Why Heart and Kidney Health Belong in the Same Conversation
Heart disease and kidney disease are closely connected, but they are often addressed separately. That can mean missed opportunities to find kidney damage early and better understand a person’s risk of heart disease.
At Foreign Policy’s Health Forum @ UNGA81 in New York, the “Partners in Prevention: Transforming Heart and Kidney Health,” I joined with my colleagues Dr. Neeraja Balachander, Vice President, Clinical Development Medical Affairs, Cardio-Renal-Metabolism, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Jessica Pius-Nwagwu, Director of Primary Care, American Diabetes Association, to answer a practical question: how can healthcare systems around the world make early detection of kidney disease a routine part of protecting heart health? Maggie Lake, veteran journalist and founder of Maggie Lake Media, moderated the discussion.
The heart and kidneys work closely together to keep the body healthy. The heart pumps blood to the kidneys. The kidneys help control blood pressure and remove waste and extra fluid from the body. Because these organs are so closely connected, problems with one can affect the other. High blood pressure and diabetes can damage both the heart and kidneys. Kidney disease can also increase the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
uACR: A Simple Test That Can Reveal Hidden Risk
People can have chronic kidney disease (CKD) without knowing it. A uACR test checks for albumin, a protein that can appear in urine when the kidneys are damaged. Alongside a blood test that estimates kidney function, it gives clinicians a clearer picture of kidney health.
Yet routine kidney testing can be overlooked, even for people with conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Without that information, patients and care teams may miss a chance to identify risk and act earlier.
Connecting Care Across Conditions
The forum’s discussion centered on ways to close that gap: making testing easier to incorporate into primary care, improving coordination across specialties, and helping people understand why a kidney test matters to their overall health. The session also highlighted Detect the SOS, a collective effort to bring stakeholders together around earlier kidney disease detection. Its central idea is straightforward: recommended tests are most useful when health systems make it easy for clinicians to order them, act on the results, and explain what those results mean to patients.
Making Prevention Routine
Earlier detection requires more than awareness. It takes clinical workflows that support testing, policies that expand access, and approaches shaped by the people who will use them. Heart and kidney health are connected. Our care should reflect that connection, so more people can learn about kidney damage before symptoms appear and get the care they need sooner.
** This content is provided for informational use only and is not intended as medical advice or as a substitute for the medical advice of a healthcare professional.
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