In Singapore, 5.5 people are diagnosed with kidney failure every day. Many of them eventually need to be hooked up to dialysis machines for life every year.

To avoid having to depend on machines and tubes to live, people can start taking better care of their kidneys by making small changes in their lifestyle:

• Eat less junk food, sugar, salt and oil;

• Drink more water so the kidneys can clean your body better;

• Go for regular check-ups to check if your kidneys are healthy;

• Start to do simple exercises such as taking a walk around your neighbourhood;

• Learn about taking charge of your kidneys.

March 11 is marked as World Kidney Day.

Let us relook the way we treat our body's essential workers - the kidneys, which work 365 days to keep the body functioning normally.

But if we carry on binge eating and drinking, and living a sedentary lifestyle, our kidneys will, over time, stop working permanently.

To find out more about kidney disease prevention, call the NKF hotline on 1800-KIDNEYS (1800-543-6397), or visit www.nkfs.org

Tim Oei

Chief Executive Officer

The National Kidney Foundation