Having CKD and high levels of protein in your urine means you are at risk of your kidneys getting worse more quickly. That is why this study is looking at a study treatment that may help lower the amount of protein in your urine and slow down how quickly your CKDÂ gets worse.
Click below to learn more about CKD.
It’s important to LEARN the signs of high protein, MONITOR the condition, and RESEARCH as much as possible.
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) impacts the Black community more than any other group, making it crucial to find better treatments. Clinical trials offer a way to access investigational medication and potentially improve care. For those with proteinuria, a condition where too much protein is found in the urine, participating in these studies is even more important.
Why Participate in Clinical Trials?
Clinical trials focus on lowering protein levels in urine, which can slow down CKD and improve health outcomes. By joining, you not only gain access to cutting-edge treatments but also help advance research that could benefit others in our community.
Chronic kidney disease is a medical term describing the gradual loss of your kidney function. Your kidneys filter waste and excess fluid from your blood. Through your urine this waste and excess fluid is then removed from your body.
Advanced chronic kidney disease can cause dangerous levels of fluid, electrolytes and wastes to build up in your body and in the early stages of the disease may cause only mild symptoms that you even may not recognize.
This is what makes the disease so dangerous, as it is usually only detected with blood and urine tests when the disease has already progressed to a more advanced stage.
Your kidneys’ job is to clean and filter your blood. They keep important things inside your blood, like proteins, and remove things your body doesn’t need, like waste and extra water.
If your kidneys are struggling to work properly, the waste and extra water can build up in your body. When this gets worse over a period of time, it is called CKD.
When your kidneys are working properly, protein shouldn’t be found in your urine.
If protein is found, this is called proteinuria. This is a sign that your kidneys are not working as well as they should.
Signs and symptoms of chronic kidney disease usually develop slowly over time. Degradation of kidney function can cause a buildup of fluid or body waste or electrolyte problems. Depending on severity, loss of kidney function can cause:
Signs and symptoms of kidney disease are often nonspecific. Especially in elderly patients with many comorbidities such symptoms could also be caused by other concomitant illnesses. Because your kidneys are able to make up for lost function, for long time until irreversible damage has occurred, you may only recognize this very late in the progress.
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a long-term condition where the kidneys do not work as well as they should. It can lead to kidney failure and other serious health problems.
Proteinuria is a condition in which there is an abnormal amount of protein in the urine. It is often a sign of kidney damage and is commonly associated with CKD.
The Black community is at higher risk for developing CKD due to factors like hypertension and diabetes. Addressing proteinuria early can help manage CKD and improve health outcomes.
Clinical trials provide opportunities to access study medication and contribute to medical research. Participation from the Black community ensures that study treatments are effective for everyone.
To participate in a clinical trial, you can talk to your healthcare provider or visit clinical trial websites to find studies that are looking for participants with CKD and proteinuria such as Clinicaltrials.gov.
Blood and urine tests can be used to measure your CKD and the amount of protein in your urine.
Having CKD and high levels of protein in your urine means you are at risk of your kidneys getting worse more quickly. That is why studies aim to look at new treatments that may help lower the amount of protein in your urine. This may also slow down how quickly your CKD gets worse.
Treatment of CKD mostly involves supporting control of signs and symptoms related to the underlying disease, reducing concomitant complications, and slowing down progression of the kidney disease. If your kidneys become severely damaged, you might need treatment for the final state of the illness called end-stage kidney disease.
Treatment options vary depending on the cause of the disease and other conditions playing into kidney damage like diabetes or high blood pressure. If the latter are better controlled, this may help to slow down the progression of your kidney disease.
Some CKD patients show high levels of blood pressure that cause fluid retention in the body. Medications to both lower blood pressure and preserve kidney function, such as ACE inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers, can be helpful.
CKD patients commonly retain fluids, which may lead to swelling in the extremities. Diuretic drugs are used to remove excess fluid from the body.
CKD patients often suffer from fatigue and weakness due to low blood count. Erythropoietin supplements can stimulate the production of more red blood cells in the body.
CKD patients may have high cholesterol levels, which increase the risk of heart disease. Statin drugs can help reduce cholesterol levels.
Reducing excess protein in urine can slow CKD progression. SGLT2 inhibitors can help protect the kidneys in various ways.
SGLT2 inhibitors protect your kidneys in various ways. Reducing excess protein in urine can slow CKD progression. As well as preventing more damage to your kidneys, it may also hekp to keep your heart healthy.
Other proteinuria lowering treatment opportunities include endothelin and angiotensin II receptor antagonists reducing the high level of proteinuria in the urine to prevent continuous further kidney damage.
If all above listed medications all did not help to remove all excess waste and fluid from your body and your kidney is either close to complete failure, you have developed the last stage of kidney disease, called end-stage kidney disease. Treatment options for patients in this stage can then only be dialysis or kidney transplantation.
For those of you who do not want to undergo dialysis or a kidney transplant, you can also want to use only conservative means. Conservative treatment will include symptom management and palliative care to treat underlying pain.
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Important Disclaimer:
The information contained on Black Health Matters is intended for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis or recommended treatments. Please consult a health-care practitioner before making medical decisions.
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