Sunday May 28, 09:17 PM
Quitting the booze to save your liver is no revelation but how about drinking more water to save your kidneys?
That's the thrust of a Kidney Health Australia campaign to tackle the growing incidence of kidney disease.
The group is calling for a multi-million dollar education campaign spruiking the health benefits of drinking water instead of sugar-laden soft drinks as part of war on kidney disease, obesity, heart disease and diabetes.
The call coincides with Wee Week, and Kidney Awareness Month, launched on Sunday.
One in three Australians are at risk of kidney disease and as many as 2.3 million people may be in the early stages of the disease without knowing it.
Kidney Health Australia chief executive officer Anne Wilson, said tens of millions of dollars had been spent advertising water conservation "yet there is not one advertisement on the health benefits of drinking water which could have a major impact on the national health standard in Australia."
She said the water for health message needed to be on the national agenda immediately and filtered into schools.
"We are raising this issue on the eve of Wee Week which is focused on the risk factors for kidney disease," she said.
"We believe failure to promote the health benefits of drinking water nationally is a major blind spot of state and federal Governments."
"The bottom line is that the replacement of sugar-laden drinks with water would have a major impact on future Australian health budgets and the health of our nation."
Research in the United States has shown that one drink containing sugar each day has been shown in females to be associated with an 80 per cent increase in the risk of acquiring diabetes.
Copyright: http://au.news.yahoo.com//060528/2/z5cl.html
