Wilmer Valderrama Wants You to Take 60 Seconds for Kidney Disease Prevention
Wilmer Valderrama wants you to take a minute to better understand your kidney health.
The NCIS star, 41, has partnered with the National Kidney Foundation for a nationwide PSA campaign, "Are You the 33%?" The initiative, timed to March for National Kidney Month, focuses on the 33 percent of American adults who are at risk for developing kidney disease.
"It was really scary to find out kidney disease doesn't have any symptoms," Valderrama tells PEOPLE, noting that some of his close family members have diabetes and high blood pressure, two of the most common risk factors for developing the disease.
"You don't know you have kidney disease until it's too late," he says. "Then it's a critical and urgent treatment that you've got to do in order to have a shot at fixing it. That, to me, was really sobering."
With the new campaign, Valderrama encourages fans to take an online questionnaire to assess kidney health. And the quiz only take 60 seconds.
"This entire campaign is about prevention. It's about trying to get ahead of something and trying to be more conscious of it," he says. "It literally takes a minute — if you don't have 60 seconds in your 24 hours to take this quiz… Don't be that guy!"
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
"And make sure your whole family does it, too," adds Valderrama of the health quiz. "Because it's important that you take care of your family and rule out things that can be a silent issue that you wouldn't know about otherwise."
The That 70's Show alum — who recently welcomed his first child with fiancée Amanda Pacheco — says that he wants to help educate people who, like his loved ones, have risk factors for kidney disease, such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
"A lot of our older communities — our parents and grandparents — don't have a philosophy of prevention," says Valderrama, emphasizing how the campaign makes prevention simple and accessible.
In addition to the PSA campaign, Valderrama is virtually participating in the 8th Annual Kidney Patient Summit on March 2, meeting with members of Congress on behalf of the National Kidney Foundation to inspire action for kidney disease.
Source: Read Full Article