Kidney failure patients are getting younger and younger.

Many young people have end-stage renal failure.

Although only 30 years old, NVM ( Bac Giang ) has been on dialysis for 5 years. Before that, seeing signs of abdominal pain and nausea, M went to the doctor and was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure. From then on, M began her days attached to the dialysis machine.

Young patient with end-stage renal failure treated at Bach Mai Hospital.

"Three dialysis sessions a week leave me unable to do anything and dependent on my family," M said.

3 years ago, Mr. HH (31 years old, in Hanoi ) also accidentally discovered the disease after a routine health check at the office. At that time, the urine test index showed proteinuria, so Mr. H was advised to go for a thorough examination.

Since having to undergo dialysis, Mr. H's health has declined from being the main breadwinner in the family. Mr. H said that the financial burden now rests on his wife's shoulders.

Dr. Nghiem Trung Dung, Director of the Center for Nephrology and Dialysis, Bach Mai Hospital, said that among inpatient kidney patients, there are more and more people under 30 years old. Most of these people have to be hospitalized due to chronic glomerulonephritis. There are teenagers 15, 16 years old who have end-stage kidney disease.

"Most patients come to the center when the disease is already in a very late stage. Some patients are in the stage of emergency dialysis, at which time the kidney failure is very severe with many complications in organs such as the cardiovascular system, respiratory system... this will limit the patient's choice in kidney replacement therapy," said Mr. Dung.

Consequences of living and eating habits

According to medical experts, the reason why kidney failure is increasing and getting younger is because metabolic diseases are increasing, including diabetes, high blood pressure, gout... These diseases also tend to get younger and gradually turn into kidney failure.

Some people with urinary tract diseases such as urinary tract infections, urinary stones and genetic diseases such as polycystic kidney disease, autoimmune diseases (lupus erythematosus, glomerulonephritis...) can also progress to kidney failure.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nghiem Trung Dung said that the trend of younger people with kidney failure is related to many problems, including irregular eating and living habits such as using too many drinks of unknown origin, eating too many convenient foods such as instant noodles with high salt content or sleeping too late, being lazy to exercise leading to obesity...

Sharing the same opinion, Dr. Nguyen Van Tuyen, Head of the Department of Nephrology - Urology, Duc Giang General Hospital, said that an unscientific lifestyle, lack of exercise, staying up late, eating too salty, fatty, sugary foods, eating a lot of processed foods, abusing stimulants such as alcohol, beer, smoking can easily lead to metabolic syndromes such as diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, gout, obesity...

In addition, the habit of arbitrarily using pain relievers, anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, oriental medicine, drugs of unknown origin, and indiscriminate functional foods is also the cause of increased kidney failure.

Early detection increases treatment effectiveness

Mr. Tuyen also said that more worryingly, the symptoms of kidney failure are often vague, without clear manifestations, and are easily overlooked, especially by young people who have a subjective mentality and often ignore unusual manifestations of the body.

"With chronic kidney disease, if detected early, there will be an opportunity to prolong the time of conservative treatment with low treatment costs, effectiveness, and less time for follow-up visits. However, when the disease is detected at a late stage, the cost of treatment is high, the time of conservative treatment is shortened, greatly affecting the health and quality of life of the patient.

Normally, when kidney disease is detected at the end stage, there are only three options: regular hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and kidney transplant. Whichever option is chosen, the burden of the disease will follow the patient and their family for the rest of their lives," Dr. Dung informed.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, each year Vietnam has 8,000 more people with kidney disease. Currently, the whole country has about 5 million people with kidney failure of all levels and about 26,000 people needing dialysis.

Along with the increase in people with kidney disease, the number of young people with kidney failure tends to increase. In the past 5 years, the rate of young patients with end-stage chronic kidney disease requiring dialysis has increased by 5-10%.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/benh-nhan-suy-than-ngay-cang-tre-hoa-19225030623422417.htm