Prevention best medicine: Doc

By LULU MARK
PREVENTION is still the best medicine because if you develop a bad kidney, there is no medication for that, a doctor says.
Port Moresby General Hospital nephrologist Dr Steven Bogosia said people with bad kidneys would need a transplant or haemodialysis treatment for the rest of their lives so it was important that people knew about the risk factors and what caused bad kidneys.
He said in terms of the common risk factors all over the world, including Papua New Guinea, diabetes was now the leading cause of kidney disease.
“It’s about the food that we put into our mouth,” he said.
“The sweet stuff from the shops, the drinks that we buy.
“When people walk around, they have the tendency to take something sweet when water can do.
“Water can help but many people choose processed food and drinks from the shops.
“Any processed food, drinks you get from the shop is bound to have an unhealthy component to it.
“Diabetes is a medical condition where your body cannot control your own sugar in the body.
“The normal level is about five or six, but when your level starts to go above six then that’s where the danger is.
“Too much sugar in your blood can cause strokes, heart attacks and one can have ulcers in the legs that don’t heal and can lead to amputation.
“You may have accidently cut your leg but because sugar has affected your blood vessel healing doesn’t happen and your leg literally rots in front of you so doctors have to tell you decide either you die with your leg or you get your leg cut off so that it saves your life.”
Bogosia said diabetes had caused a good number in the community to be in wheelchairs and crutches.
He said it also caused blindness which greatly impacted lives.
“A lot of people in the diabetic clinic and the kidney clinic I run, they can’t read and that means they can’t drive well and see properly so it causes them a lot of impairment and it affects their daily lives,” he said.
Bogosia said these people with diabetes also found it hard to stay employed. “So diabetes is very dangerous and then comes the kidney,” he said.
“The kidney is very important in terms of what it does and one of the very important function of the kidney is – whatever we eat, kaukau (sweet potatoe) or kumu (greens) – kidney has to remove the waste product that come out after the body has taken the food in to give you energy. If those waste build up in your blood stream – you have a serious problem on your hand.”