Maintaining health through better kidneys

It is estimated that 37 million Americans have kidney disease. Complicating matters. 90% of people are unaware they even have it. If left untreated, kidney disease can lead to irreversible damage and even impact other organs, including the heart. To learn more, we are now joined by Doctor Samir Parikh, a noted kidney researcher and president of the American Society of Nephrology. Doctor Parikh, thank you for joining us from Dallas, Texas. Jennifer, thank you for having me on. This is such an important topic. I'm so happy that we'll have a chance to talk about kidney health today. Well, Yale Medicine has called kidney disease the silent killer. And given its difficulty in detecting it, what are the kinds of kidney disease that people should really be aware of? And who's at risk? Yeah, I mean, this is we've got two major problems to deal with. One is that this is an epidemic. 1 in 7 adults in this country is affected by kidney disease. And the second problem you already noted at the top. Kidney diseases are largely clinically silent. Nine out of ten people don't even know that they've got kidney diseases. And so why is that happening? You know, the the way to think about the kidneys are that they're filtering the blood all the time. And each kidney is actually made up of a million microscopic filters. And these are basically fragile blood vessels that have to last a lifetime. They don't regenerate. And so diseases that affect blood vessels wind up clogging and impairing these filters. So that's diabetes. That's high blood pressure. That's obesity. That's cardiovascular disease. It's also a family history of kidney disease. And so, we know how common those conditions are. And they are all converging on these fragile blood vessels that make up the kidney filters. Are there warning signs that people can notice if they are starting to lose their kidney function? Yeah. You know, as these filters are collapsing or clogging, you don't really get symptoms. You don't get pain, for example. And the symptoms you do get from kidney disease tend to occur towards the end when kidney disease is very advanced. And to make it even worse, they tend to be nonspecific. It can be stuff like loss of appetite or loss of energy or, you know, some memory and cognition problems. And so I think the key thing is if you've got risk factors, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, heart disease, family history, get checked out, have a conversation with your primary care doctor about very simple and accurate tests that can measure kidney function through the blood and measure kidney damage. In a urine test. Very easy to get done. What is the link between kidney health and heart health? And why is the connection between those two organs so important? Right. I mean, we're in the middle of American Heart Month right now, and March is National Kidney Month. It's no coincidence that these two months are right next to each other. Because I'll tell you the way I learned it in medical school. The heart is the pump for the blood, and the kidneys are the filter. And if the filter starts clogging or starts shutting down, that puts enormous strain on the heart, on the pump. It strains that pumping function. It can affect the electricity in the heart, so it can affect the rhythm of the heart and lead to abnormal heartbeat. Poor kidney function can even lead to hardening of the arteries that supply the heart. And so you have multiple heart problems that develop as kidney function worsens. Now, the flip side of that is also really important to emphasize, which is that if you can love your kidneys, if you can take care of your kidneys and learn about your kidney health and protect your kidneys. You can really save your heart. How can we love our kidneys? What can we do? You know, I think the first thing is just awareness. It's conversations like these. You know, if you're listening and you have one of these conditions, you have one of these risk factors diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease or obesity or a family history of kidney disease. Have that conversation as soon as you can with your primary care doctor about getting tested for your kidney health. Very simple tests, a simple blood test, and a simple urine test. So just know your numbers, right? That's sort of the first step. And if it turns out that your kidney numbers are in good shape, we'll then focus on lifestyle and diet. The the diet and lifestyle that are good for the kidney. Those are also the ones that are good for the heart. So a diet that's, like the Mediterranean diet or the Dash diet. Great for the heart, great for the kidney. Active lifestyle, great for the heart. Great for the kidney. I was surprised when I learned that we had, 27,000 kidney transplants in the United States last year. That really shocked me when I read that. Can you heal from kidney damage, or do people have to get an organ transplant? Is the only way to really recover after they've had kidney failure? Right. Right. I mean, you never want to find out a new diagnosis, but there has never been a better time to find out right now because we have these breakthrough medicines, Jennifer, that can stop kidney disease in its tracks. Before you get to the point that you're talking about, which is, you know, my kidneys have completely shut down. Now, what do we do? And the options there are dialysis and transplantation. And you're right, you know, more than 20,000 transplant kidney transplants in this country last year. At the same time, there are more than 100,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant. And there are more than half a million people in this country who are on dialysis. So just sort of let those numbers sink in. Enormous problem. Can you just give us simple steps that we can take to keep our kidneys healthy? Yes. Of course. I think number one is just understand your risk. Know your numbers. Know your blood pressure number. Know your diabetes number. Know your cholesterol number. And if any of those is abnormal. Know your kidney number. Right. So just knowledge I think is power here. And then the second step is like we've talked about diet exercise a heart healthy lifestyle. These are the things people can do that can markedly, affect the risk of developing kidney disease in the future. Just like, a terrible diet can lead to diabetes. A great diet can prevent diabetes and can prevent that downstream damage to those kidney filters that results in kidney disease. Doctor, can you, touch on resources that are available out there for anyone who's trying to find out more about how to keep their kidneys healthy? Absolutely. There's a website you can go to. It's assigned Dash online.org, and you'll see a banner right across the top that says love your kidneys. Lots of good information in there about all of the things that we've talked about here today. Doctor Parikh, thank you so much for joining us today and for your expertise. Jennifer, thank you for the opportunity to talk about kidney health and awareness. Really appreciate it. Thanks for watching. We've got more great content for you, from the news to the arts to the environment. So be sure to like and subscribe to the YouTube channel and follow us on all of the social media platforms for the stories that matter to you.