Observe World Kidney Day with Us, Your Kidneys

Hey, what’s up?  We’re just taking a short break from filtering your blood to let you know that the globe has a day dedicated to us, your kidneys!  Can you believe that?  On Thursday, March 12, the earth will dedicate a day to two bean-shaped, fist-sized organs that most people take for granted…wait, maybe that’s the whole point of World Kidney Day.  I mean we’re not exactly the sexiest organs out there…err, rather, in you.   You can’t really hear us beat or have a romantic holiday associated with us or have Cupid out there advocating for us.  You can’t hear us rumble when we’re hungry or when you eat too much Thai food.  Even as paired organs go, your lungs grab all the glory.  Heck, most people don’t even think about us when they pee.  They might complain about having a small bladder, but who do you think produced all that urine?  Your kidneys, that’s who!

Anyway, we digress.  We’re just happy that World Kidney Day has been observed since 2006, has grown every year and even has its own website.   And we couldn’t agree more with its mission to “raise global awareness of the importance of your kidneys (us) to overall health and to reduce the frequency and impact of kidney disease and its associated health problems.”  Because that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?  Raising awareness of our existence and how important we are in order to prevent chronic kidney disease or what we refer to as CKD.

All this relates to what we do every minute of every day for you.  Together, we filter your blood about 400 times every day in order to remove excess water and unwanted toxins.  We then send that excess water through your ureters to your bladder to be expelled at your convenience or, in a baby’s case, whenever the hell they like.

We also remove acids produced by your cells and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus and potassium.  Wait, there’s more.  We produce hormones that control your blood pressure and stimulate the production of red blood cells.  Lastly, we produce an active form of vitamin D that helps you absorb calcium and phosphorus for healthy bones.  And you think you lead a busy lifestyle, step into our shoes…or nephrons (our microscopic filtration units), and we’ll show you busy!

As far as keeping us healthy is concerned, there are certain risk factors that can increase your risk of contracting a CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease), and they are diabetes, high blood pressure or hypertension, obesity, and a family history of kidney disease.  If you have one or more of these risk factors, you should ensure we’re functioning properly through a urine and/or simple blood test on a regular basis.  That’s one of the “Eight Golden Rules for Kidney Health.”  The other seven are:

1. Keep fit, be active. This helps stave off obesity and can reduce your blood pressure.
2. Eat a healthy diet. Again, this helps you maintain an ideal body weight, lower your blood pressure, prevent type 2 diabetes and heart disease.  And reduce your salt intake as it contributes to high blood pressure and causes us to work harder than necessary.
3. Check and control your blood sugar. About half the people who have diabetes do not know they have diabetes.  And half of those with diabetes will develop CKD at some point if they don’t control the disease through controlling their blood sugar levels.
4. Check and control your blood pressure. High blood pressure causes us all kinds of problems.  If you’re unsure of your blood pressure, especially if you’re older and/or overweight, there’s a simple solution…GET IT CHECKED!
5. Ensure proper fluid intake. Generally, that’s about 2 liters or 8 cups of fluids per day depending upon your level of exercise, climate, health issues, or pregnancy.
6. Don’t smoke. This slows the blood flow to us and increases the risk of us contracting cancer by 50%.
7. Don’t take over-the-counter anti-inflammatories or pain killers on a regular basis.

We’re so glad we had this little chat about World Kidney Day and the role we play in keeping you healthy.  All we ask is that you keep us in mind, not just on March 12, but every day.  Remember, if you take care of us, we’ll do the same for you.  Happy World Kidney Day.