7 Signs You May Have A Kidney Disease
The kidneys are one of the most resilient organs in the body, because they have an incredible ability to withstand many unfavourable conditions and insults. Kidney disease are however also common, because of many diets, lifestyles and habits that we subject ourselves to on daily basis. Kidney disease however is more often than not, a slowly progressive condition and having a high index of suspicion is necessary to pick the early signs.
7 Of the signs of a kidney disease you should watch out for include:
1. Foamy Urine
One of the early signs of a dysfunctional kidney is when your Urine starts getting foamy. I’ve been asked this question quite often: How do you know your urine is getting frothy? Well, the easiest way to know this is when you have difficulty flushing off the urine in the lavatory. The urine simply refuse to go away and continues to produce lather. The soapy bubbles is as a result of excessive amount of proteins in the urine. The common earliest signs of a diseased kidney is when it begins to leak protein into the urine. The healthy kidney does not allow proteins in the blood to escape into the urine. They are completely reabsorbed. There is a minimal amount of protein that should be found in the urine produced from a normal kidney which is not greater than 15mg/dl. But when the filtering system of the kidney is damaged, small molecules of protein begin to escape through the loopholes into the urine. This further worsens the condition of the kidney.
So when you begin to experience lathers when you try to flush off the lavatory, it is about time you pay your doctor a visit for a kidney function test.
2. Reduced Urine Volume
A healthy kidney must be able to produce at least 30 mls of urine every minute or 400 mls per hour. This could be more if you take more water. But when the kidney produce urine that is less than this amount, it may be an early sign of a failing kidney. It is essential that you continue to take adequate amount of water (at least 3 litres everyday) to allow the kidneys function optimally and make adequate amount of urine to remove all the toxic wastes in the body.
Not drinking enough water or fluids everyday exposes the kidneys to risk of damage. So it is essential you pay attention to the amount of urine you produce every day.
When you realise you may be making very little amount of urine, its time you increase the amount of water you drink.
If however, you still continue to make very minimal amount of urine, you may need to visit your doctor for a check-up.
3. Uncontrollably High Blood Pressure
The kidneys play a very important role in the control of blood pressure. The kidney produces some hormones that help in regulating the blood pressure. So a failing kidney will usually begin to show lack of capacity to maintain a well-controlled blood pressure. In reverse, the kidney also requires a well-controlled blood pressure to function well and filter the blood to make urine. An excessively elevated blood pressure damages the filtering system of the kidney.
So either way, an abnormally high blood pressure damages the kidneys the same way it may reveal an underlying problem with the kidney function.
A persistently high blood pressure should make you pay your doctor a visit for a full kidney workup.
4. Constant Puffy Eyes and Face
Having eye bags can occur when there is poor sleep and usually fades off as the day goes by. One of the early signs of malfunctioning kidney is having recurrent eye bags every morning. This usually increases in severity and often extend to puffiness of the face. It often occur along with similar swelling in the feet. It is easily overlooked at early stages, but gradually increases in severity until it noticeable.
This is caused by the kidneys reduced ability to remove water and wastes from the blood to make urine, leading to damming of the water in the body tissues.
5. Flank Pains
Sudden onset of pain in the flank may be something innocuous as back pain, but it could also be the beginning of diseased kidneys. The kidneys being located inside the flank area of the back usually has the signs of their diseased state being heralded by pain around the area. Such pain can be dull aching or waxing and waning.
The commonest disease of the kidneys that give such pains in the flank include bacterial infection of the kidneys called Pyelonephritis, or kidney stones. The pain from kidney stones can be particularly excruciating. So when you suddenly start experiencing pains around the flank region may suggest you are beginning to develop kidney disease, it’s time to go have a check-up.
6. Sudden Remarkable Drop In Blood Counts
One of the routine tests that is usually done in the hospital is a count of the red blood cells. A low level of red blood cells could be caused by a whole lot of things, like dietary deficiency in iron, folic acids or other essential vitamins. Others can be a bleeding ulcers, heavy menstrual flow in a woman, severe infections or cancers.
One of the uncommon cause of a sudden drop in red blood cell count is a compromised kidney function. One of the function of the kidney is production of chemical hormone that helps in production of blood cells. This is called Erythropoietin.
A sudden drop in blood cell count, called severe anaemia will not happen without giving you some signs. Such includes severe fatigue, rapid heart-beats, pale face and palms, chest pains and sometime difficulty with breathing.
A sudden experiencing of any of these signs may mean that your blood cell count is very low and should make you go seek help with your doctor.
7. Recurrent Itches And Skin Rashes
Everyone has experienced some itchy sensations of the body at certain periods which turned out to be something unserious- probably a form of allergy. But when such itches persist despite the use of common home or over the counter remedy, it could be the beginning of something very sinister.
When the kidney function is sub-optimal, a whole lot of dissolved salts are trapped in the retained body fluids. They ultimately get deposited in the skin, leading to persistent itchy sensations on the skin. This is often accompanied with sequelae of scratch marks and sometimes whitish deposits on the skin. So persistent itches with the presence of any of the above listed signs may suggest early onset of kidney disease and you should see your doctor immediately.
Regular check up with your physician would forestall and ensure kidney related medical conditions are promptly diagnosed and treated.
Source-joywellness
