Make your concerns known to your primary care provider. There are simple blood tests which will show your kidney function status.

Many fruits, such as bananas, oranges, avocados, have large amounts of potassium in them. Limit your intake of these foods and follow your doctor’s instructions to control your potassium.

There is a strong chance that you can “inherit” these conditions. See your primary care provider regularly so that you can have simple blood tests to monitor your chances of developing these conditions.

Your doctor may have seen something in your blood or urine which shows that you have early kidney disease. These conditions are “silent” meaning that you will feel fine when something may be very wrong with your kidneys. Take your doctor’s advice and catch the problem as early as possible.

Many patients are able to achieve such good control of the diseases which cause their kidney disease (high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol), that they can slow down or even stop their kidney disease from getting worse.

It is an area of medicine that specialized in caring for people with kidney disease. It is the specialty that deals with the structure, health, and function of the kidneys.

A nephrologist is a physician who has been educated and trained in kidney diseases, kidney transplantation, and dialysis therapy. Nephrology is considered a subspecialty of internal medicine.

Physician Assistants are health care professionals licensed to practice medicine with physician supervision. As part of their comprehensive responsibilities, PAs conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventive health care, assist in surgery, and, in virtually all states, can write prescriptions.

This is a condition when your kidneys are beginning to show signs of failure. Chronic Kidney Disease is usually a quiet, slow decline in the kidneys’ ability to do their job.

End Stage Renal Disease is a complete or near-complete failure of the kidneys to ability to do their job of cleaning the blood, producing urine, and regulating other important components of the blood. End Stage Renal Disease occurs when kidneys are no longer able to function at a level necessary for every day life. At this point, the kidney function is so low that without dialysis or a kidney transplant, multiple and severe complications occur. This condition can lead to death from the build-up of fluids and waste products in the body.