-Hello, I'm Dr. Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh,
professor of medicine and chief of the
division of Nephrology and hypertension
at the University of California Irvine
School of Medicine in Orange County and Southern California.
During march of each year the world kidney day is celebrated throughout the world.
To be more precise the World Kidney Day is observed annually on
this second Thursday in March.
The World Kidney Day or WKD is a global health
awareness campaign focusing on the
importance of kidneys and reducing the
frequency and impact of kidney disease
and its associated health problems worldwide.
It provides an important
opportunity to increase education and
awareness about the kidney disease and
to acknowledge and advocate access to
prevention and treatment of kidney
disease for people in this country and worldwide.
The world kidney day is a
joint initiative of the international
society of nephrology or ISN and the
international federation of kidney foundation's or IFKF.
Although some kidney diseases are treatable and may
have a cure some others such as chronic
kidney disease or CKD have often no cure
and may worsen over time.
Hence, a CKD patient may eventually need what is
called kidney replacement therapy that
includes dialysis treatment or kidney transplantation.
In the United States of America estimates suggest that
there are some 20 million people with
CKD or chronic kidney disease.
At the University of California, Irvine we have
special programs dedicated to security
patients in particular in form of
conservative and nutritional management
of CKD to avoid or deferred dialysis
therapy if possible.
I would like to emphasize the 2016 and 2017
themes of the World Kidney Day namely
kidney disease in children for 2016 and
obesity as a respecter of kidney disease in 2017.
In 2016, The focus of the World Kidney Day is kidney disease in
childhood and by implication kidney
disease in adulthood that has its roots
in childhood. For those children who
require kidney replacement therapy such
as dialysis for acute or chronic diseases
and additional major obstacle is the
challenge of access to hemodialysis or
peritoneal dialysis.
This is even more difficult than it is for adults with CKD.
In developed countries dialysis therapy keeps over 2 million
people alive worldwide but optimal
equipment and resources for children
with CKD may not be available for some
of these children with need.
Obesity is an important respect for metabolic
syndrome, diabetes, heart disease, and also
kidney disease in particular having
excessive fat inside the belly which is
known as inter abdominal fat or large
belly is an important risk factor for CKD.
Since diabetes and high blood
pressure are two main risk factors for
chronic kidney disease and since both
diabetes and hypertension can be
prevented or even cured by losing weight
in form of losing through abdominal fat
obesity is an important target for our
worldwide campaign to prevent or
mitigate the pandemic of chronic kidney disease.
In march of each year we celebrate world kidney day.
Around the world doctors, nurses, dieticians, and
other healthcare professionals as well
as patients and general public have an
opportunity to highlight the importance
of preventing and treating kidney
disease and to screen for early signs of
kidney disease.
Please help us spread the message by
celebrating the World Kidney Day and by
being kidney aware wherever you are.
You can obtain more information on kidney
disease or on world kidney day by
contacting us or visiting the websites
with the website of the division of
Nephrology and hypertension at the
University of California is
www.medicine.uci.edu/nephrology
or the homepage of the world kidney day
at worldkidneyday.org.
Have a nice day and stay healthy