Adopting healthy lifestyle habits is the main way to protect the kidneys, according to nephrology experts. Vital Signs – Dr. Kalil Interview this Saturday (13) provides an overview of kidney diseases in Brazil with nephrologists Lúcio Requião, deputy clinical director of Hospital do Rim and professor at the Escola Paulista de Medicina da Unifesp, and Caio Bastos, specialist at Hospital do Rim
For Bastos, the starting point is building a solid set of healthy habits.
“Avoiding decompensated diabetes, uncontrolled blood pressure, undoubtedly makes the kidney healthier,” he said.
He also highlighted the importance of hydration, especially in the Brazilian context. “In Brazil, which is a tropical country, in high-risk patients, especially in places with greater exposure to pesticides and high temperatures, hydration is essential for the Brazilian people,” he said.
Cardiovascular and renal prevention go hand in hand
Requião reinforced that the preventive guidelines published for heart disease apply equally to the kidneys.
“All the healthy habits that have been extensively publicized for the control of heart disease, coronary disease, for example, are valid for kidney disease,” he stated.
Among the measures he listed are avoiding overweight and obesity, reducing the consumption of ultra-processed foods, reducing salt intake and .
Early diagnosis as a window of opportunity
Despite being a disease, kidney disease can be identified in a simple and accessible way.
Requião explained that two tests are sufficient to detect the condition in its early stages: the blood creatinine test and the urine test.
“The creatinine test is available in all 44,000 basic health units in the country and costs R$0.07 in the Unified Health System. All you need to do is take a creatinine test per year to understand how your kidney health is,” he detailed.
The urine test, which checks protein loss, is also available in all basic units.
Requião warned that it is essential to prevent the patient from progressing to kidney failure.
“Early identification is the window of opportunity we have to stop a process that is progressive,” he said.
Bastos added that, in most cases, patients arrive at medical care at an advanced stage of failure, precisely because it is a disease without obvious symptoms.
Requião also emphasized that kidney health care should not be postponed until adulthood.
According to him, when the diagnosis of kidney failure is established, the process that led to this condition generally began 10 or 20 years earlier. “This message applies to any age,” he concluded.
