10 symptoms that indicate kidney disease

Many of us live with kid­ney dis­ease and, sad­dest of all, we don’t even know it. There are a num­ber of phys­i­cal signs of kid­ney dis­ease, but often peo­ple attribute them to oth­er con­di­tions and are reluc­tant to see a doc­tor.

In addi­tion, peo­ple with this dis­ease usu­al­ly do not expe­ri­ence symp­toms until the very advanced stages, when the kid­neys are already sim­ply fail­ing or when it is dif­fi­cult for them to go to the toi­let “small”. This is one of the rea­sons why only 10% of peo­ple with chron­ic kid­ney dis­ease know they have it. The remain­ing 90% sim­ply suf­fer to the extreme stages.

The only way to know for sure if you have kid­ney dis­ease is to get test­ed. If you are at risk for kid­ney dis­ease due to dia­betes, high blood pres­sure, a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of kid­ney fail­ure, or if you are over 60, it is impor­tant to get screened annu­al­ly for the con­di­tion. Be sure to tell your health­care provider about any dis­com­fort or symp­toms you expe­ri­ence. Below, we will tell a lit­tle more about the “calls” to go for an exam­i­na­tion.

1. More tired

You have less ener­gy or find it dif­fi­cult to focus on some­thing. A severe decline in kid­ney func­tion can lead to the accu­mu­la­tion of tox­ins and impu­ri­ties in the blood. This often makes peo­ple feel tired, weak and makes it dif­fi­cult to con­cen­trate.

Anoth­er com­pli­ca­tion of kid­ney dis­ease is ane­mia, which can also cause weak­ness and fatigue. Ane­mia (ane­mia) is a patho­log­i­cal con­di­tion that is char­ac­ter­ized by low lev­els of red blood cells and/or hemo­glo­bin in the blood, which impairs the trans­fer of oxy­gen to tis­sues.

2. Sleep problems

When the kid­neys don’t fil­ter well, the tox­ins stay in the blood rather than being excret­ed through the urine. This can make it dif­fi­cult to sleep. There is also an asso­ci­a­tion between obe­si­ty and chron­ic kid­ney dis­ease, and sleep apnea (a breath­ing dis­or­der in which a sleep­ing per­son stops breath­ing for short peri­ods) is more com­mon in peo­ple with chron­ic kid­ney dis­ease than in the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion.

3. The skin has become dry and constantly itchy

Healthy kid­neys per­form many impor­tant tasks that help the body to func­tion nor­mal­ly. They remove waste and excess flu­id, help pro­duce red blood cells, keep bones strong, and work to main­tain prop­er lev­els of min­er­als in the blood. Dry and itchy skin can be a sign of the min­er­al and bone dis­ease that often accom­pa­nies advanced kid­ney dis­ease, when the kid­neys are no longer able to main­tain the cor­rect bal­ance of min­er­als and nutri­ents in the blood.

4. Need to urinate more often

If you feel the need to uri­nate more often, espe­cial­ly at night, this may be a sign of kid­ney dis­ease. When the fil­ters are dam­aged, this can cause an increased urge to uri­nate. Some­times it can also be a sign of a uri­nary infec­tion or an enlarged prostate in men. There­fore, it is worth watch­ing your loved one.

5. Blood in the urine

Sounds unpleas­ant, does­n’t it? Healthy kid­neys nor­mal­ly retain blood cells in the body while fil­ter­ing waste from the blood to form urine, but when the kid­ney fil­ters are dam­aged, these blood cells can begin to “leak” into urine. In addi­tion to a sig­nal of kid­ney dis­ease, blood in the urine may indi­cate tumors, stones, or infec­tion, which is a rea­son to see a doc­tor now.

6. Urine is frothy

An exces­sive amount of bub­bles in the urine — espe­cial­ly those that have to be washed out sev­er­al times before they dis­ap­pear — indi­cates the pres­ence of pro­tein in the urine. This foam may be sim­i­lar to what you see when you cook scram­bled eggs, since the nor­mal pro­tein found in urine, albu­min, is the same pro­tein found in eggs.

7. Persistent puffiness around the eyes

Pro­tein in the urine is an ear­ly sign that the kid­ney fil­ters are dam­aged, allow­ing pro­tein to leak into the urine. Puffi­ness around the eyes may be due to the fact that the kid­neys pass a large amount of pro­tein out, instead of retain­ing it in the body.

8. Swollen ankles and feet

Decreased kid­ney func­tion can lead to sodi­um reten­tion in the body, caus­ing swelling in the feet and ankles. Swelling in the low­er extrem­i­ties can also be a sign of heart dis­ease, liv­er dis­ease, and chron­ic vein prob­lems in the legs. This is all due to the fact that water is poor­ly excret­ed from the body.

9. Poor appetite

This is a com­mon symp­tom for many dis­eases, but one rea­son may be the accu­mu­la­tion of tox­ins as a result of decreased kid­ney func­tion. That’s why you don’t want to eat. We do not rec­om­mend to lose weight in this way.

10. Muscle cramps

Elec­trolyte imbal­ance may be due to impaired renal func­tion. For exam­ple, low cal­ci­um lev­els and poor­ly con­trolled phos­pho­rus can con­tribute to mus­cle cramps. But we often think it’s because we don’t exer­cise enough.

This is a gen­er­al list of symp­toms that any of us may notice even before going to the doc­tor. There­fore, think about your health and do not shelve what will hap­pen any­way. Yes, I’m talk­ing about going to the hos­pi­tal. At a min­i­mum, talk to your doc­tor, and I’m sure that she or he will advise you well in this mat­ter. Take care!

Author: Oksana Leshchenko