue to function as efficiently as the paper filters in our coffeemakers.

Yet, kidney disease is the nation's eighth-leading causing of death. And it can sneak up on you before you even realize you have it.

"Kidney disease tends to be a silent disease until it's very advanced," says Beth Piraino, M.D., president of the National Kidney Foundation. "It's very much associated with an increased risk of dying, particularly from a cardiovascular cause."

You are more than likely to get kidney disease at some point, since lifetime risk is 60 percent. And once you get it, treatment options are often limited to dialysis, which requires regular mechanical filtering of the waste products in your blood, or a kidney transplant. There is a long waiting list for organ transplants.
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Although kidney disease receives little publicity compared to other major killers, experts describe it as an "exploding" epidemic.

"Most kidney disease comes from high blood pressure and diabetes," says Dr. Piraino. "Because so many people are overweight, obese, and even morbidly obese in the United States, we have a lot more of these problems. So we're getting more kidney disease."
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