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What Is Kidney Disease?
Kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, located just below our ribcage, at both the sides of our spine. Each kidney is about the size of one’s fist. These perform various functions like purifying toxins from the blood, removing extra fluid from the blood, and excreting these toxins and fluid out of the body in the form of urine.
Kidney disease means that your kidneys cannot filter toxins and extra fluids from your blood properly, as compared to healthy kidneys. It can be acute (asymptomatic) or severe (symptomatic).
Types Of Kidney Disease:
Acute Kidney Disease:
Acute kidney disease refers to a sudden and temporary loss of kidney function. If this condition persists, then it results in blood acidification (due to toxins in the blood), blood-fluid imbalance (due to sodium retention), hyperkalemia (due to potassium retention in the blood), and damage to other body organs.
Acute kidney disease occurs due to any one or more of the following conditions:
- Lots of blood loss, any surgery, severe burns, or dehydration.
- Mismatched blood transfusion
- Due to some medicines
- Eating some poisonous mushrooms
- Infections, snake bites, bee stings, etc.
Chronic Kidney Disease:
Unlike acute kidney disease, in chronic kidney disease, there is a severe and progressive loss of the kidney’s functions of purifying blood. Gradually, a serious condition called Uremia results due to chronic kidney disease. Uremia means the accumulation of urea in excess in the blood, which is otherwise excreted via urine.
Chronic kidney disease is more likely to develop in persons with the following history:
- Patient suffering from diabetes and hypertension.
- Exposure to toxic substances.
- Kidney stones and infections.
- Suffering from any kind of vascular or tubular disease of the kidneys.
Statistics On Prevalence and Impact
In India, over 50% of kidney disease patients are first diagnosed only when their Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) has remained less than 15 ml/min, which means they are at the last stage of their kidney disease. On average, 17% of Indians are suffering from some kind of kidney disease with the prevalence rates varying from state to state. The highest prevalence of kidney disease is reported in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Goa, but the main causes behind the disease are unknown.
The major roadblock in achieving ideal renal healthcare in India is that 1.3 billion Indian renal patients are being attended by only 1800 nephrologists. Moreover, efficient doctors are not available in Indian hospitals due to brain drain and the remaining major number of these nephrologists are devoted in the densely populated urban areas of the Indian cities. Another roadblock in the treatment of kidney disease is the huge amount of money spent on its treatment. It is estimated that 90% of the total renal patients in need of a kidney transplant can’t afford it and hence, they lose their life.
15 Signs That You May Have Kidney Disease
- Swelling In Your Face, Hands, And Feet: Kidneys help remove and excrete excess sodium and fluids from your blood. But in people suffering from kidney disease, the case is the opposite. Kidneys no longer remove sodium and fluids from the blood, resulting in swelling in the face, legs, ankles, and feet.
- Shortness Of Breath: kidneys produce a hormone that signals our body and then the body produces the red blood cells. But in the case of kidney disease, this function of the kidneys gets compromised and in the shortage of red blood cells, the person becomes anemic. This results in fewer RBCs carrying oxygen in your blood and hence, you experience shortness of breath. The other case may be that due to inefficient fluid removal from your blood by your damaged kidneys, there may be fluid build-up in your lungs, resulting in this shortness of breath.
- Fatigue: In kidney disease, due to compromised secretion of erythropoietin hormone by the kidneys, there is a deficiency of RBCs and hemoglobin in the blood. This results in anemia. A reduced number of oxygen-transporting hemoglobin of RBCs results in reduced oxygen supply to the brain and hence, the person suffers from lethargy and fatigue, even after doing very little work. This also results in a lower ability of the brain to concentrate and memorize things easily.
- Loss Of Appetite: Your kidneys are not able to filter wastes out of your blood efficiently, this results in the build-up of waste products in your blood, called Uremia. This condition turns bitter because now because of it, your mouth always tastes as if you are drinking iron or some metal. This bad taste eventually lowers your appetite. You develop a strong dislike for meat and many other food products. Moreover, due to a continuous bad taste in your mouth, your breath also turns foul-smelling. This adds up to your problem of low appetite.
- Foam In Urine: Defective filtration by your kidneys, results in leakage of protein from your blood into your urine. Normally, protein is not allowed to pass from blood into urine by the kidneys. Thus, foam formation in urine is the result of leakage of protein from the blood due to unsound kidney functioning. The protein that is usually found in such urine is called albumin. This urine leakage results in protein deficiency in the body.
- Blood In Urine: The presence of blood in urine is again due to ineffective filtration by the kidneys. This blood in urine is a clear indication of damage to the kidneys but can also be due to any infection, tumors, or stones in the kidneys.
- Body Cramps: muscles of your body continuously stretch and relax due to a well-defined balance between various electrolytes. But as a result of kidney damage, there occurs an electrolyte imbalance in the blood. Very low calcium levels and imbalanced phosphorus levels result in muscle cramps.
- Skin Itching: healthy kidneys perform a lot of functions including – maintaining the right fluid balance in your blood, making bones healthy and strong, removing toxins from your blood, maintaining the right levels of various minerals in your blood, etc. but when the filters of the kidneys are damaged, then these kidney functions get compromised, resulting in a build-up of toxins in your blood and hence an itchy and dry skin is the result.
- Frequent Urge To Pee: when your kidneys are damaged, you will more often have an urge to urinate, especially during nighttime. But solely seeing excess urination as a symptom of kidney disease is not right as there may be some other causes behind this like any infection or prostate enlargement in men.
- Disturbed Sleep: In kidney disease, the main reason behind unusual sleep patterns may be the lack of oxygen supply to your brain, due to fewer RBCs in your blood, which are the main oxygen transporters to the various organs of the body. Another reason is the build-up of toxins in your blood and the resulting muscle cramps and skin irritation.
- Breathlessness: Damages kidneys make your body suffer from anemia, a condition in which blood has a lesser number of red blood cells, which help in transporting oxygen to the various parts of the body. This lack of oxygen to the body parts especially the lungs results in breathlessness in kidney patients, especially during doing any heavy work or at night.
- Feeling Cold: In kidney disease, anemia is a secondary consequence of this disease. An anemic person feels colder as compared to a normal healthy person, even in a warm room.
- Excessive Weight Loss: Due to the build-up of toxins in the blood, the patient often suffers from vomiting and nausea. Also, the metallic taste of the mouth makes the person have a low appetite. All this results in weight loss slowly and gradually, if this condition remains untreated.
- Forced urination: Filing kidneys, pose many problems. Difficulty while urinating or applying pressure to urinate is one such problem.
- Getting faint: When the brain is not getting enough oxygen due to the prevailing anemia condition of a patient suffering from kidney disease, then it is afraid that the person may faint at times. This condition demands immediate attention.
Conclusion
kidney disease can have a profound impact on one’s health, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe. Identifying signs like swelling, fatigue, shortness of breath, and changes in urination can provide early clues that your kidneys may not be functioning properly. Since early detection can make a significant difference in managing kidney disease and preventing complications, it’s essential to pay attention to these warning signs. Consulting a healthcare professional promptly can help in getting the right treatment and improving quality of life for those affected by kidney disease.
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