A:We have two kidneys. They are bean-shaped and about the size of a fist. They are located in the middle of your back, on the left and right of your spine, just below your rib cage. The kidneys’ main job is to filter your blood, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. They also help control blood pressure and make hormones that your body needs to stay healthy.
Q: What is Kidney Disease?
A:Kidney disease — also known as chronic kidney disease (CKD) — occurs when kidneys can no longer remove wastes and extra water from the blood or perform other functions as they should. Millions of Americans have kidney disease. Many more are at risk.
Q: What is Nephrologist?
A:Nephrology is the medical specialty which focuses on the treatment of kidney conditions and abnormalities. A physician who practices nephrology is called a nephrologist. Nephrology is a subspecialty of internal medicine. Therefore, a nephrologist would complete the same training as an internist, and then complete an additional fellowship in nephrology. Nephrologists diagnose causes and levels of kidney failure, and prescribe appropriate treatment such as medication, diet changes, or dialysis. If none of these treatments work, a kidney transplant would be performed by a transplant surgeon.
Q: What are the causes of Kidney Disease?
A:Kidney disease is most often caused by diabetes or high blood pressure.
Each kidney contains about one million tiny filters made up of blood vessels. These filters are called glomeruli. Diabetes and high blood pressure damage these blood vessels, so the kidneys are not able to filter the blood as well as they used to. Usually this damage happens slowly, over many years. As more and more filters are damaged, the kidneys eventually stop working.
Q: What are the risk factors of kidney disease?
A:Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two leading risk factors for kidney disease. Both diabetes and high blood pressure damage the small blood vessels in your kidneys and can cause kidney disease — without you feeling it.
There are several other risk factors for kidney disease. Cardiovascular (heart) disease is a risk factor. So is family history: if you have a mother, father, sister, or brother who has had kidney disease, then you are at increased risk.
Q: How to keep Kidneys Healthy?
A:You can keep your kidneys healthy longer by taking steps to control your diabetes and high blood pressure. Manage your diabetes and high blood pressure by eating healthy foods, staying active, taking your medicines as prescribed, and seeing your doctor regularly. If you keep these risk factors under control — especially your blood pressure — you may be able to postpone and even prevent kidney failure.
Q: How do doctors diagnose kidney disease?
A:A blood test and a urine test are used to find kidney disease. If you have diabetes, you should get both of these tests every year. If you have high blood pressure, you should also get tested regularly — ask your health care provider how often.
Q: What does the blood test for kidney disease reveal?
A:The blood test for kidney disease is called a GFR. (GFR stands for glomerular filtration rate.) This test helps your doctor measure how much blood your kidneys filter each minute. This shows how well your kidneys are working. GFR is reported as a number. A GFR of 60 or lower may mean you have kidney disease. However, because GFR decreases as people age, other information may be needed to determine if you actually have kidney disease if you are older and your GFR is decreased. You can’t raise your GFR, but you can try to keep it from going lower. Ask your healthcare provider what you can do to keep your kidneys healthy.
GFR is reported as a number. A GFR of 60 or lower may mean you have kidney disease. However, because GFR decreases as people age, other information may be needed to determine if you actually have kidney disease if you are older and your GFR is decreased. You can’t raise your GFR, but you can try to keep it from going lower. Ask your healthcare provider what you can do to keep your kidneys healthy.
Q: What does the urine test for kidney disease reveal?
A:The urine test for kidney disease looks for protein in your urine, which is a sign of kidney damage. This test has several different names. You could be told that you are being screened for “proteinuria” or “albuminuria” or “microalbuminuria.” (“Albumin” is a type of protein, and “micro” means a small amount of it.) Or you could be told that your “urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio” (UACR) is being measured. If you have albumin or protein in your urine, it could mean you have kidney disease. Your healthcare provider might do additional tests to be sure.
Q: How is kidney disease treated?
A:Treatments for early kidney disease include both lifestyle changes and medications. Lifestyle changes, such as eating less and exercising regularly to maintain a healthy weight, can help prevent the diseases that cause kidney damage. If you already have diabetes and/or high blood pressure, keeping these conditions under control can keep them from causing further damage to your kidneys.
Q: What changes in diet can help with kidney disease?
A:Restricting your use of salt can be an important dietary change, since this helps control blood pressure. For people with greatly reduced kidney function, another change often recommended by experts is to follow a moderate-protein diet. Because protein makes your kidneys work harder, eating less protein may help delay progression to kidney failure. Anyone considering dietary changes because of kidney disease should work with a dietitian to ensure that they are getting proper nutrition.
Dialysis Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is kidney failure?
