WHY LEARN ABOUT CKD?
The kidney is a hard working organ in the body. The two kidneys located in the body has a function to filter all nutrients from the body, pick which nutrients need to go back into the blood, and dispose the 'waste' as urine. Yet, an interesting fact about the kidney is that a normal functioning kidney is only utilizing about 25% of the nephrons (the functional units) capacity. Now imagine that it is possible to have less than 25% of the nephrons working, and the kidney cannot properly perform the functions listed above. It seems unlikely that this would happen, especially since there are two kidneys in the human body and these kidneys should be able to handle a large capacity of fluid. Well it turns out that 26 million Americans are suffering from this loss of kidney function, also known as Chronic Kidney Disease, and many more million are at risk [1]. Throughout most of my life, this disease has been very close to me and has made a major impact on my life. I, personally, did not actually have the disease, but a grandparent that I was very close with did. Symptoms for her started developing in her middle-aged years and continued throughout the rest of her life. She even had a kidney transplant, hoping that a normal kidney would cure her, but the disease continued to spread. This is why CKD is important to me and it may be important for you too if you or someone you know may be at risk. More formally, Chronic Kidney Disease includes conditions that limit the function of the kidney that will eventually lead to a decreased ability to keep an individual healthy [1]. A medical anthropologist would not look at Chronic Kidney Disease the same way as your family physician might. For example, a medical anthropologist may look at what culture or ethnicity the patient with CKD is from and may use that information to do some archeological research to find out if CKD was common among ancestors of that particular culture or ethnicity. A medical anthropologist may look to see how CKD is treated among that culture or ethnicity today and also how it was treated in the past.
REFERENCES
1. "About Chronic Kidney Disease." The National Kidney Foundation. Accessed on July 9, 2014.
http://www.kidney.org/kidneydisease/aboutckd.cfm
The kidney is a hard working organ in the body. The two kidneys located in the body has a function to filter all nutrients from the body, pick which nutrients need to go back into the blood, and dispose the 'waste' as urine. Yet, an interesting fact about the kidney is that a normal functioning kidney is only utilizing about 25% of the nephrons (the functional units) capacity. Now imagine that it is possible to have less than 25% of the nephrons working, and the kidney cannot properly perform the functions listed above. It seems unlikely that this would happen, especially since there are two kidneys in the human body and these kidneys should be able to handle a large capacity of fluid. Well it turns out that 26 million Americans are suffering from this loss of kidney function, also known as Chronic Kidney Disease, and many more million are at risk [1]. Throughout most of my life, this disease has been very close to me and has made a major impact on my life. I, personally, did not actually have the disease, but a grandparent that I was very close with did. Symptoms for her started developing in her middle-aged years and continued throughout the rest of her life. She even had a kidney transplant, hoping that a normal kidney would cure her, but the disease continued to spread. This is why CKD is important to me and it may be important for you too if you or someone you know may be at risk. More formally, Chronic Kidney Disease includes conditions that limit the function of the kidney that will eventually lead to a decreased ability to keep an individual healthy [1]. A medical anthropologist would not look at Chronic Kidney Disease the same way as your family physician might. For example, a medical anthropologist may look at what culture or ethnicity the patient with CKD is from and may use that information to do some archeological research to find out if CKD was common among ancestors of that particular culture or ethnicity. A medical anthropologist may look to see how CKD is treated among that culture or ethnicity today and also how it was treated in the past.
REFERENCES
1. "About Chronic Kidney Disease." The National Kidney Foundation. Accessed on July 9, 2014.
http://www.kidney.org/kidneydisease/aboutckd.cfm
