NEPHRITIS or KIDNEY DISEASE
Nephritis or kidney disease is the 9th largest cause of major disease and death in the US. Although a much lesser risk than heart disease or cancer, it is still a serious, debilitating and life threatening problem. The major earlier cause of nephritis was called glomerula or the failure of the filters in the kidney that removes uric toxins. Today the major cause of kidney failure is diabetes, and the extent of diabetes in our population is increasing. Diabetes now causes about 40% of nephritis cases and deaths, hypertension produces about 25% and glomerula is involved in about 15% of these events. The remaining 20% involves a variety of different types of the disease.
Very little research appears published on the risks of suffering the various types of nephritis or of their risks of death.. African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans have much higher than average risks. The risk associated with hypertension is substantial, but no good quantitative research on the effect of blood pressure was found. Overall risk is doubled by 20 cigarettes per day of smoking for about 40 years, with risks for smoking varying with number per day smoked and duration of smoking. This risk of smoking now is included in Life Ahead Version #3 for those that smoke now or did in he past. There are probable risks associated with family history, but data is too limited here define this risk usefully.
Despite this lack of definitive research, Life Ahead does include a quite extensive valuation of life style risks on the extent of diabetes that produces about 40% nephritis cases and deaths. And life style effects of body weight, exercise and cardiofitness, diet, and other factors on risk of diabetes are large and well defined. The risks of the portion of nephritis deaths from diabetes thus should be directly proportional to the extent of diabetes in the population. Thus Life Ahead does include the risk of diabetes reduced to this 40% of total level in computing the likely risk of nephritis. As always, Life Ahead computes risks relative to that of the US population, and thus this risk is set to unity for this average 40% of the population that suffers nephritis. .
The risks of elevated blood pressure on nephritis also are not adequately defined in available research over a ranged of actual blood pressures. But the information available shows these risks as at least equal to the risk of blood pressure on heart disease. And this risk applies to an important 25% of all nephritis deaths. Thus as a reasonable estimate of risk, the effect of blood pressure on heart disease is assumed to apply at a 25% level to average risks of nephritis.