POSTED: 5:54 p.m. PDT August 6, 2003

Micki Flowers
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Health Reporter

It's a killer disease. Now, the government is warning it's growing into an epidemic, and most people affected don't even know it.

New research shows an estimated one in nine adults already has chronic kidney disease. But it can take years for symptoms to show up. And by then, major damage has been done.

We talked to a local man who knows all too well.

MORE ON THIS STORY Northwest Kidney Center National Kidney Disease Education Program

Steve Woods has always been physically fit.

"There was nothing that I couldn't do. I was invincible," Woods said.

Sixteen years ago, when he was 32 years old, his doctor told him he had high blood pressure. But he didn't have symptoms, and he wasn't worried.

"I really didn't understand at that particular point, the severity or the consequences of that diagnosis," he said.

Within four years, Steve Woods started kidney dialysis.

"Patients who have kidney disease often won't have any symptoms at all until their kidneys are virtually non-functional," said Dr. Michael Ryan.

Dr. Ryan, a Harborview Medical Center kidney specialist, said the number of patients going onto dialysis is expected to double in the next seven years.

High blood pressure, obesity, aging of baby boomers and diabetes are to blame.

"About half the patients who start dialysis in America now have diabetes as the cause of their kidney disease," Dr. Ryan said.

But an inexpensive urine test can catch kidney disease early on. It's worth asking your doctor for the test.