There are 2.9 million people with uremia in mainland China (in 2017, it is increasing year by year). This is a number that most people will never feel personally in their lifetime, but it is also a number that is enough to make every nephrologist feel heavy pressure and make every kidney patient afraid.
As a nephrologist, whenever a patient comes to the doctor to find out that it is uremia, I feel a deep sense of powerlessness: there is no way to cure it, the kidney transplant conditions are too high, and most uremia patients have no choice but lifelong dialysis.
I sometimes wonder: how can uremia happen when the onset of uremia is so high?
You know, our kidneys are very strong, and in order for uremia to occur, we need to go through three "difficulties":
First, in our two kidneys, we store kidney units that are three times the normal requirement (up to 2 million). Even if two-thirds of the renal units are lost, kidney function is normal.
Secondly, the necrosis process of the renal units is difficult to initiate. From bad lifestyle habits, genes, pollution and other issues, to oxidative stress, to immune inflammation, to the emergence of clinical proteinuria, it often takes years to decades of etiological accumulation to occur. If a person who is born with normal development lives in a near-normal environment, it is almost impossible for him to get kidney disease.
In the end, even kidney disease is not so terrible. The progression of kidney disease is slow, preventable, and treatable, and it often takes decades to progress to uremia. Most are clinically curable, but almost all can be delayed.
Three difficulties, each one is very difficult to break, why can someone overcome them all, as many as 2.9 million people?
There are two reasons for this
One is because the burden on the kidneys is too great.
The kidneys filter 2,000 liters of blood every day, which is equivalent to filtering all the blood in the body more than 400 times a day. Immune complexes in the blood, blood sugar, blood lipids, heavy metals, various large, medium, and small molecules such as toxins will constantly attack the most delicate parts of the human body - the endothelium of blood vessels. Although the kidney is only the size of a fist, the internal capillaries are too rich, and after the capillaries are expanded, the area will exceed 1.5 square meters, and every foot and inch is under attack. Especially in patients with poor pathology, such as membrane hyperplasia nephropathy, diabetic nephropathy, etc., the blood vessels are subjected to a higher attack density.
The second reason is that people don't care about the kidneys too much.
Annual physical examination, more than 7 hours of sleep per day, low-salt, low-fat, high-quality low-protein diet, smoking and alcohol cessation, avoiding fatigue, standardizing the use of nephrotoxic drugs, refusing to hurt kidney food, moderate exercise... How much can the average person do? Failure to do so again and again has led to the transformation of ordinary people into kidney disease patients.
Repeat consultation once every three months, follow-up of discomfort, feedback to the doctor every week, measure blood pressure at home every day, record changes in the condition every day, consult a doctor before using any drug, low salt, low fat, low phosphorus, low potassium, high-quality low-protein diet, exercise 5 times a week... How many patients with kidney disease can do it? Failure to do so again and again has led to the transformation of patients with kidney disease to uremia.
Socializing is more important than family, home remedies are more important than drugs, health care products are more important than treatment, earning money is more important than the body, saving money is more important than diagnosis, eating and drinking is more important than the three highs, staying up late is more important than sleep, smoking is more important than internal organs, face is more important than blood vessels... Kidney friends, don't take the former so seriously, don't be so "persistent".
