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Polycystic Kidney Disease PKD is an inherited disease which is passed through the genes within a family. This is how 90% of individuals receive PKD. There is another 10% who receive the disease spontaneously. That is, neither parent has the disease, yet it appears in a family member. From this point onward, it is passed through the genes, and acts exactly the same as inherited PKD. Normal kidney tissue has a smooth firm consistency. In Polycystic Kidney Disease the kidney more closely resembles the bumpy texture of a black raspberry with non-uniform clusters. Before the discovery of MRI magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound and CAT scans, Polycystic Kidney Disease, (also known as PKD) was diagnosed either at surgery or upon the death of the person by performing an autopsy. Now with the clarity of pictures available through specialized imaging studies, PKD in individuals is sometimes diagnosed before they are even born. The latest news shows that even within the fertilized eggs of the mother, scientist can find the PKD developing ova. All of this has produced a growing group of more and more people who realize they have this disease. They are much younger in age with more livable years in front of them. This has created a generation of people with kidney disease who want to understand what they can do to maintain their health. Of the 1,000,000 microscopic kidney nephrons each one of us has, only 5% have cysts. From within the cystic cells, something causes blood pressure to become erratic. This is due, in part, to the renin angiotensin aldosterone mechanism within the kidney going awry. A good tight control of blood pressure consistently maintained at 110/70 has been reported to add 15 years to kidney health. Some have noted with pressures this low, they sometimes black out. However if this blood pressure is tolerated, this is optimal control for kidney health.
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The most common form of this disease is ADPKD Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease. It affects 1 in 500 individuals. Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease ARPKD is a less common form. Autosomal means that it is not sex linked. PKD is inherited by both women and men in equal numbers. One parent with the disease ADPKD has a fifty-fifty chance of having a child with the disease. It is a coin toss, 1 out 2 chances each and every time a child is born from the union of a parent who has the ADPKD gene. Though it is rare, it sometimes occurs that both parents have ADPKD. When this is the case, the chances of having a child with ADPKD increases to 66%. With the autosomal recessive form of this disease or ARPKD, a child born from the union of two parents with this recessive form of the gene has a one in four chances of having ARPKD. |
40% of people with PKD Polycystic Kidney Disease go through their entire lifetime with only the need to control blood pressure; that is their kidneys never fail. The main cause of death in Polycystic Kidney Disease is heart and vessel disease. Keeping your heart and kidneys in optimal health, will maintain you in optimal health as well. For an in depth explanation of this disorder register first at the HDCN website Polycystic Kidney Disease: The Basics —a talk given by Lisa Guay-Woodford, MD. (a separate window will open for you to download this article.) This disease can manifest itself with cysts in the kidneys, liver, pancreas, as well as aneurysms, weakening of valves in the heart, and cystic structures in other organs and tissues throughout the body. Some believe PKD is a systemic disease affecting parts of the micro-vascular connective tissue. Polycystic Kidney Disease is a cystic inflammatory disease of the microscopic vascular tissue that affects firstly the kidney. By cells creating cysts this stretches the anatomy of the nephrons of the kidneys. Additionally, there is a substance produced within the cystic walls which causes an early cellular demise. Kidney cells do not rejuvenate. The following pages contain information for a program for anyone to try. If you think this program is appropriate then work with it under your doctor's supervision. Many of us have implemented these ideas in collaboration with our nephrologists. We want to find out if the PKDiet— the alkaline diet, has merit or not. If it does have merit we want to know why and if it does not, we also wish to understand this. Some have said our relative health is because we have PKD 2, the milder form. I believe it is related to lifestyle. When my genes were tested they were not found to be PKD1 or PKD2. |
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