Kidney Dialysis - Can We Save Billions of Dollars?

Feb 19, 2009 | The HWN Team | Health Musings
Kidney Dialysis - Can We Save Billions of Dollars?

image by: Anna Frodesiak

Could an existing group of commonly used and relatively inexpensive prescription drugs save billions of dollars worldwide in healthcare costs. A doctor in Missouri seems to think so!

Angiotensin Converting Exzyme (ACE) inhibitors have been around for years and continue to be one of the most commonly prescribed drugs for controlling HBP. Despite this, HBP and Diabetes remain two of the leading causes of progressive kidney damage leading to the eventual need for dialysis which continues to grow year by year resulting in increasing and astronomical healthcare costs worldwide.

For years David Moskowitz MD has been advocating high dose therapy of ACE inhibitors instead of the currently accepted conventional dosages. Dr. Moskowitz's contention is based on an article published in 2002 in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics.

In fact Dr. Moskowitz established a genomics medicine company called GenoMed to help promulgate this form of medical management. Yet, in the ensuing years the use of high dose ACE inhibitors therapy for people with HBP and Diabetes who usually have chronic renal insufficiency has not been endorsed or accepted by the medical community.

Could he be right?

A recent article in the February edition of the Journal of The American Society of Nephrology utilizing high doses of the ACE inhibitor Atacand seems to lend some credence to his long held belief. Dr. Ellen Burgess of the University of Calgary in Canada, one of the authors was quoted as saying "We believe that the better the reduction in proteinuria you get with your treatment, the less likely the patient is to end up developing end-stage kidney disease requiring replacement therapy like dialysis or transplantation".

Perhaps someday this simple procedure may decrease the need for dialysis worldwide at the same time saving billions of dollars that can then be earmarked for other pressing health issues.

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