How to protect yourself against chronic kidney disease, a silent killer, and recent advances to help you live with CKD

Name: Living with kidney failure in China
Uploaded: 2023-03-09T20:15:09.000Z
Duration: 7 min 28 s
Description: Living with kidney failure in China

On World Kidney Day doctors urge us to take precautions against chronic kidney disease; the organs can lose 90 per cent of their function before we see symptoms

There is no cure for chronic kidney disease, a growing problem in China, but it is possible to treat and live with the condition

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Chronic kidney disease (CKD) often shows no symptoms until it is advanced. On World Kidney Day, doctors urge us to protect ourselves against this incurable disease by living a healthy life. Photo: Shutterstock

Anthea Rowan

Published: 4:15am, 10 Mar 2023Updated: 5:01am, 10 Mar 2023

About 16 per cent of the world’s adult population could be living with chronic kidney disease (CKD), a recent study warns. There’s been a 40 per cent increase in prevalence over the past 30 years.

This rise has been particularly steep in China – which accounts for almost a fifth of the global total.

CKD is an especially dangerous illness: many of those affected won’t realise their kidneys are in danger until it’s too late. A person can lose up to 90 per cent of kidney function before experiencing any symptoms.

It progresses stealthily, until it makes its presence felt in – for example – tiredness, puffy ankles, blood in your pee, foamy urine and a lack of appetite.

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Living with kidney failure in China

It happens when the tiny filters in our kidneys become damaged. Each of our kidneys has about a million of these, called nephrons.

For a while, healthy nephrons can pick up the slack. But if the damage continues, more and more nephrons give up and stop working. At a certain point, the healthy ones are overwhelmed and aren’t able to filter your blood well enough to keep you healthy.