The Foundation for IgA Nephropathy

The Foundation for IgA Nephropathy

Welcome

Welcome to the Foundation for IgA Nephropathy. The Foundation is a non-profit charity incorporated in the United States. Its primary mission is to operate the email group known as the IgA Nephropathy Support Group. The support group was founded in 2000, and the Foundation itself was incorporated in 2005. The support group currently has over 2000 subscribers, who post hundreds of IgAN-related messages every month. It is a very active, friendly and positive group, and we invite everyone with an interest in IgA nephropathy and chronic renal failure to participate.

The IgA Nephropathy Support Group is a peer support group, currently operated on Yahoo Groups. A peer support group is one in which the participants and the moderators are also patients, as opposed to health professionals. Many of our members are longtime patients who collectively have gone through the entire experience of kidney disease, from initial diagnosis to end-stage renal disease (which includes kidney transplant and all forms of dialysis).

While we conduct most of our activity in the support group, the website itself serves as the FAQ (frequently-asked questions) resource for the Foundation and the support group. Many of your questions about IgAN can be answered by reading through the website using the easy navigation bar to the left of each page. The website is highly-regarded, and many nephrologists refer their patients to it for basic information about the disease. The FAQ attempts to answer most of the questions that come up frequently on the support group. This helps the moderators and members concentrate as much as possible on providing actual support.

MEDICAL DISCLAIMER

Don't be a Cyberchondriac!

Get your medical advice from your doctor

Please be advised that this is not a medical website. It is a peer-support website operated by IgA nephropathy patients for IgA nephropathy patients. We have no doctors or health professionals here, except some who might happen to be members of the support group because they or a family member has IgA nephropathy.

It is impossible to provide useful support without at least some discussion of medical issues, potential treatments, etc. The Foundation for IgA Nephropathy does not under any circumstances advise making medical decisions about treatment without consulting with your own doctors (this includes medications, diet, exercise, supplements, and all aspects of having kidney disease). Nephrology is a very complex subject, and you should not draw any conclusions about your kidney disease or your prognosis from information you obtained on the Internet, including this website.

Please consider the information provided herein as it was intended: to help you understand the terms and concepts you will encounter in your nephrologist's office, dialysis center or transplant center, and during the course of your life with IgAN.

We do our best to support members within the framework of conventional medicine. We do not provide information about alternative treatments such as homeopathy, naturopathy, and traditional folkloric medicines.

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