KIDNEY failure grabs the headlines mainly for two reasons: when
it afflicts the famous or a public figure and when it afflicts the poor
who launch appeals for help on mass media, especially the television.
In spite of the sufferings and economic ruins it brings to many, it is a preventable disease. Indeed, in many instances, the kidneys only happen to suffer collateral damage from other illnesses.
Most people are born with two kidneys and they are well protected deep inside the abdomen. They are bean-shaped organ, which receives chunk of blood supply because they filter waste products from the body, which come out as urine. This function is important for our well being, for when the kidneys fail, the wastes accumulate as toxins, and the body is unable to get rid of excess fluid. These problems are responsible for the body swelling and a sense of ill-health.
The kidney performs an additional function of helping to manufacture blood, and this is why kidney disease sufferers lack blood and become weak.
Continue after the cut...
In children, the commonest cause of kidney disease and failure is infection, which leads to inflammation within the kidney, whereas in adults who survive this infection, or in whom the inflammation is controlled, the commonest causes are hypertension and diabetes. Of course, the smoldering inflammation that started in childhood may become manifest in early adulthood or later.
Hypertension is not called a silent killer for nothing. It has no symptoms of its own but it is capable of destroying key organs such as the kidneys, the brain, the heart and the eyes silently over a considerable period of time. The symptoms of hypertension then are symptoms of other organs it has ruined.
One common cause of kidney disease and failure is the indiscriminate use of herbs, drugs, and certain creams. Certain individuals, at the slightest bodily discomfort will take painkillers. A visit to site projects, mechanic workshops and other places of labour often reveals how men abuse drugs. In these palaces we find hawkers of cocktail of gin mixed with ‘buta’ and other assorted painkillers. These drugs do burden the kidneys cumulatively. So, sometimes, we encounter patients whose kidney failure we can’t explain, until we ask about what drugs they have consumed over a long period because they are neither hypertensive nor diabetic, and we can’t easily find obvious causes of their illness. Indeed, they can’t remember having suffered from any kidney disease in the past.
On the other hand, use of certain medicines or herbs can result in a blitzkrieg, a “lightning war”, on the kidneys. This is what we call acute kidney injury. Once in a while, we read of children who die in scores from using Mypikin, or adults who perish with their families after drinking certain materials. Some years ago, a group of religious worshippers were admitted for kidney failure after using ‘Holy Water’, which was made from substances that included cupper sulphate to give it the attractive blue colour.
Therefore, kidneys can fail slowly or suddenly or acutely. But we can prevent the two modes of failure.
The theme of this year’s World Kidney Day (WKD) is Stop Acute Kidney Injury or Attack. WKD is organised by a consortium of associations interested in raising public awareness about the epidemic of kidney diseases. They include International Society of Nephrology and International Federation of Kidney Foundations, and it is endorsed by WHO. It is an annual event, which kidney specialists in Nigeria under the umbrella of Nigeria Association of Nephrology participate by carrying out several awareness programmes, including screening for kidney diseases. The association did this in February in Abuja, and 14th of March, which is the World Kidney Day. This arises from firm evidence that kidney failure is eminently preventable by simple measures.
Kidney specialists are more interested in prevention than the use of dialysis or even transplantation, which only a few people can afford. The cost of two weeks on dialysis machines is more than sufficient to buy drugs to treat hypertension for a year in most people. Kidney transplantation costs millions of Naira.
The following simple tests will help in taking measures to prevent the catastrophe of kidney failure in most people: regular blood pressure checks, urine tests, blood sugar tests, and a certain test of kidney function. These tests can be done in any clinic in Nigeria. Diseases that lead to kidney failure can be detected and tackled by doing these tests; most people can afford them annually. Whenever there is a disease within the kidneys, they begin to leak certain proteins or blood in minute amounts invisible to naked eyes, and this is easily detected. For most people, urine test is the most important test of kidney disease.
Therefore, if people would make time (everyone is busy now!) to visit a hospital and do a medical checkup, which include these tests, kidney failure can be prevented. One expensive test that most people like to do is ultrasound. But ultrasound ought to be recommended after these have been done even though many people come to the hospital with ultrasound reports on the kidney and we have to start from the basics. In addition, if people would heed NAFDAC’s advice to desist from taking non-recommended drugs and be careful with the use of herbs, our kidneys would live long.
