Everything about Kidney's.

Essay by y2kooladamJunior High, 9th gradeA+, September 2003

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Inside the body the main organs that excrete nitrogen wastes are the kidneys. When something goes wrong inside the kidney your body may be in risk of a many very serious problems. Today more than 20 million Americans, one in 9 adults, have chronic kidney disease, more than 20 million others are at increased risk. Kidney disease is one of the costliest illnesses in the U.S. today. More than 70,000 Americans die each year because of kidney disease. At the moment more than 50,000 patients are waiting for kidney transplants, but only about 14,000 will receive transplants this year because of a shortage of suitable organ donors. Diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of chronic kidney failure, accounting for 44 percent of the new cases each year and 35 percent of all cases in the U.S. Uncontrolled or poorly controlled high blood pressure is the second leading cause of chronic kidney failure in the U.S.,

accounting for about 23 percent of U.S. cases. Each year, over 1 million physician visits and more than 300,000 hospitalizations in the U.S. resulted from kidney stones. An estimated million older Americans suffer from this problem.

Today millions kidney disease foundations have been founded all to try and prevent and stop kidney diseases. All donate millions to learn more and more about kidney diseases. By learning more, people are able to have more choices for treatments. The three main types of treatment are hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and kidney transplantation. All of these treatments save thousands of lives each day. For each treatment there are good and bad parts to them. To decide a treatment one should talk with their doctor for the best result.

Hemodialysis is a procedure that cleans and filters your blood. It helps your body get rid of harmful wastes and...