Chronic Kidney Disease
(CKD)
Your kidneys are the filters of your body. Healthy kidneys regulate the body's fluid volume, mineral composition and acidity by excreting and reabsorbing water and the minerals that your body needs, as well as eliminate the body's waste and poisons. If kidney disease occurs, waste can build to high levels in your blood and cause you to feel sick. If not treated, you may develop complications like high blood pressure, anemia (low blood count), weak bones, poor nutritional health and nerve damage. Also, chronic kidney disease (CKD) increases your risk of having heart disease. These problems may happen slowly over a long period of time. A simple determinant of CKD disease is evidence of protein in the urine.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 30 million American adults have CKD, and millions of additional people are at increased risk. CKD may be caused by diabetes, high blood pressure and other disorders. Early detection and treatment is extremely important and can often keep CKD from getting worse. Progressive CKD ultimately can deteriorate to full kidney failure when dialysis or a kidney transplant is absolutely necessary for survival.
With the incidence of CKD expected to double over the next 20 years, it is critical to find therapies to reduce the already mushrooming threat to human life and the associated costs if this disease is left untreated.
Chronic kidney disease effects more than 36 million Americans
Cardiometabolic Diseases
