Chronic Kidney Disease and Alcohol Consumption

See related article, pages 2531–2537.Stroke represents one of the major challenges of the 21st century. More than 15 million people suffer from stroke each year worldwide. Enormous efforts in public awareness and prevention of the disease have led in industrialized countries to a slightly declining incidence. Mortality and morbidity (measured in disability-adjusted life years) are, however, expected to rise substantially during the next 2 decades; stroke will climb from 8th rank in 2010 to the 5th rank in 2030 worldwide; compared with 1990, the disability-adjusted life years attributed to stroke will nearly double over these 40 years.1One important comorbidity that dramatically influences stroke and its outcome is chronic kidney disease (CKD), a clearly underestimated cardiocerebrovascular risk factor. CKD is defined as the combination of kidney damage (with albuminuria) and reduced glomerular filtration rate, as estimated from serum creatinine levels.2 The prevalence of CKD is substantially and/or continuously increasing, from 10% to 13.1% during the last decade (US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey).2 Currently, more than 20 million Americans are affected by this disease, many of them not even aware of it. Preventing and treating CKD was therefore declared a global challenge.3 In addition to the fact that such a substantial number of people are affected and may finally require renal replacement therapy or transplantation, even more important is that CKD dramatically drives cardiocerebrovascular morbidity and mortality.2–4CKD is …