Nephrology
Nephrology
Nephrology is the medical specialty dedicated to the treatment of kidney diseases.
“If detected early, deterioration in kidney function can be reduced by up to 50%. New treatments can slow progression to kidney failure and in some cases even stop progression. This means staying out of hospital and living your best life for longer.”
What is a Nephrologist?
A nephrologist is a specialist physician who focuses on the study, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases.
Kidney disease is a silent condition, up to 80% or more of the kidney function can be lost before symptoms develop, and there are 1.8 million Australians living with undiagnosed kidney disease. The two main causes of kidney disease are hypertension and diabetes which make up 70% or more of all cases.
Where are the kidneys and what do they do?
Your kidneys are internal organs towards your lower back, just above your waist. They are on either side of your spine and are protected by your ribcage. Kidneys are amazing vital organs and have the following attributes:
Getting rid of waste: Kidneys act as filters which clean the blood, you pee out the waste! Two healthy kidneys filter about 150-180 litres of blood per day (which cleans the blood up to 30 times over!)
Blood pressure and fluid: Kidneys play a crucial role in controlling blood pressure by regulating the volume of blood (by adjusting the amount of water you pee out) and the tension of blood vessels across your whole body.
Electrolytes: Kidneys maintain safe and balanced levels of many electrolytes (salts) that your body needs to use for nerve function, muscle contractions and maintaining fluid balance.
Red blood cell health: They produce erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone essential to produce red blood cells in bone marrow. These red blood cells carry the oxygen we breath all over our body.
Vitamin D: Kidneys convert all that good vitamin D into its active form, essential for bone health and calcium absorption.
The 5 Stages of Chronic Kidney Disease
Stage 1 & 2: Your kidneys are quite healthy but there are early signs that they could worsen, here we work on preventative strategies.
Stage 3: This stage is split into two parts, 3a and 3b. You won’t feel it, but your kidney are starting to struggle. We work on addressing risk factors to reduce the rate of progression (such as diet, salt, exercise, high blood pressure and diabetes).
Stage 4: Your kidneys are have a hard time cleaning your blood, and you might start to feel more health effects. Here we begin to discuss treatments to help your kidneys do their job and plan for future options like dialysis, kidney transplant or supportive care for when your kidneys can’t do the work anymore.
Stage 5: This is a serious condition when your kidneys have lost most of their cleaning ability and we put in place the plans for either dialysis, transplantation, or symptomatic and supportive care.
