This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Solvable. I'm Ronald Young Jr.

If you're anything like me, as you get older, you begin to think about your general health and wellness.

Being more active. My blood pressure. My cholesterol. Trying to eat more vegetables.

Making the appointment for my annual physical. But even if I take the time to tend to my lifestyle choices and overall health, some preventative

care measures may still slip through the cracks, just because I don't know all the questions to ask.

Patients are going into their doctor asking to get their cholesterol checked. I mean, how many people

do you know that go into their doctor and say, can I have my kidneys

checked? I certainly don't think about my kidneys on a regular basis, but one in seven adults has

chronic kidney disease or KD. And because it's asymptomatic in the early stages, 90% of people

with the disease have no idea they've got it. And today, we're faced with a situation where a wonderful policy has created an incentive

where we put a lot of resources in the end stage of a disease and nothing on prevention.

For end-stage renal disease, also known as kidney failure, patients are often treated with dialysis. It's a very time-consuming and exhaustive treatment that can save lives, but can also be extremely disruptive.

Dr. Carmen Peralta co-founded the Kidney Health Research Collaborative at the University of California, San Francisco, to change all that.

Some of the first obstacles were information, really understanding the epidemiology of disease, what populations are affected, what are the risk factors for disease, why it happens.

Dr. Peralta is also the chief medical officer at Cricket Health, a for-profit company that specializes in helping people with kidney disease by supporting

early detection programs and providing risk assessments. A big, important, gigantic reason to detect

the disease early. The earlier you detect it, the more chances you have to prevent it from

progressing. Nearly 37 million Americans live with chronic kidney disease.

Getting an early diagnosis could improve the quality of life for many and even prevent the

necessity of in-stage treatment. Chronic kidney disease is solvable.

How did you get interested in kidneys specifically?

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