A dialysis machine is really the only answer - other than a kidney transplant - if you reach the late stages of chronic kidney disease.
"And most people interestingly don't have symptoms until the disease progresses to a very late stage and that's one of the problems," said Dr. David Naai.
Dr. Naai acknowledges the per capita case of chronic kidney disease is high in America - and even higher here in the islands.
"It's quite a large population here in Hawaii, too, because of our minority population including the native Hawaiians, Asians, and on the mainland African-Americans and native Americans also have a higher prevalence of chronic kidney disease," said Dr. Naai.
As you heard the doctor say, symptoms of chronic kidney disease are not always obvious until you end up here in the hospital. Prevention of the disease means - doing all those things you know you should do.
"Controlling your diet, exercise, weight loss, stopping smoking and also controlling diabetes if you have it and also controlling your high blood pressure," said Dr. Naai.
When kidney disease strikes, dialysis is the medical answer. It can't do everything the kidney does - but...
"It removes the waste products that your body makes that your kidney would normally excrete in the urine and also removes excess fluid which normally the kidney would get rid of from your body," said Dr. Naai.
The dialysis machine is a bit "other worldly" and may be intimidating for patients.
"They often are very anxious and in some ways, rightly so, but I think a lot of that is because their perception of dialysis is from people who've seen all the bad things on dialysis as opposed to the many benefits that can occur with dialysis," said Dr. Naai.