The government can, through its policy, promote healthy lifestyle, accessible and affordable health care. The National Health Policy could be a framework to do this and it is heartwarming that the National Assembly is working on this. The celebrated and most trusted UK establishment, the National Health Service (NHS), was established by an Act of Parliament with specific functions at every level of care, and it is a recommended reading for our policy makers. It one of the ways that the government has ensured an equitable distribution of resources, because health is wealth; a few health policies have been implemented through it.
For example, in 2006, the UK Government began to implement what it termed the New Deal in the NHS. Today every adult person who consults his or her General Practitioner (GP) in the community has the kidney tests done. If the tests raise any concern, the patient is referred to the specialist in the hospital. Many who are beginning to develop kidney disease, but without knowing or feeling it, are treated by the GP appropriately. This has cut down the number of patients who would later require expensive treatments in the hospital. We do not have NHS yet, but the level of awareness today about HIV is such that most people now ask themselves whether they have HIV. How did we do it? We can do this for other non-communicable diseases like kidney disease, hypertension and diabetes.
A strong support and funding of primary, secondary and tertiary tiers of health care will ensure that at every level the proper thing is done and this will make our health care system an excellent one. Our citizens will not travel abroad to have blood pressure measurements, urine tests, lipid tests, electrocardiography, echocardiography, mammograms, and so-called “complete body scans” which many of our specialists can do here. We know this because when they come back from overseas with a panel of laboratory results, they sometimes see specialists here to get further information on them.
So on this World Kidney Day let us all check up on our kidneys. If there are no volunteers in our communities doing the screening, we can go to the nearest health centre and do a medical check, if only to be reassured that all is well. Our kidneys want to serve us for a lifetime. Let’s keep fit by exercising, keep our weight in check, stop smoking, cut down excessive salt intake to a teaspoon per day, and drink water instead of those other things. These will even help to moderate our blood sugar and blood pressure.
- Dr Samuel Oluwole Ajayi is a Consultant Physician/Nephrologist at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State
Drop a comment...thanks!
In spite of the sufferings and economic ruins it brings to many, it is a preventable disease. Indeed, in many instances, the kidneys only happen to suffer collateral damage from other illnesses.
Most people are born with two kidneys and they are well protected deep inside the abdomen. They are bean-shaped organ, which receives chunk of blood supply because they filter waste products from the body, which come out as urine. This function is important for our well being, for when the kidneys fail, the wastes accumulate as toxins, and the body is unable to get rid of excess fluid. These problems are responsible for the body swelling and a sense of ill-health.
The kidney performs an additional function of helping to manufacture blood, and this is why kidney disease sufferers lack blood and become weak.
Continue after the cut...
In children, the commonest cause of kidney disease and failure is infection, which leads to inflammation within the kidney, whereas in adults who survive this infection, or in whom the inflammation is controlled, the commonest causes are hypertension and diabetes. Of course, the smoldering inflammation that started in childhood may become manifest in early adulthood or later.
Hypertension is not called a silent killer for nothing. It has no symptoms of its own but it is capable of destroying key organs such as the kidneys, the brain, the heart and the eyes silently over a considerable period of time. The symptoms of hypertension then are symptoms of other organs it has ruined.
One common cause of kidney disease and failure is the indiscriminate use of herbs, drugs, and certain creams. Certain individuals, at the slightest bodily discomfort will take painkillers. A visit to site projects, mechanic workshops and other places of labour often reveals how men abuse drugs. In these palaces we find hawkers of cocktail of gin mixed with ‘buta’ and other assorted painkillers. These drugs do burden the kidneys cumulatively. So, sometimes, we encounter patients whose kidney failure we can’t explain, until we ask about what drugs they have consumed over a long period because they are neither hypertensive nor diabetic, and we can’t easily find obvious causes of their illness. Indeed, they can’t remember having suffered from any kidney disease in the past.
On the other hand, use of certain medicines or herbs can result in a blitzkrieg, a “lightning war”, on the kidneys. This is what we call acute kidney injury. Once in a while, we read of children who die in scores from using Mypikin, or adults who perish with their families after drinking certain materials. Some years ago, a group of religious worshippers were admitted for kidney failure after using ‘Holy Water’, which was made from substances that included cupper sulphate to give it the attractive blue colour.
