OVER 8,000 Cypriots suffer from kidney diseases and many of them are preventable, a leading nephrologist said yesterday.
“We want to make people aware so that they can be careful not to damage their kidneys,” said Dr Yiannis Athanassiou, a nephrologist at the Nicosia General Hospital, at an event to mark World Kidney Day.
He said diabetes and high blood pressure cause 70 per cent of kidney disease cases and many of these could be prevented.
A person with chronic kidney disease must be on haemodialysis for the rest of their lives and their only hope for a permanent cure is a kidney transplant, but in many cases dialysis treatments are only necessary until the kidneys begin functioning normally again. Haemodialysis is a process by which a person’s blood is cleansed of the toxins the kidneys would normally flush out.
Diabetes is considered the number one cause of kidney disease as a high blood sugar level can overwork the kidneys, causing them to stop working properly. High blood pressure is also a problem because it makes the heart work harder and, over time, can damage blood vessels throughout the body. If the blood vessels in the kidneys become damaged they may stop removing wastes and extra fluid from the body. The extra fluid may then raise blood pressure even more.
“These people must be more careful,” said Athanassiou. The long-term use of painkillers and hereditary reasons are also causes of kidney disease.
However, Athanassiou said that many forms of the disease can be prevented by exercise, consuming less salt, not smoking, a healthy diet, maintaining a normal weight and not overindulging in pain medication.
World Kidney Day is a global event that began taking place in 2006 on the second Thursday of March. It is a health awareness campaign that focuses on the importance of the kidneys along with reducing the frequency and impact of kidney disease.
Yesterday’s event at the general hospital offered simple tests for blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
‘Dialysis made my life easier’
Christakis Theodoulou Malekou, a 73-year-old from Kalo Horio Klirou, has been undergoing haemodialysis treatment for kidney disease brought on by high blood pressure for the last seven months. He explained how the haemodialysis treatment had made his life easier.
“From the time I started dialysis my life is easier; I work now, I go out…I got used to it too as I just come and go on the bus,” said Malekou.
He currently has to attend dialysis treatment three times a week, with a view to it becoming twice a week as the levels of creatinine in his body become lower. The chemical creatinine at normal range indicates that the kidneys are functioning properly.
