Chronic Kidney Disease: A Health Crisis We Should No Longer Ignore

When was the last time you had your blood sugar and blood pressure checked? If you're a smoker, a drinker, are overweight, have a family history and a stressful job, it's about time you dusted off your glucometer and sphygmomanometer. Because, if left unchecked, uncontrolled glucose level and high blood pressure could be a major health risk.

- LAI S. REYES

Understanding the Silent Killer
Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is often linked to common chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension—collectively known as cardiovascular, renal and metabolic (CRM) diseases. These interconnected conditions share common risk factors, worsen each other over time, and account for nearly half of all non-communicable disease (NDC) deaths.

Without timely screening and intervention, the disease can progress rapidly—placing a heavy burden not only on patients and their families, but also on the healthcare system.

In the Philippines, one person develops chronic kidney failure every hour, highlighting the urgent need for screening, early detection, and better disease management.

With no visible symptoms in its early stages, CKD is one of the most underdiagnosed and silently progressive health conditions. Many patients only discover they have CKD when they are already facing life-altering treatments such as dialysis and kidney transplant.

For Alvin Corral, 36, it started with a migraine that lasted for three days—a symptom that led to a CKD diagnosis.

“I was diagnosed of CKD in 2017. I was 28 and was at the peak of my career,” shares Alvin. “I was fully aware that hypertension runs in our blood, but I just shrugged it off, thinking I was too young to be worrying about hypertension. Or so I thought. My blood pressure was 200/120.”

He also ignored some of the symptoms of CKD like bubbles in his urine and itchy skin.

“If only I paid attention to what my body was telling me, I wouldn't have ended up as a dialysis patient,” he laments.