March is National Kidney Month and today is World Kidney Day, an annual campaign to raise awareness about the importance of kidney health and how to maintain it.
This year’s theme is: “Are your kidneys okay? Detect early, protect kidney health!”
Kidney disease is a serious issue for Veterans
More than 1.4 million Veterans enrolled in VA health care suffer from chronic kidney disease (CKD) and more than 20,000 are currently receiving dialysis through VA.
While kidney disease is a known risk factor for early death, independent of any other condition, it is often accompanied by additional health problems. More than half of all Veterans with CKD also have concomitant diabetes and around 7% have coexisting heart failure.
Focused on eradicating kidney failure
VA established the first national health system policy targeting prevention, early detection and management of kidney disease in 2019. We have established partnerships with several other patient and professional kidney organizations, including The American Association of Kidney Patients, the American Kidney Fund and the National Kidney Foundation to ensure our patients and providers have access to the most up-to-date information on CKD.
This year, the VA Kidney Medicine Program updated our joint clinical practice guidelines with the DoD to optimize kidney health and reduce risk of kidney failure and premature death due to kidney-associated heart disease.
Updates focused on shared decision making between patients and providers and special chapters reviewed the association of military occupational exposures and kidney disease, the care of older patients and general lifestyle modifications important for maintaining kidney health.
Kidney medicine providers are available across the nation either at VAMCs or via the VA telenephrology program. These professionals provide comprehensive kidney health care services and education to Veterans, train future generations of kidney health care providers, and conduct clinical and basic science research that has fundamentally changed how we care for people at risk for or with kidney injury.
Protecting and preserving Veterans’ kidney health
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and VA takes preventing CKD seriously. We know that kidney disease may be an inherited disorder for which VA offers genetic testing and counseling and may also be related to occupational or environmental exposures which every Veteran enrolled in VA health care is screened for.
We offer simple screening tests for kidney disease. All it takes is one blood test and one urine test.
As soon as CKD is detected, treatment can begin to protect and preserve your kidney health. VA primary care team providers and pharmacists can prescribe various medications and refer patients to kidney specialists as needed.
Nutrition plays a big role in kidney health
The top two causes of kidney disease are hypertension and diabetes, both of which are largely preventable and treatable through lifestyle changes like diet and exercise. Eating a healthy diet can help ease the stress on your kidney while eating unhealthily can increase the stress on the kidneys and hasten the decline of kidney function and the need for dialysis.
For optimal kidney health, we recommend eating a diet with more plant-based foods like the Mediterranean or DASH diet and fewer ultra-processed foods. Resources and recipes for a kidney-friendly diet are available through VA’s Nutrition and Food Service.
More information about World Kidney Day including a one-minute “Are your kidneys healthy?” quiz.
Learn more about VA’s Kidney Medicine Program or talk to your VA provider.
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Is this article not DEI?
When a Vet with a history of Check2 and CCRC (partial nephrectomy) goes to get their yearly MRI check up and the scan shows a 1 cm mass “most likely CCRC” on the other kidney. Why are all the Dr associated with treating that new mass able to refuse to talk to the Vet or appointments? How are they able to make decisions regarding treatment without the Vets input or agreement? How can they decide to just pass all treatment info to the Urology NP the Vet just met in the Tumor Clinic and have her inform the Vet what is happening? Is this how all VA’s handle their Cancer patients? Is this the standard of care in the VA for Nephrology and Urology? Is this an acceptable Quality of Life? This is treating a Vet like meat not a human. Doesn’t matter how proactive I am about my kidney health when VA Dr ignore you. I have done all the things mentioned above plus gotten my yearly scans without fail. I always make sure they test before any contrast is given. I’m not the falling down on the job. You need to include what to do when your VA ignores your kidney health in your article.