It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
We know the NBA playoffs are going on, but right now we got to talk about something much more important. We have a legend who's joining us right now. We also have another legend working with him to get out some words, some positive words about things that you need to be aware about in the health community. Right now we're being joined by Laverne Addison-Burton, the CEO of the American Kidney Fund, and this other gentleman, you might be familiar with him. Blocked a couple shots, won a championship, was beating people up.
In a good way, it's Alonzo Mourning and Laverne Addison-Burton. How are y'all? Good morning. Good morning.
Absolutely. So we're going to get to you because I think a lot of our listeners know exactly who you are, but we're going to we're going to wait on to chat with you. Miss Laverne, I appreciate you taking the time to join us. Please fill us in on your role as CEO of the American Kidney Fund. It's one of the greatest charities in the in the world, and we are there for people who are dealing with kidney disease wherever they are in their journey from prevention to transplantation.
We want to support people who are dealing with this disease and help them achieve the best outcomes. Now, listen, Alonzo, I know your heat are currently in the playoffs right now, and it was what now, 22 years ago that you were coming off of a gold medal and you had to pause your career. You actually had to retire because of kidney disease. How are you feeling all these years later?
I don't even understand. Last year you had a cancer scare. How are you feeling?
Yeah, by the grace of God, I'm good. Thank you for asking about that. You know, I'm grateful to be here in partnership with AKF and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, you know, to really amplify and get the message out about kidney disease and to to help people understand that they have to be a little bit more proactive with the health, you know, and going to the doctor and especially if there are some health symptoms that they're dealing with, to not ignore them, to not ignore them at all, you know, to really just go to the doctor, you know, and identify if there is a potential issue in a lot of times, especially in the black community. It could be kidney disease, you know, it's because diabetes and hypertension, you know, are very rampant in our particular community. That's something that we can't ignore and understand, you know, that we lead in a lot of those things, especially as it pertains to kidney disease.
Over 30 million Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease and yet another 30 million who are at risk, you know. So I'm very grateful to have an opportunity, you know, to create awareness today to help educate the community to be a little bit more aware. Alonzo Mourning is here with us, as well as Laverne Addison Burtness, the chair of our sport ratio Coast to Coast. You know, Alonzo, to watch you play throughout your career, you were chiseled out of stone. You're one of the most highly conditioned athletes.
It's really a testament to humans and human beings. You would never look at you and just go, hey, something is wrong with Alonzo. It was shocking when you had to retire.
What messaging do you want to convey? It doesn't matter your level of fitness. It doesn't matter who or what or where. Yeah, well, you know, at the particular time, you know, I was a pitcher of health, man. You know, I was in excellent shape. I could leap tall buildings in a single bow, you know, as a professional athlete, you know, and then I was humbled that I was diagnosed with kidney disease, you know, and at a particular time, you know, I noticed some symptoms. I noticed lethargy. I was extremely tired, worn out.
This was during the Olympics in Australia. And then I noticed some swelling in my legs, you know, and I just chalked it off through because of rigorous training or the travel that I was going through during that summertime. And then I come back routine physical with the Miami Heat at that particular time, you know, notice I had some abnormalities in my body chemistry and then eventually I was diagnosed with FSGS, focus of mental glomerulosclerosis, you know, which we later learned that it was a form of AMKD. APOL1 mediated kidney disease, and when you think about kidney disease, you know, you don't realize, you know, that, you know, there's over 30 million Americans who suffer from chronic. That's a lot of people, man.
You know, it really is. And unfortunately, a large portion of those folks are people of color, you know, so I just want to encourage people to just to let them know that, hey, you know that you could potentially be a candidate for kidney disease and it's important for us to develop better relationships with our doctor and change that narrative as it pertains to the mistrust and not understanding the health care system. You know, historically, there's been some mistreatment, some injustice, you know, in the health care system, especially towards the black community.
You know, I want us to kind of change that, develop a better relationship with our doctors in order for us to kind of to change the statistics that we're dealing with. Alonzo Mourning is here with us on the JR support re-show. Ms. LaVarn, how important is it to have advocates like Alonzo working with you to get this message out? It's really critical because people look at Alonzo, as you said, and you would not guess that here's somebody who's dealing with something that is that that is life threatening. Let's put it plain where it is. And we've thrown out a lot of initials, APOL1, AMKD, all those things.
