If Your Kidneys Are in Danger, the Body Will Show these 10 Signs

Kid­ney dis­ease is a seri­ous con­di­tion that affects mil­lions of peo­ple world­wide. It occurs when the kid­neys are dam­aged and are unable to func­tion prop­er­ly. The kid­neys play a cru­cial role in main­tain­ing the bal­ance of flu­ids and elec­trolytes in our bod­ies, as well as fil­ter­ing waste prod­ucts from our blood. Ear­ly detec­tion and treat­ment of kid­ney dis­ease are vital to pre­vent fur­ther dam­age and com­pli­ca­tions. Thank­ful­ly, your body does send you sig­nals that there could be some­thing wrong with your kid­neys. Learn what they are and lis­ten to your body so that you can receive med­ical help as soon as pos­si­ble.

Understanding the Role of the Kidneys

The kid­neys are two small bean-shaped organs locat­ed on either side of the spine, just below the ribcage. Their main func­tion is to fil­ter the blood, remov­ing waste prod­ucts, and excess flu­ids from the body. The kid­neys also help con­trol blood pres­sure, pro­duce red blood cells, and main­tain the bal­ance of elec­trolytes, such as sodi­um, potas­si­um, and cal­ci­um. When the kid­neys are healthy, they fil­ter around 120 to 150 quarts of blood dai­ly, pro­duc­ing about 1 to 2 quarts of urine. (1)

What is Kidney Disease?

Kid­ney dis­ease, also known as renal dis­ease, occurs when the kid­neys sus­tain dam­age and are no longer able to func­tion opti­mal­ly. There are var­i­ous caus­es of kid­ney dis­ease, includ­ing high blood pres­sure, dia­betes, infec­tions, autoim­mune dis­or­ders, and genet­ic fac­tors. Over time, kid­ney dis­ease can progress and lead to kid­ney fail­ure, requir­ing dial­y­sis or a kid­ney trans­plant. Ear­ly detec­tion is crit­i­cal to pre­vent fur­ther dam­age and man­age the con­di­tion effec­tive­ly.

Signs of Kidney Disease

One of the hard­est parts about kid­ney dis­ease is that many peo­ple don’t catch it until it is already quite advanced. Thank­ful­ly, the body does send signs that the kid­neys are in trou­ble. If you notice these, you can go to your health­care prac­ti­tion­er to hope­ful­ly solve the prob­lem before it becomes worse. These are 10 signs your body is telling you that your kid­neys are in dan­ger. (2, 3, 4)

1. Changes in Urination

One of the ear­li­est signs of kid­ney dis­ease is changes in urine pro­duc­tion. You may notice increased fre­quen­cy of uri­na­tion, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the night. On the oth­er hand, you may expe­ri­ence decreased uri­na­tion or foamy urine.

2. Fatigue and Weakness

Kid­ney dis­ease can lead to ane­mia, a con­di­tion char­ac­ter­ized by low red blood cell count. This can result in per­sis­tent fatigue, weak­ness, and dif­fi­cul­ty con­cen­trat­ing.

3. Swelling

Exces­sive flu­id buildup in the body, known as ede­ma, com­mon­ly occurs with kid­ney dis­ease. Swelling can affect the legs, hands, face, and even the abdomen.

4. Persistent Back Pain

Kid­ney dis­ease can cause back pain, usu­al­ly felt just below the ribcage. The pain may be severe and per­sis­tent, often accom­pa­nied by ten­der­ness. This will often accom­pa­ny a uri­nary tract infec­tion that has gone untreat­ed.

5. Unexplained Weight Loss or Loss of Appetite

If you expe­ri­ence unex­plained weight loss or a decrease in appetite, it may be a sign of kid­ney dis­ease. This occurs due to the build-up of waste prod­ucts in the body and a loss of appetite.

6. Nausea and Vomiting

Kid­ney dis­ease can cause a feel­ing of nau­sea and may lead to episodes of vom­it­ing. This can be espe­cial­ly promi­nent in the morn­ing or after meals.

7. Difficulty Sleeping

Peo­ple with kid­ney dis­ease often report trou­ble sleep­ing. This may be attrib­uted to night­time mus­cle cramps, rest­less leg syn­drome, or fre­quent uri­na­tion.

8. Metallic Taste in the Mouth

A per­sis­tent metal­lic taste in the mouth can be indica­tive of kid­ney dis­ease. This is due to the build-up of waste prod­ucts in the blood.

9. Muscle Cramps and Twitching

Elec­trolyte imbal­ances, such as low potas­si­um and cal­ci­um lev­els, can cause mus­cle cramps and twitch­ing. These symp­toms may be asso­ci­at­ed with kid­ney dis­ease.

10. Itchy Skin

Kid­ney dis­ease can lead to an accu­mu­la­tion of tox­ins in the blood, caus­ing itchy skin. This is often gen­er­al­ized and not lim­it­ed to a spe­cif­ic area.

It is impor­tant to note that these symp­toms may vary depend­ing on the stage and sever­i­ty of kid­ney dis­ease. If you expe­ri­ence any of these signs, it is essen­tial to con­sult with a health­care pro­fes­sion­al for fur­ther eval­u­a­tion and appro­pri­ate man­age­ment.

Prevention is Key

There are sev­er­al things you can do to help keep your kid­neys healthy and pre­vent kid­ney dis­ease before it hap­pens. The num­ber one is, as always, liv­ing a healthy lifestyle. That means eat­ing well, exer­cis­ing reg­u­lar­ly, drink­ing plen­ty of water, mod­er­at­ing alco­hol con­sump­tion, and sleep­ing well. If you smoke, con­sid­er quit­ting. Be mind­ful of both pre­scrip­tion and over-the-counter drugs and how you are tak­ing them. Always fol­low your doc­tor or pharmacist’s direc­tions, or fol­low the direc­tions on the bot­tle.

Final­ly, get your kid­neys test­ed if you are unsure or if you are at a high­er risk for devel­op­ing the dis­ease. Remem­ber, ear­ly detec­tion and time­ly treat­ment hold the key to pre­vent­ing kid­ney dis­ease from pro­gress­ing and improv­ing over­all health out­comes. Don’t wait until it’s too late.