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(NaturalNews) Michigan just can't seem to get a break. For well over a year, the Wolverine state has been knocked around and thrown for a loop: 1) In the sports arena (e.g. the Detroit Lions finished the 2008-09 season 0-16; the 2009 Detroit Tigers missed this year's playoffs, even though they were up seven games in the AL Central with a month to go in the season); 2) In the economic arena (e.g. Michigan has the country's highest unemployment rate at 15.2 percent, 6.4 percent higher than the national average); and 3) Even in the physical health arena. Sure, many Americans are struggling physically and economically, but as with the unemployment rate, the poor health rate in Michigan outpaces the country's average - no, not in regards to weight levels (28 percent of Michigan is considered overweight or obese vs. the country's 33 percent), but in regards to kidney health.

Chronic kidney disease is a persistent problem in the country, as approximately one out of nine people have it. And as high as that rate is for the country, it's even higher for the folks in Michigan. In the U.S., for every one million people, 353 people have kidney disease. For Michigan, that number is 365.

Its prevalence is likely due to a multitude of factors, like the rate of diabetes in Michigan, how prevalent kidney disease is in Michiganders' family history, and the number of blacks living in Michigan. Kidney disease is more prevalent in blacks than it is in whites (blacks represent 14 percent of Michigan, 12 percent of the United States).

While an analysis of what specific factors are most responsible for Michigan's high rate of kidney disease would be informative, efforts might be best spent in what Michiganders can actually do to lower these levels. According to a study recently published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology, exercising a bit more often may be the best place to start.

Researchers from the University of Utah examined survey data of over 15,000 people from the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. The researchers' nine-year study involved looking into participants' health history and analyzing frequency questionnaires they filled out that asked about their exercise habits. Respondents were broken into one of three groups based upon their responses: "inactive," "insufficiently active," and "active."

When the researchers looked at who among the group had chronic kidney disease (i.e. six percent of the participants had CKD at the start of the study) and whether or not they exercised, they found some striking similarities suggesting that the more they exercised, the less likely they were to die during the nine-year study. For example, among the "insufficiently active" group, people with CKD were 42 percent less likely to die than those in the "inactive" group; while in the "active" group, people with CKD were 56 percent less likely to die than those in the "inactive" group (about 28 percent of people with CKD in the study were "inactive").

Of course, the ideal is that someone will discover symptoms of kidney problems before chronic kidney disease becomes an issue. Symptoms of kidney problems include having a poor appetite, trouble concentrating, puffiness around the eyes and dry, itchy skin. Testing for chronic kidney disease can be done through simple blood or urine tests.

That's the ideal. But when kidney disease advances to the point of being chronic, and for 26 million Americans it has, staying active might mean staying alive.

Sources:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/26946245?sli...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmw...
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/tre...
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/hscout/...
http://www.statehealthfacts.org/com...

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