Let's Talk About Your Kidneys This National Kidney Month, and About Testing for Chronic Kidney Disease.

If you're like most people, you never think about your kidneys. They don't do anything flashy like your lungs or your heart. You can't really feel them work. It's hard to even point to their exact location on your body.

But among other functions, your kidneys serve an essential role in your circulatory system. They are hard-working little organs that constantly filter the blood from your arteries, pass the filtered blood back into your veins, and remove the filtered waste products from your body as urine.

Without proper kidney function, waste products and fluids build up in your body, leading to a host of other issues. Eventually, last-resort procedures like dialysis treatments and kidney transplants may be necessary as it is not possible to live without at least one functioning kidney.

Here’s the problem: just as you can't feel your kidneys functioning normally, you and your senior loved ones may not feel them start to malfunction either.

The statistics are alarming. One out of three adults in the U.S. are at risk for chronic kidney disease due to age, weight, smoking, medical conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, polycystic kidney disease, diabetes, or the prolonged use of over-the-counter painkillers like aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen. One out of seven adults in the U.S. may already have kidney disease — and as many as 90% of those sufferers will have no idea they need help until the disease reaches an advanced stage.

Please do not let yourself or your senior loved ones fall into that unsuspecting 90%.

We've included kidney disease information links below to help you assess your risk factors, and a downloadable worksheet to help senior caregivers prepare kidney-healthy meals for senior loved ones. As March is also National Nutrition Month, now is a great time to learn more about the impact of nutrition and how it can directly correlate with other health-related issues. But above all else this month, we encourage you to talk to your doctor and get yourself and your family — especially those senior loved ones — tested for proper kidney function.

With medical issues, knowledge really is power. Early kidney disease detection will give you and your family time to start proactive treatments and ease into lifestyle changes that can keep kidneys healthier and reduce the related risks of heart attack and stroke.

If you need help scheduling kidney function test appointments for your senior loved ones or if you are already overwhelmed dealing with kidney medications, preparing kidney-healthy meals, and arranging transportation to dialysis appointments, please call us for a free consultation at (817) 887-9401 or (214) 887-9401. Our phones are staffed 24/7 and our compassionate caregivers are trained to support a wide range of chronic conditions like kidney disease.