Kidney Disease Has No Good Ending

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Will humans ever learn to care for their kidneys? Or will they live to count mixed blessings – staying alive but reliant on a machine to clean the blood. This, or a kidney transplant, is the result of end-stage kidney failure.

Over 40 million North Americans are living with the precursor, chronic kidney disease. Astonishingly, nine in ten sufferers are unaware they have the problem. But the body knows, and as the disease progresses, other health problems including stroke and heart attack can result.

A dialysis machine can remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood when kidneys stop working. Dialysis patients require treatment 3 to 7 times a week, for three or more hours per session, in a hospital, clinic, or at home. Year after year, the number of people needing dialysis is increasing. Why? Because North Americans continue to abuse the kidney’s one million delicate nephrons.

We tend to think the bowel is the main disposal organ of the body. But it’s the kidneys. They’re like chemists that day after day check the balance of water by keeping it neither too acidic nor too alkaline. They also help in the production of red blood cells. Every 30 minutes, kidneys filter the body’s entire volume of blood.

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