[YOUR HEALTH] Know your blood pressure to prevent kidney failure

The incidence of kidney failure is on the rise globally. In Nigeria, the situation is dire. Experts say the number of Nigerians with kidney failure has doubled in recent times.

According to Consultant Nephrologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Dr.Gbenga Awobusuyi, about 30 million Nigerians are suffering from one form of kidney disease or the other.

He states,“We see like 8-10 patients with kidney failure per week now. About 18-20 per cent of the country’s population are suffering from factors that increase their risk for kidney failure. Hypertension and renal failure are on the rise.”

Kidney-related diseases seem like an African challenge as the Centre For Disease Control in the United States also estimates that approximately one in six Africans has signs of them (diseases) while black Africans are about three and a half times more likely to develop renal (kidney) diseases than whites.

They note that such may become an epidemic in the next decade.

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Going by hospital statistics, Consultant nephrologist (kidney specialist), Dr. Ebun Bamigboye, says one in every seven Nigerians is at one stage of kidney failure or the other.

Bamigboye says, “We estimate that we get about 15,000 new patients with chronic kidney diseases every year. About 50,000 patients in Nigeria require dialysis, but just 1,000 are on it. The prevalence rate of kidney failure in Nigeria is 15 per cent and this is high in every sense.”

Why are Nigerians dying of kidney diseases? The experts both agree that undetected and unmanaged hypertension/high blood pressure is the culprit.

Bamigboye, who is the head of the Kidney Care Unit, St. Nicholas Hospital, says most people do not know whwther they have high blood pressure or not.

He states that Nigeria has one of the highest populations of people living with hypertension and diabetes, HIV and other infections, which are major causes of kidney failure.

Bamgboye states, “Nigerians are predisposed to kidney diseases because one out of four of us have hypertension. In Lagos alone, diabetes incidence is 10 per cent. Infection is common; HIV prevalence is about four to five per cent; 15 per cent of Nigerians have Hepatitis B, six per cent have Hepatitis C. All of these cause chronic kidney failure. So, if we do the math, we would know why people’s kidneys fail in the country.”

The medics indentified high salt content in Nigerian foods, increasing rate of obesity among children and adults and sedentary living as factors increasing the population of Nigerians living with high blood pressure.

According to them, the prevalence of hypertension has jumped from 11 per cent in the 80s to 40 per cent in Nigeria.

The experts say high blood pressure is a silent killer and does not give any signs until the kidneys have been damaged.

Bamigboye says, “How many people know the signs and symptoms of hypertension, diabetes or kidney diseases? By the time you start seeing blood in the urine, swollen stomach and face, the kidneys have failed.

“It is so severe that if you have kidney failure and you do not do dialysis or get a transplant within two weeks, you will die. You can imagine the number of people that are dying every day because of kidney diseases.”

Corroborating his colleague’s views, Awobusuyi laments that lack of health information among Nigerians, which often leads to late presentation of renal diseases in health facilities, could also be responsible for the alarming inccrease in cases of kidney failure.

Awobusuyi says, “We should focus on prevention and early detection. If people can check their blood pressure levels regularly, they can know if they have hypertension and manage it so that it does not develop into kidney failure, a situation that is irreversible.”

Kidney specialist with the National Hospital Abuja, Dr. Agnes Eguagie, says prolonged consumption of analgesics also causes damage to the kidney and the liver. Eguagie states that analgesics include Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs such as Ibuprofen and Feldene.

She says, “For people who tend to take these drugs for one month, two months continuously they will have a problem because it has been found to be a cause of kidney failure, when you have prolonged usage of analgesics.

“The liver is involved in clearing most of these drugs. So sometimes you might have liver toxicity from such drugs, if they are taken for long periods. ”

The doctors also warn against the use of herbal concoctions, uncontrolled alcohol consumption, smoking, abuse of bleaching creams, all of which, they say, could overwork kidneys and lead to their failure.

A little advice: A natural way to reduce one’s risk for high blood pressure is to reduce one’s salt intake.

Culled - Punch

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