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CHCC marks World Kidney Day with health fair
The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. marked World Kidney Day last Thursday with a mini-health fair outside the hemodialysis center building, next to the parking lot.
“Our goal here it raise awareness,” said Miles Guerrero, CHCC nurse manager for the dialysis unit. “We want to make sure that the community…knows about kidney disease.”
According to Guerrero, a person can make lifestyle modifications to ultimately prevent or delay end-stage renal disease—the last stage of chronic kidney disease.
“The two main causes of kidney disease are diabetes and hypertension,” she said. “The health fair sheds light on what people can do to either prevent the disease or slow it down if they have it already.”
Guerrero noted that most patients only realize that they have problems with their kidneys when they are already near the end stage of chronic kidney disease.
“They tell us they didn’t even know that their kidneys were failing,” she added.
CHCC renal dietician Jessie Delos Reyes-Willsey said that soba and processed meat might be a reality of life on Saipan but they may be avoided completely by slowly reducing portions gradually or by altering the way it is prepared—“making small changes and trying to add fresh vegetables into meals everyday.”
“Try not to use salt,” she added.
If soba or processed meat are simply unavoidable, she recommends to at least use less of the soup mix that comes in soba packs or rinsing spam in water to remove the excess sodium.
“…Fifty percent of the adult population here has hypertension and hypertension is one of the leading causes of kidney disease. Reducing salt intake…and watching portion sizes are some of the things that we can do,” she said.
For those with diabetes, Willsey recommends watching how much rice is consumed.
“It is Lent season and I know some people are giving up on rice… It’s already a start, so develop it into habits everyday,” she said.
