Kidney supporters, including a Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ College of Medicine team called \u201cRenal 9-1-1: COM Cares About Kidneys,\u201d raised $51,622 Sunday at the 2013 Orlando National Kidney Foundation (NKF) walk. The 5K trek, held for the first time at Lake Nona\u2019s Medical City, raised money for research and treatments, and to support families and patients dealing with kidney disease.<\/p>\n
Over <\/strong>26 million Americans — 1 in 9 adults — have chronic kidney disease, and most don\u2019t know it. Because symptoms may not appear until the kidneys are actually failing, millions of people with kidney damage remain unaware and are not taking steps to protect their health.<\/p>\n Currently, about 400,000 Americans depend on kidney dialysis to stay alive and close to 90, 000 are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Each year, 112,000 people are diagnosed with kidney failure \u2013 one person every five minutes.<\/p>\n Dr. Abdo Asmar, assistant professor of internal medicine at the College of Medicine, and a practicing nephrologist at Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ Pegasus Health, the college\u2019s physician practice, serves on the board of the Florida NKF. He helped get this year\u2019s walk at Medical City and welcomed participants to the event. Walkers included kidney patients, those who had received transplants and \u201cheroes,\u201d who had donated a kidney to a person in need. Thanking participants on behalf of \u201cyour College of Medicine,\u201d Dr. Asmar told the crowd, \u201cWe\u2019re walking to help all of those who are dealing with chronic kidney disease.\u201d<\/p>\n First-year medical student Andrew Schiff had a personal reason for walking. His mother was recently diagnosed with kidney disease. She didn\u2019t know she had the condition until she tried to get life insurance for her two sons and a physical found an inflammatory kidney condition called Minimal Change Disease in which large amounts of protein is abnormally lost in the urine.<\/p>\n At Andrew\u2019s suggestion, the College of Medicine walkers designed their own T-shirts with slogans, pictures of kidneys and hearts to show that \u201cCOM Cares About Kidneys.\u201d Andrew\u2019s shirt had a large sun and the words, \u201cMomma\u2019s Boy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom\u2019s condition really puts into perspective why I came to medical school,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing able to get up on a Sunday morning and walk for someone else, it\u2019s why I\u2019m here. Why I wanted to go into medicine.<\/p>\n First-year medical students Alex Eskandari and Jasmine Steele helped lead the Renal 9-1-1 team and both are studying aspects of kidney disease for their Focused Inquiry and Research Experience (FIRE) projects. They are examining the prevalence of foot ulcers in non-diabetic kidney patients, why such patients are prone to the ulcers, and how to prevent the condition. Such ulcers can be difficult to treat and may result in leg amputation. Alex, Dr. Asmar and other walkers said they hope events like the 5K help increase awareness of kidney disease.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have kidney disease, everything changes,\u201d said Alex. \u201cYet the public and families don\u2019t seem to know how serious a problem kidney disease is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kidney supporters, including a Â鶹ӳ»´«Ã½ College of Medicine team called \u201cRenal 9-1-1: COM Cares About Kidneys,\u201d raised $51,622 Sunday at the 2013 Orlando National Kidney Foundation (NKF) walk. The 5K trek, held for the first time at Lake Nona\u2019s Medical City, raised money for research and treatments, and to support families and patients dealing with kidney disease. Over 26 million…","protected":false},"author":152,"featured_media":48201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9828,979,3053],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-48197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-abdo-asmar","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-medical-city"],"yoast_head":"\n