A:When your kidneys fail, they lose their ability to filter blood and remove waste and excess fluid from your body. Kidney failure (sometimes called end-stage renal disease, or ESRD) causes harmful waste and excess fluid to build up in your body. Your blood pressure may rise, and your hands and feet may swell. Since the kidneys have now stopped working, the goal is to find treatments that can replace kidney function. There are two main options for this: dialysis and transplantation.
Q: What is dialysis and how is it used to treat kidney failure?
A:Dialysis is a treatment to filter wastes and water from your blood. There are two major forms of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.
In hemodialysis, blood is run through an external filter and the clean blood is returned to the body. Hemodialysis is usually done at a dialysis center three times a week. Each session usually lasts between three and four hours.
Peritoneal dialysis is another way to remove wastes from your blood. This kind of dialysis uses the lining of your abdominal cavity (the space in your body that holds organs like the stomach, intestines, and liver) to filter your blood. It works by putting a special fluid into your abdomen that absorbs waste products in your blood as it passes through this lining. This fluid is then drained away. A key benefit of peritoneal dialysis is that it can be done at home, while you sleep.
Q: Is dialysis a cure for kidney failure?
A:No. Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are treatments that help replace the work your kidneys did. These treatments help you feel better and live longer, but they don’t cure kidney failure
Although patients with kidney failure are now living longer than ever, over the years kidney disease can cause problems such as heart disease, bone disease, arthritis, nerve damage, infertility, and malnutrition. So to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible while on dialysis, follow your doctor’s recommendations, take your medications, and continue to follow the lifestyle and dietary habits you adopted to slow the progression of kidney disease.
Q: What is involved in a kidney transplant?
A:Instead of dialysis, some people with kidney failure — including older adults — may be able to receive a kidney transplant. This involves having a healthy kidney from another person surgically placed into your body. The new, donated kidney does the work that your two failed kidneys used to do. The donated kidney can come from an anonymous donor who has recently died, or from a living person — usually a relative. But you might also be able to receive a kidney from an unrelated donor, including your spouse or a friend
Kidney transplantation is a treatment for kidney failure — not a cure. You will need to see your healthcare provider regularly. And you will need to take medications for as long as you have your transplant to suppress your immune system so it doesn’t reject the transplanted kidney.
PATIENT EDUCATION
Kidney Disease Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What Kidneys do?
A:We have two kidneys. They are bean-shaped and about the size of a fist. They are located in the middle of your back, on the left and right of your spine, just below your rib cage. The kidneys’ main job is to filter your blood, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. They also help control blood pressure and make hormones that your body needs to stay healthy.
Q: What is Kidney Disease?
A:Kidney disease — also known as chronic kidney disease (CKD) — occurs when kidneys can no longer remove wastes and extra water from the blood or perform other functions as they should. Millions of Americans have kidney disease. Many more are at risk.
Q: What is Nephrologist?
A:Nephrology is the medical specialty which focuses on the treatment of kidney conditions and abnormalities. A physician who practices nephrology is called a nephrologist. Nephrology is a subspecialty of internal medicine. Therefore, a nephrologist would complete the same training as an internist, and then complete an additional fellowship in nephrology. Nephrologists diagnose causes and levels of kidney failure, and prescribe appropriate treatment such as medication, diet changes, or dialysis. If none of these treatments work, a kidney transplant would be performed by a transplant surgeon.
Q: What are the causes of Kidney Disease?
A:Kidney disease is most often caused by diabetes or high blood pressure.
Each kidney contains about one million tiny filters made up of blood vessels. These filters are called glomeruli. Diabetes and high blood pressure damage these blood vessels, so the kidneys are not able to filter the blood as well as they used to. Usually this damage happens slowly, over many years. As more and more filters are damaged, the kidneys eventually stop working.
Q: What are the risk factors of kidney disease?
A:Diabetes and high blood pressure are the two leading risk factors for kidney disease. Both diabetes and high blood pressure damage the small blood vessels in your kidneys and can cause kidney disease — without you feeling it.
There are several other risk factors for kidney disease. Cardiovascular (heart) disease is a risk factor. So is family history: if you have a mother, father, sister, or brother who has had kidney disease, then you are at increased risk.
Q: How to keep Kidneys Healthy?
A:You can keep your kidneys healthy longer by taking steps to control your diabetes and high blood pressure. Manage your diabetes and high blood pressure by eating healthy foods, staying active, taking your medicines as prescribed, and seeing your doctor regularly. If you keep these risk factors under control — especially your blood pressure — you may be able to postpone and even prevent kidney failure.
Q: How do doctors diagnose kidney disease?
