Are Black Men More Susceptible to Kidney Disease?

Two years ago, James Osborne, 39, walked into an emergency room with severe swelling in his ankles, calves and thighs. He started to put on weight several months prior to his hospital visit, but chalked it up to a lack of exercise and an unhealthy diet. “I’ve always been a big guy,” says the former college football player. “I knew I wasn’t hitting the gym or eating the best foods, so I thought I was just gaining weight.”

The doctors gave Osborne a urinalysis and discovered that he had a whopping 59,000 milligrams of protein in his urine (the amount of protein in a random sample of urine is normally less than eight milligrams). He was admitted into the hospital on the spot and stayed for two weeks. He was later diagnosed with Membranous Nephropathy, a rare kidney disorder that leads to changes and inflammation of the structures inside the kidney that help filter wastes and fluids.

“I was walking around with 100 pounds of fluid and I didn’t realize it,” says Osborne, a sewer foreman from Woodbridge, NJ. “The doctor told me that was the highest amount of protein he’d ever seen in his medical career. He couldn’t believe that I was able to function and that my kidneys weren’t completely shot. But the scariest thing of all is that I didn’t realize how sick I was until I started feeling better.”

According to BlackHealthZone.com, approximately 20 million Americans have some form of kidney disease. An even more sobering statistic: Black men between the ages of 20 to 29 are 10 times more likely to develop kidney failure due to high blood pressure than Caucasian men in the same age group. Furthermore, African American men between the ages of 30 to 39 are about 14 times more likely to develop kidney failure than their White counterparts. While hypertension and diabetes are the leading causes of kidney disease in the United States, when zeroing in on why the progression to kidney failure in the African American community is at a much higher rate, it may simply come down to two things: genetics and a lack of proper healthcare.

“There does seem to be an association between two particular genes in African Americans that are associated in developing kidney disease,” says Dr. Bryan Becker, former president of the National Kidney Foundation

. “MYH9 and another gene called APLO1 seem to be more prominent in African Americans than individuals who aren’t African American, so there is probably something related to that. Second, we know that access to healthcare and reducing healthcare disparity likely has a beneficial impact on chronic kidney disease. If African American men develop hypertension and don’t have as much access to healthcare services, they miss out on treatment for their blood pressure and screenings for kidney disease at the right time to identify it and get the right treatment to prevent it. Reducing healthcare disparities, which we need to do for everybody, would benefit the African American community by increasing the number of people who are screened.”

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To help raise awareness about kidney disease among high-risk individuals who can’t afford a doctor, The National Kidney Foundation created KEEP: The Kidney Early Evaluation Program, a pop-up kidney disease screening site where participants receive a comprehensive health risk appraisal, blood pressure measurement, as well as blood and urine testing.

“Identifying individuals who are at risk for chronic kidney disease has a tremendous

benefit in raising awareness and helping those who have the disease get access to the right type of treatment much more quickly than if they had waited until a sign or symptom showed itself,” says Dr. Becker, who sites odd aches and pains, difficulty concentrating and abnormal fatigue and sleep patterns as common symptoms of kidney malfunction. “A quarter of the people who appear to be most at risk usually end up having kidney disease. If they choose to be screened, individuals must feel comfortable with the fact that they may gain health information that they don’t want to know.”

Dr. Becker also wants people to know that kidney disease is not a death sentence. In fact, it’s treatable, manageable and doesn’t have to completely alter one’s lifestyle. Superstar athletes Sean Elliot and Alonzo Mourning are great examples of people who continued to lead a very active lifestyle both on and off the court before even getting their transplants. More recently, actor/entrepreneur Nick Cannon was hospitalized for “mild kidney failure” before getting released and returning to work.

“There is no reason that patients with chronic kidney disease can’t engage in significant activities,”

says Dr. Becker. “We actually recommend that people with kidney failure or who are on dialysis be as active as they possibly can. They need to keep their muscles working and their metabolism as improved as possible, because if the person ends up needing a transplant, we want them healthy and fit.”

Fortunately, for Osborne, that fateful trip to the emergency room came just in the nick of time; he’s been able to manage his kidney disease without needing a transplant or dialysis. He’s also seen a vast improvement in his weight, cholesterol and kidney function with the help of a well-balanced diet, regular exercise and a few medications, including the steroid prednisone.

“I’m much healthier and able to keep up with my one-year-old son,” he says. “I hope more people will start to take responsibility for their health. If you know you aren’t feeling well; you’ve got family members on dialysis; or diabetes and hypertension runs in your family, get up off your butt and go get tested. You might just save your life.”

For additional information, check out the National Kidney Foundation’s 10 facts about African-Americans and kidney disease.