Does high blood pressure lead to CKD or vice versa, or is that an oversimplification?
Rodgers: No you’ve hit the nail right on the head. What happens is the kidney is filtering this blood. Now as you, the high blood pressure which is sort of pushing through these filters ultimately can damage those filters. And as you loose one, and then two and then multiple of these filters, you’re not allowing the blood to be filtered at all. And thus, the hypertension remains present but one now begins to increase the levels of toxins in the blood, increases the amount of sodium that’s retained in the blood and those all contribute to further increase the blood pressure and subsequently further damaging those few remaining filters that are in the kidney. So one leads to the other, but the presence of the other can have a kind of spiraling effect. The same is true of diabetes. Balintfy: What are some of the things NIH doing to explore the connection between CKD and CVD? Rodgers: Many researchers funded by the NIH at university and academic and medical centers throughout the U.S. are
