Preventive Health Checks- Change Your Perception - Keep a Check On Your System

It is estimated that there are about 55,000 patients on dialysis in India, and the dialysis population is growing at an alarming rate of 10–20% annually. Dialysis is a procedure needed by a patient whose kidneys’ normal functions have deteriorated so much that after every few days he/she needs machines to do the blood filtering work for him/her.

Once a person has developed renal disease, the person has no option but to live with it. However, that phase of “living with it” is a huge challenge for the sufferer and the entire family. The life of a family who has got one patient with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) is never the same or easy.

Hence it’s the prevention that becomes the need of the hour. Though in a good number of cases the cause still remains unknown, however, Diabetes and life-style still scores high on the list of being the cause of the disease, ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease).

There are a number of factors including medical conditions which act as contributing factors for kidney damage and hence it’s important that such factors are identified in time and taken care of. That’s where Preventive Health-check Plans become so important in today’s age. It’s like getting that preventive or timely service of our vehicle so that it doesn’t break down at a wrong time and wrong place. In the same way Preventive Health-check Plans help us to know whats cooking inside our body, much before it has caused a bigger damage to your systems. We can take the help of experts or specialists much in advance. The expense incurred on Preventive Health-check Plans compared to the money spent on living with a life-long disease like ESRD is nominal. Hence it’s sensible to be alert and opt for the Preventive Health-check Plans as a routine, as routinely as we get our vehicles serviced!

Unfortunately in our country, we are still wary of going in for Preventive Health-check Plans for us/our families as a routine and we only become alert when a lifelong disease like ESRD becomes well established, enough to start showing the signs and symptoms. Hence, on this World Kidney Day, we need to pledge that we should be looking after ourselves and our loved ones from not only the curative point of view (which we always do anyway) but more from preventive point of view, before it’s too late.