On July 7, 2020 MOHAN Foundation organized its third panel discussion as part of its series, ‘Synchrony Dialogues,’ launched on June 12, 2020. These discussions are open to the general public, who so ever is interested in the topic. The title of the discussion was ‘How to take care of your kidneys & prevent kidney failure’.

The panel discussion was moderated by Ms. Jaya Jairam (Project Manager) MOHAN Foundation, Mumbai and Co-moderated by Dr. Subha Murthy (Pathologist). Dr. Rajasekara Chakravarti, Director of Nephrology, Star Hospitals, Hyderabad was the speaker.

Ms. Jaya Jairam began the forum by showing a short video clip to the audience on “Interventions to augment deceased organ donation in India by MOHAN Foundation”. She introduced the speaker, Dr. Rajasekara Chakravarti and Co-moderator Dr. Subha Murthy to the audience. She spoke about the main topic of the panel discussion and how it would benefit the kidney recipients, kidney patients and the general public. She then invited Dr. Chakravarti to speak about the various functions of kidney in human body and types of kidney diseases.

He informed the audience that in India, 18% people of the total population suffer from kidney diseases. Most of the diseases could be prevented by spreading awareness of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) among people. Dr. Chakravarti said that early recognition of chronic kidney disease could slow progression of dialysis and prevent health complications. He explained the various functions of kidney and types of kidney diseases.

Dr. Chakravarti spoke about the common causes of kidney disease and who would fall in the high risk category. He informed that most common causes of kidney disease were diabetes and hypertension. He also explained other causes of kidney disease such as-

• Glomerulonephritis (an inflammation of the kidney's filtering units (glomeruli)
• Interstitial nephritis (an inflammation of the kidney's tubules and surrounding structures)
• Polycystic kidney disease
• Kidney stones

He informed the audience that people suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and kidney stone are at high risk of developing kidney disease. Dr. Chakravarti advised the audience to undergo complete health checkup once a year to avoid early stage of kidney disease.

During the panel discussion, Dr. Chakravarti answered all the questions raised by the audience which they wrote in the comment box. To name a few:

• Can early stage kidney disease be reversible?
• How to prevent kidney disease?
• Can steroids cause obesity?
• What is the risk of COVID 19 in renal transplant?
• Is there any connection between kidney disease and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)?
• Is reversal possible by following a diet? What food should we avoid?
• Is there any medicine for protein loss in urine?

The session concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Dr. Sunil Shroff (Founder & Managing Trustee, MOHAN Foundation). He appreciated the efforts to organize an educative and a productive session.

The panel discussion was streamed live on various social media platforms such as YouTube (had 121 views), Facebook (crossed 2.1 K views) and Twitter (88 views).  

Click here to watch the video.