Therefore, kidneys can fail slowly or suddenly or acutely. But we can prevent the two modes of failure.
The theme of this year’s World Kidney Day (WKD) is Stop Acute Kidney Injury or Attack. WKD is organised by a consortium of associations interested in raising public awareness about the epidemic of kidney diseases. They include International Society of Nephrology and International Federation of Kidney Foundations, and it is endorsed by WHO. It is an annual event, which kidney specialists in Nigeria under the umbrella of Nigeria Association of Nephrology participate by carrying out several awareness programmes, including screening for kidney diseases. The association did this in February in Abuja, and 14th of March, which is the World Kidney Day. This arises from firm evidence that kidney failure is eminently preventable by simple measures.
Kidney specialists are more interested in prevention than the use of dialysis or even transplantation, which only a few people can afford. The cost of two weeks on dialysis machines is more than sufficient to buy drugs to treat hypertension for a year in most people. Kidney transplantation costs millions of Naira.
The following simple tests will help in taking measures to prevent the catastrophe of kidney failure in most people: regular blood pressure checks, urine tests, blood sugar tests, and a certain test of kidney function. These tests can be done in any clinic in Nigeria. Diseases that lead to kidney failure can be detected and tackled by doing these tests; most people can afford them annually. Whenever there is a disease within the kidneys, they begin to leak certain proteins or blood in minute amounts invisible to naked eyes, and this is easily detected. For most people, urine test is the most important test of kidney disease.
Therefore, if people would make time (everyone is busy now!) to visit a hospital and do a medical checkup, which include these tests, kidney failure can be prevented. One expensive test that most people like to do is ultrasound. But ultrasound ought to be recommended after these have been done even though many people come to the hospital with ultrasound reports on the kidney and we have to start from the basics. In addition, if people would heed NAFDAC’s advice to desist from taking non-recommended drugs and be careful with the use of herbs, our kidneys would live long.
The government can, through its policy, promote healthy lifestyle, accessible and affordable health care. The National Health Policy could be a framework to do this and it is heartwarming that the National Assembly is working on this. The celebrated and most trusted UK establishment, the National Health Service (NHS), was established by an Act of Parliament with specific functions at every level of care, and it is a recommended reading for our policy makers. It one of the ways that the government has ensured an equitable distribution of resources, because health is wealth; a few health policies have been implemented through it.
For example, in 2006, the UK Government began to implement what it termed the New Deal in the NHS. Today every adult person who consults his or her General Practitioner (GP) in the community has the kidney tests done. If the tests raise any concern, the patient is referred to the specialist in the hospital. Many who are beginning to develop kidney disease, but without knowing or feeling it, are treated by the GP appropriately. This has cut down the number of patients who would later require expensive treatments in the hospital. We do not have NHS yet, but the level of awareness today about HIV is such that most people now ask themselves whether they have HIV. How did we do it? We can do this for other non-communicable diseases like kidney disease, hypertension and diabetes.
A strong support and funding of primary, secondary and tertiary tiers of health care will ensure that at every level the proper thing is done and this will make our health care system an excellent one. Our citizens will not travel abroad to have blood pressure measurements, urine tests, lipid tests, electrocardiography, echocardiography, mammograms, and so-called “complete body scans” which many of our specialists can do here. We know this because when they come back from overseas with a panel of laboratory results, they sometimes see specialists here to get further information on them.
So on this World Kidney Day let us all check up on our kidneys. If there are no volunteers in our communities doing the screening, we can go to the nearest health centre and do a medical check, if only to be reassured that all is well. Our kidneys want to serve us for a lifetime. Let’s keep fit by exercising, keep our weight in check, stop smoking, cut down excessive salt intake to a teaspoon per day, and drink water instead of those other things. These will even help to moderate our blood sugar and blood pressure.
- Dr Samuel Oluwole Ajayi is a Consultant Physician/Nephrologist at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State
Drop a comment...thanks!
This is insightful. My mum has problems with her kidney steming from diabetes. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Tloc for coming by. We are so please to know that you found this article insightful. We really do hope that your mum get adequate medical and we pray for her quick recovery. Thanks!
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