They are called “silent killers” because they may not present symptoms for years. They affect 10 percent of the population kidney disease, at the center of the new episode of “Star bene”. The programme, hosted by journalist Marzia Foletti and broadcast on Telelibertà, featured Roberto Scarpioni who is director of Nephrology and dialysis at the Piacenza Local Health Authority and Teresa Valsania who is the contact person for the Home Dialysis section of the Nephrology Dialysis operational unit.
KIDNEY DISEASE IN PIACENZA: SPREAD
“About 10 percent of the population has kidney failure – underlines Scarpioni – these are diseases that increase with the improvement of lifestyle and which also have a close link with hypertension, diabetes, inflammation of the kidneys, hereditary and oncological diseases”. Oncologist Luigi Cavanna intervenes precisely on this front: “Kidney cancer is often silent and many tumors are found by chance: these are the luckiest cases – he explains – metastatic tumors are rare but not impossible: the most frequent instead it is a clear cell tumor, but also a papillary one”.
NUTRITION AND DRUGS AMONG THE RISK FACTORS
But what are the risk factors? “An important enemy is salt, but also anti-inflammatories: Prolonged use increases the risk of damaging the kidneys – Valsania points out – which is why it is always a good idea to contact your doctor before taking the drugs. It is clear that you can live with just one kidney: there are those who are born like this, while kidney transplant recipients receive one organ only to replace two. But it is an organ that must be treated with extreme care.”
“Prolonged exposure to metals has also always been correlated with renal failure – concludes Francesco Sabbadini, director of Occupational Medicine at Asia Group – but exposures are now reduced to a minimum. In my work I have only once seen renal failure from heavy metals and it resulted from domestic exposure.”
