By JOHNNA VILLAVIRAY GIOLAGON
Today, March 13, is World Kidney Day.
Dr. Susan Anonuevo-dela Rama of the Philippine Society of Nephrology (PSN) asks everyone to do a favor for your kidney and for all the kidneys in the world: raise a glass of water, take a selfie, and post it on the any social networking sites.
De la Rama said “Water is a good preventive measure to avoid many kidney diseases like infection, dehydration; and, if one drinks water rather than beverages with sugar, diabetes is not worsened.”
So, if diabetes is better controlled, renal disease from diabetes is also prevented,” she said.
World Kidney Day is “to raise awareness of the importance of our kidneys to our overall health and to reduce the frequency and impact of kidney diseases and its associated health problems.”
Worldwide, about one in 10 adults is suffering from kidney disease. In the Philippines, about six million people are suffering from kidney damage.
One of them is Emman Hernandez who was 25 years old when his kidneys began failing him.
At an age when his peers were enjoying their economic freedom, Hernandez, single had to quit his job and revert to dependence on his family. His immune system was severely compromised and he was unfit to work.
“It was difficult. I got depressed,” Hernandezsaid in a telephone interview. That was in 1999. Five years later, his kidneys completely gave out. He needed a transplant.
Still, Hernandez was among the lucky ones.
Just seven months after being diagnosed in 2005 with end-stage renal disease, he received a new kidney from his younger sister Melissa. Last year, another 342 patients became as lucky as Hernandez to have been given an extension in life through a kidney transplant.
De la Rama said that, in the Philippines, the list of patients waiting for a kidney transplant is practically as long as that on dialysis.
Health department records show that 18,868 patients were on dialysis treatment in 2012, some 12,122 of whom began just last year.
The number of people needing the treatment has been increasing at a rate of 10 percent annually for the past decade. Kidney disease is already the seventh leading cause of death among Filipinos.
“One Filipino develops chronic renal failure every hour or about 120 Filipinos per million population per year,” according to information from the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI).
De la Rama acknowledged that it’s alarming how the number of Filipinos suffering from one or another form of kidney disease has been escalating the past years.
Age and lifestyle are major factors that make one susceptible to renal diseases. In other cases, like Emman’s, the improper intake of medication also causes kidney problems. “I’m the only one in the family who has it. It started when I had tonsillitis and took antibiotics,” he recalled.
End-stage renal disease – the progressive loss of kidney function over time – is primarily triggered by diabetes, hypertension, and chronic glomerulonephritis, an advanced stage of a kidney disorder.
“In the past, chronic glomerulonephritis was the most common cause of chronic renal failure. Today, diabetes mellitus and hypertension have taken center stage in the causation of ESRD which together account for almost 60% of dialysis patients,” the NKTI website said.
Hernandez has emerged from the health crisis a stronger person but that chapter in his life continues to haunt him via medical expenses that cost P800 daily. He has been spending approximately as much every day since getting a kidney transplant in 2005.
The daily expense is on top of the cost of the actual operation, which could fetch anywhere from P800, 000 to P1.2 million depending on the hospital where it is done.
While medication and dialysis allow even those with end-stage renal disease to survive, the expenses exact a toll that not every patient can afford.
Government is also burdened by the increasing number of patients with renal diseases. The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. has disbursed P2.29 billion in medical claims for dialysis treatment just in 2012.
That is why, de la Rama said, the best way is to avoid renal problems altogether.
In a forum in Quezon City, de la Rama outlined the eight Golden Rules in preventing kidney disease:
– Keep fit and active
– Control blood sugar level
– Control blood pressure level
– Eat healthy and keep your weight in check
– Adequate fluid intake
– Do not smoke
– Avoid intake of unnecessary drugs, supplements, toxins
– Check your kidney function if you have risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity or family members with kidney disease.