Let me see if I can break down and leave something with the audience. We're talking about a disease that's caused by gene variants of mutations. Each of us has two APOL1 genes, and if both those genes have mutations that puts you at higher risk for kidney disease and a form of kidney disease as it was in Alonzo's case, that is moving very quickly and that quickly can lead to kidney failure. Now let's look at who gets this disease. This is a disease that is basically a genetic-based disease. It occurs in people of African, Western and Central African ancestry. Those of us who identify as Black or African American or Afro-Caribbean or Latino are at higher risk for this disease. And in this country, 13% of Black Americans have two gene mutations of this APOL1 gene. And we estimate that about one in five of those people are going to get kidney disease. And this is a form of kidney disease that moves rapidly, as it did in Alonzo's case.
Here's somebody who seemingly is at perfect health, having the time of their life and the bottom falls out. So we want to make people aware of the risk so that if you've got a family history, if you have kidney disease and you may not know the cause, you can look into that. We're talking about being APOL1 aware, being that gene aware of what's going on with you. And the way that we're trying to highlight this is through conversations like the one that we're having today with Alonzo and me. And next Tuesday, we will observe the second annual AMKD day to draw attention.
It's a congressionally proclaimed day to draw attention to this disease, by the way, is only fairly recently discovered so that people can have the conversations that they need to have with their healthcare providers, determine whether they need to do genetic testing. And we want to make people aware that particularly in the African American community, access to healthcare or lack of access to healthcare, high blood pressure, diabetes, all those things can factor into whether a person gets kidney disease. And so we want to improve on that. We want to make people aware to push the system. We invite people to come to the website and take a look at the information that's available to help increase that information and awareness. It's kidneyfund.org backslash AMKD. And we want to share all of that information with people so that they can get what they need to have those conversations and to take action to protect their health.
The CEO of the American Kidney Fund, LaVarn Addison Burton. Thank you for dropping that information and knowledge for our audience. Alonzo, I appreciate you for your time as well to see you still rolling and now player development with the Miami Heat. They always got you on TV looking clean. You got to tell people where you get those those fondly tailored suits, Alonzo, OK? They've accumulated over the years, man. So I've got them from different places, you know, so I got to keep myself in good shape so I can continue to fit my suits, you know, so. You know what, Alonzo, when you talk about good shape, we always hear about the Miami Heat and Pat Riley's amazing conditioning.
I know you work on the player development side. How much of a factor, if not your own health issues 20 years ago, did that play a part in what we have today with the Heat or is that always the way? Yeah, well, it plays a part in life in general, man. Health is wealth. You know, without it, you have nothing. You know, and I tell you, you know, Pat Riley, he kind of emphasize it, you know, being in, you know, Olympic athlete shape, you know, in order to perform at your highest level.
Or when you step out on that court, you know, and I kind of there's some symmetry in that in life, you know, I'm not encouraging everybody to be an Olympic athlete shape, you know, but I'm also encouraging everybody out there. All the listeners out there to stay on top of the health, to eat right, to exercise, to consider, to consider, you know, speaking with their doctor and find out what works best for them as it pertains to taking the right vitamins and what have you daily and to take better care of your health. You know, we can't wait for nobody to do it for us. We got to do it ourselves, you know, so we got to be proactive with our health. You know, we can't wait till something devastating happens before we go to the doctor.
You know, we have to, we have to at least get a checkup at least once a year, you know, to potentially identify something that could possibly be escalating in your body that could later turn out to be life threatening. Listen, I appreciate you guys for coming through and sharing the information. Olympian, NBA champion Alonzo Mourning here with us, the CEO of the American Kidney Fund, Laverne Addison-Burton.
I appreciate the time. Please tell everybody where they can go one more time. They can come to kidneyfund.org backslash amkd and I think Alonzo has a second one.
Yes, or you can go to powerforwardtogether.com to find out more information about AMKD as well. We want as many ways as possible for people to get information. Alonzo, the next time you do it big down in Miami, I'm going to have to swing from Atlanta and help get the word out, man. We're going to make that happen. We'd love to. Lovely to have you. Absolutely. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
