It's National Kidney Month!

Chronic kidney disease affects nearly 37 MILLION people in the country (more than 1 in 7 adults). 

Chronic kidney disease often causes no symptoms until it is more advanced.

Chronic kidney disease is progressive.

Chronic kidney disease puts people at risk for other serious health problems like heart attack, stroke and kidney failure.

One in three adults with diabetes (and one in five with hypertension) may have chronic kidney disease (CKD).

90% of people with it DO NOT KNOW THEY HAVE kidney disease!

Back to our title, "it takes two to make a thing go right": Two tests should be done to look for CKD. Fewer than half of patients at high risk for CKD are screened appropriately.

How to screen?

• Spot urine ACR (albumin-to-creatinine ratio)

AND

• eGFR (estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate)

Get started now to help make this thing go right!

Current guidelines: begin colon cancer screening at age 45.

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends that all people at average risk begin colon and rectal cancer screening at age 45. People at higher risk may need to be screened earlier.  

Why was the screening age lowered?

• In the U.S., about 10% of colorectal cancer cases are diagnosed in individuals under age 50.
• Young-onset rectal cancer incidence has increased at nearly two times the rate of young-onset colon cancer.
• It is predicted that by 2030, colorectal cancer will be the leading cause of cancer deaths in people ages 20-49.

Colorectal cancer screening often focuses on detecting polyps. Pre-cancerous polyps usually take about 10-15 years to develop into cancer. It is vital to find them EARLY before they have a chance to grow, spread and turn deadly, and THEN cause symptoms! 

One woman's story:

"The only risk factor I had was being 55 years old. No family history of colorectal cancer, I had no symptoms, I am physically active and eat a healthy diet. I really did not want a colonoscopy, so I had Cologuard screening instead. It came back positive! My colonoscopy showed three very large, but thankfully pre-cancerous polyps. These were removed and honestly, I believe my life was saved. GET SCREENED!"

Let's face it. Sometimes it's just plain hard to work in health care.

Mindfulness (paying deliberate attention to the present moment) has been shown to improve cognitive performance, empathy, health and well-being.

We offer 10 simple ways to incorporate mindfulness into your day to day activities.  

Take care of yourself as you take care of others.

Just as orthopedic nurses are skilled at caring for patients with musculoskeletal conditions, and cardiac nurses specialize in patient care of cardiovascular disease, rural nurses are skilled at knowing a little bit about everything! They balance the needs of their patients with the often-limited resources and other challenges in small and sometimes isolated areas.

Once again, a new SARS-CoV-2 variant is likely to be the gift many did not want to receive from attending holiday gathering!

You may recall in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was frequent breaking news about each latest variant of the virus (remember Delta and Omicron?). Now that the worldwide public health emergencies have expired, detecting, monitoring, and responding to new variants has become more challenging. 

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. A perfect time to revisit this topic!

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease, disability, and death in the U.S., and smoking causes almost a half a million deaths per year.

Rural NC Road in Autumn. Photo used with permission

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. 

More and more patients are embracing prevention and early intervention to stay healthy and avoid health related complications. NPs encourage health promotion and a comprehensive, wellness-first approach. November 10-16, 2024 is National Nurse Practitioners (NP) Week! 

Today we bring you news from the HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) Primary Health Care Digest, on a variety of topics we thought would be of interest to primary care practitioners in all settings.

National Healthcare Decisions Day exists to inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning.  It is an initiative to encourage patients to express their wishes regarding healthcare and for providers and facilities to respect those wishes, whatever they may be.  (Source: https://theconversationproject.org/nhdd/)