A:A blood test and a urine test are used to find kidney disease. If you have diabetes, you should get both of these tests every year. If you have high blood pressure, you should also get tested regularly — ask your health care provider how often.
Q: What does the blood test for kidney disease reveal?
A:The blood test for kidney disease is called a GFR. (GFR stands for glomerular filtration rate.) This test helps your doctor measure how much blood your kidneys filter each minute. This shows how well your kidneys are working. GFR is reported as a number. A GFR of 60 or lower may mean you have kidney disease. However, because GFR decreases as people age, other information may be needed to determine if you actually have kidney disease if you are older and your GFR is decreased. You can’t raise your GFR, but you can try to keep it from going lower. Ask your healthcare provider what you can do to keep your kidneys healthy.
GFR is reported as a number. A GFR of 60 or lower may mean you have kidney disease. However, because GFR decreases as people age, other information may be needed to determine if you actually have kidney disease if you are older and your GFR is decreased. You can’t raise your GFR, but you can try to keep it from going lower. Ask your healthcare provider what you can do to keep your kidneys healthy.
Q: What does the urine test for kidney disease reveal?
A:The urine test for kidney disease looks for protein in your urine, which is a sign of kidney damage. This test has several different names. You could be told that you are being screened for “proteinuria” or “albuminuria” or “microalbuminuria.” (“Albumin” is a type of protein, and “micro” means a small amount of it.) Or you could be told that your “urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio” (UACR) is being measured. If you have albumin or protein in your urine, it could mean you have kidney disease. Your healthcare provider might do additional tests to be sure.
Q: How is kidney disease treated?
A:Treatments for early kidney disease include both lifestyle changes and medications. Lifestyle changes, such as eating less and exercising regularly to maintain a healthy weight, can help prevent the diseases that cause kidney damage. If you already have diabetes and/or high blood pressure, keeping these conditions under control can keep them from causing further damage to your kidneys.
Q: What changes in diet can help with kidney disease?
A:Restricting your use of salt can be an important dietary change, since this helps control blood pressure. For people with greatly reduced kidney function, another change often recommended by experts is to follow a moderate-protein diet. Because protein makes your kidneys work harder, eating less protein may help delay progression to kidney failure. Anyone considering dietary changes because of kidney disease should work with a dietitian to ensure that they are getting proper nutrition.
Dialysis Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is kidney failure?
A:When your kidneys fail, they lose their ability to filter blood and remove waste and excess fluid from your body. Kidney failure (sometimes called end-stage renal disease, or ESRD) causes harmful waste and excess fluid to build up in your body. Your blood pressure may rise, and your hands and feet may swell. Since the kidneys have now stopped working, the goal is to find treatments that can replace kidney function. There are two main options for this: dialysis and transplantation.
Q: What is dialysis and how is it used to treat kidney failure?
A:Dialysis is a treatment to filter wastes and water from your blood. There are two major forms of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.
In hemodialysis, blood is run through an external filter and the clean blood is returned to the body. Hemodialysis is usually done at a dialysis center three times a week. Each session usually lasts between three and four hours.
Peritoneal dialysis is another way to remove wastes from your blood. This kind of dialysis uses the lining of your abdominal cavity (the space in your body that holds organs like the stomach, intestines, and liver) to filter your blood. It works by putting a special fluid into your abdomen that absorbs waste products in your blood as it passes through this lining. This fluid is then drained away. A key benefit of peritoneal dialysis is that it can be done at home, while you sleep.
Q: Is dialysis a cure for kidney failure?
A:No. Hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis are treatments that help replace the work your kidneys did. These treatments help you feel better and live longer, but they don’t cure kidney failure
Although patients with kidney failure are now living longer than ever, over the years kidney disease can cause problems such as heart disease, bone disease, arthritis, nerve damage, infertility, and malnutrition. So to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible while on dialysis, follow your doctor’s recommendations, take your medications, and continue to follow the lifestyle and dietary habits you adopted to slow the progression of kidney disease.
Q: What is involved in a kidney transplant?
A:Instead of dialysis, some people with kidney failure — including older adults — may be able to receive a kidney transplant. This involves having a healthy kidney from another person surgically placed into your body. The new, donated kidney does the work that your two failed kidneys used to do. The donated kidney can come from an anonymous donor who has recently died, or from a living person — usually a relative. But you might also be able to receive a kidney from an unrelated donor, including your spouse or a friend
Kidney transplantation is a treatment for kidney failure — not a cure. You will need to see your healthcare provider regularly. And you will need to take medications for as long as you have your transplant to suppress your immune system so it doesn’t reject the transplanted kidney.
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