Educating kidneys

Article courtesy of NKF Kidney Care, a community education programme by National Kidney Foundation of Malaysia.

Kidney disease took its toll on his father and elder sister before it finally hit Chuah Seong Ban. “At first, I started feeling uncomfortable so much so I couldn’t sleep at night. One day, both, my kidneys just stopped functioning altogether,” he recalls.


Chuah Seong Ban...'At first, I

started feeling uncomfortable so

much so I couldn't sleep at night.

One day, both, my kidneys just

stopped functioning altogether

Although a professional engineer, Chuah is glad that his company pays for his thrice-weekly dialysis. “The financial burden would be far too much for me to bear, otherwise,” he says. Chuah shudders to think of other less fortunate patients if National Kidney Foundation weren’t there to them.
Did you know that more than 500 million (or 10% of all adults) worldwide have some form of kidney disease? Or that millions die every year from heart attacks and strokes linked to chronic kidney disease?

Any disease that threatens the kidneys has to be viewed seriously. Chronic kidney disease is especially so as its prevalence is increasing. This is due mainly to the rising number of people with poorly managed diabetes and high blood pressure – the two most major contributing factors for kidney damage today.

Smoking, obesity, advancing age and family history of kidney disease also other important risk factors to watch.

Undetected or untreated, kidney diseases can lead to end-stage kidney failure. Referring to the complete and utter failure of the kidneys, it is a life-threatening condition and the patient would need a kidney transplant or dialysis to stay alive.

Dialysis, a process to filter the blood, has to be conducted three times a week for the rest of a patient’s life. The total cost is often too expensive for most ordinary people to shoulder.

Thankfully, kidney diseases are mostly preventable, especially if one observes a healthy lifestyle.