It’s officially National Kidney Month. On March 10 we’ll celebrate World Kidney Day, an annual day where people and organizations around the globe work to raise awareness of kidney disease.
Kidney disease is growing
Obesity and diabetes are on the rise. With them, often, comes kidney disease. When the disease progresses to kidney failure, patients must undergo regular dialysis treatments—usually three times a week—or get a kidney transplant to survive.
The good news is there’s a lot we can do right now to prevent kidney disease in our families.
Kicking off our kidney month awareness campaign is Connie Anderson, RN, Northwest Kidney Centers vice president of clinical operations. Watch the video below to get Connie’s tips for creating healthy habits with your kids and grandkids.
Ways to prevent kidney disease
Eat well. Create healthy habits when kids are young. Offer your family fresh fruits and vegetables instead of salty, packaged snacks. One restaurant meal can contain your daily limit of salt. Instead of eating out, cook at home with your kids.
Exercise regularly. Children should get 60 minutes of exercise every day. Get outside if the weather’s nice. But if it’s not, have a dance party like Connie and her grandkids. Make exercise a priority when kids are young and they’ll be likely to stick with it when they’re older.
Get checkups. Kidney disease runs in families. If you or your kids are at risk for kidney disease, visit the doctor and ask for simple tests to check kidney function.
Talk to your kids about eating well and exercising and, perhaps even more important, heed your own advice and your kids will likely follow in your footsteps.
Help us raise awareness of creating healthy habits early—use #KidsAndKidneys on social media throughout the month of March, and check out our friends at World Kidney Day for other ways to spread the word.
Tags: kidney month, nutrition, patient education, patient health, tips for patients, world kidney day