How to protect the kidneys, organs often forgotten because they are silent

We feel the heart beating, if we pay attention we realize we are breathing. On the other hand, it is difficult to realize the kidneys, even if you make an effort, yet they filter about 170 liters of liquids a day keeping the blood and the body free from waste, retaining useful substances and regulating the balance of water and salts in our body. They are tireless and silent workerswhich do not show themselves even when something is wrong: you can get to lose up to 80 percent of functionality before having obvious symptoms, because the kidneys buffer difficulties as much as they can and it is no coincidence that there are two, so that one can even provide for the work of the other in case of need. In short, they have an indispensable task, so much so that when the function deficit exceeds a safety threshold you need to undergo dialysis or a transplant. Preventing damage to the kidneys, therefore, is fundamental and in theory also relatively simple, as the experts underlined during the last congress of the Italian Society of Nephrology (Sin): in order not to run into trouble and protect these organs so that they work properly as soon as possible as long as possible a healthy lifestyle would sufficeto promptly notice if something is wrong would be sufficient simple and inexpensive blood and urine tests. Despite this, according to the estimates of nephrologists in Italy 7-10 percent of the adult population has more or less serious renal insufficiency, or kidneys that are no longer able to do their job of filtering; and if it is true that a progressive decline in function is inevitable with age, so that the elderly often have a deficit, it is equally certain that much can be done to not pave the way for kidney disease.