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Symptoms of Kidney Problem

April 11, 2022

Symptoms of Kidney Problem
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The kidney is the organ that helps us excrete waste products from our bodies to keep us healthy and fit. When a kidney loses its ability to filter the waste from our body, it accumulates dangerous amounts of waste in our body. As a result, the body’s chemicals may get out of balance.

There are still millions of people who don’t know that they have various types of kidney diseases, and this is why it is known as the “Silent Killer.” Most of them don’t have the faintest idea of the disease until it is advanced. As a result, people often get checked for blood pressure, sugar, and cholesterol levels but ignore a simple test to find out about unidentified kidney problems called the creatinine test done in their blood.

Warning Signs of Kidney Problems

Only a confirmatory test can be a definitive way to determine a kidney disease, though there are some early warning signs.

  • Swelling of ankles, feet, or legs:
    You will start noticing Edema at sites that pit on applying a lot of pressure. This is known as Pitting Edema. As the kidney starts failing, there is Sodium retention in your body that causes swelling in the shin and ankle portions of the body.
  • Periorbital Edema:
    This is one of the earliest signs of kidney disease. It denotes the swelling around the eyes caused by fluid accumulation in the cells or tissues. This is most commonly seen in people who have lost a significant amount of fluid via the kidney.
  • Decreased Appetite:
    Secondary to the accumulation of Urea, creatinine, acids, the appetite of individual decreases drastically. As kidney disease advances, there is a sense of changed taste. This is often said to be metallic by the patients.
  • Early morning nausea and vomiting:
    Another sign of worsening renal functioning is the early morning sensation. This also directly affects the appetite of the person.
  • Anaemia:
    A person might start to look very pale without any sign of physical loss of blood. This is one of the most common symptoms of kidney disease. This also causes weakness and fatigue.
  • Foamy urine or blood in urine:
    Excessive frothiness in the urine indicates the presence of protein in the urine. When the filtering mechanism of the body is faltered, the protein blood cells start to leak out into the urine.
  • Dry and itchy skin:
    Dry and itchy skin is a sign of advanced kidney disease. When the kidney fails, toxins tend to accumulate in the body leading to the sensation of itching.
  • High Blood Pressure:
    Anyone diagnosed with hypertension is prone to having a detailed workup of renal functions. As the kidney function deteriorates, sodium and water retention leads to high blood pressure.
  • Fatigue
    Healthy kidneys make a hormone called erythropoietin or EPO that helps make the oxygen-carrying red blood cells. When the kidney fails, the EPO cells produced are less in number. With fewer red blood cells, the muscles and brain tire out very quickly.
  • Feeling cold
    Anaemia can make you feel cold even in a very warm room.
  • Swollen Face
    Failing kidneys do not remove the extra fluid that builds up in the body, which causes swelling in the face.
  • Food tastes like metal.
    It has been said so by kidney failure patients that food tastes mostly like metal for them.

Also Read: Immune-Boosting Foods


Early Signs of a kidney Problem

  1. Always Tired
    Healthy kidneys make a hormone called erythropoietin or EPO that helps make the oxygen-carrying red blood cells. When the kidney fails, the EPO cells produced are less in number. With fewer red blood cells, the muscles and brain tire out very quickly.
  2. Trouble sleeping
    When the kidneys don’t do their work of filtering out the waste out of the body, the toxins tend to stay in the body, making it difficult for one to sleep.
  3. Dry and Itchy skin
    Dry and itchy skin is a sign of advanced kidney disease. When the kidney fails, toxins tend to accumulate in the body leading to the sensation of itching.
  4. The sight of blood in the urine
    A healthy kidney’s function is to keep the blood cells intact when filtering out the waste in the form of Urine. But when the kidney fails, the blood from those blood cells starts to leak through your urine.
  5. Foamy Urine
    Excessive frothiness in the urine indicates the presence of protein in the urine. When the filtering mechanism of the body is faltered, the protein blood cells start to leak out into the urine.
  6. Poor Appetite
    Secondary to the accumulation of Urea, creatinine, and acids, the appetite of individual decreases drastically. As kidney disease advances, there is a sense of changed taste. This is often said to be metallic by the patients.
  7. Cramping Muscles
    Kidney malfunction can be a result of electrolyte imbalance too.

Also Read: Prevention of Kidney Stones


People also ask

1. What are the first signs of kidney problems?

Some of the early signs of kidney problems include swelling of ankles, feet, or legs, Dry or itchy skin, Anemia, Peripheral oedema.

2. What are the symptoms of poorly functioning kidneys?

3. How can I check my kidneys problems at home?

  • Simple urine test: Albumin is not usually present in urine. This test kit helps find out the presence of albumin in urine, which is a sign of kidney failure.
  • Smartphone-enabled home urinalysis device or dip.io test: This device from a smartphone helps the users conduct a urinalysis at home and share the results with their doctors.
  • Clinical symptoms: The colour of the urine, presence of blood, or foul odour can be monitored along with a regular blood pressure chart.

4. What does a kidney problem feel like?

A kidney pain typically feels like a constant ache in your flanks, which keeps increasing as the problem worsens. The pain also worsens when someone hits that area gently too.

5. What are the different stages of a kidney problem?

There are 5 stages of a kidney problem. Doctors usually determine the stage of the kidney problem using glomerular filtration rate (GFR). The5 stages of kidney failure are:

  • Stage 1 with normal or high GFR (GFR > 90 mL/min)
  • Stage 2 Mild CKD (GFR = 60-89 mL/min)
  • Stage 3A Moderate CKD (GFR = 45-59 mL/min)
  • Stage 3B Moderate CKD (GFR = 30-44 mL/min)
  • Stage 4 Severe CKD (GFR = 15-29 mL/min)
  • Stage 5 End Stage CKD (GFR <15 mL/min)

Disclaimer: We recommend consulting a Doctor before taking any action based on the above shared information.


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Department

Department of Nephrology

Department of Nephrology

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