Official World Kidney Day 2010 Video

This year’s World Kidney Day, which is on March 11, focuses on the worldwide explosion of diabetes and hypertension and how it’s affecting the growing number of kidney disease and dialysis patients.

“As developing countries become increasingly urbanized, they are adopting the unhealthy lifestyles that promote diabetes and high blood pressure, the leading causes of kidney disease,” CNN wrote in a November 2009 article about World Kidney Day.

That notion was reinforced in a recent study published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases in which researchers are pointing a finger at urbanization and modern conveniences as a key factor in causing these increases. The researchers projected a likely increase in global hypertension rates to 29 percent by 2025.

Prevention and education are touted by World Kidney Day organizers as ways to battle these surging rates. And, hopefully, with each year’s efforts, this message reaches more and more people. Certainly, Internet efforts, such as the official World Kidney Day video, can have a big impact on this.