Kidney disease nowadays a very common problem in many adults and even children. Today we will discuss common symptoms of kidney disease. You will get some idea about the symptoms.
The symptom of serious disease may start with very minimal symptoms. If you can detect early you can prevent further progression of the disease.
Table of Contents
Grow failure
Kidneys are essential in throwing out toxins from the body. They maintain the homeostasis of the body.
The kidney disease with no obvious manifestations may present in children as failure to grow. They may fail to attain adequate weight and height for their age.
Kidney disease may get detected when the workup for growth failure is done. They may resume their growth when the underlying disease is treated.
Frequent urination at night
This is one of the common initial manifestations of chronic kidney disease. Patients with chronic kidney disease may complain that they have to wake up for urination at night multiple times.
Apart from Diabetes Mellitus, other kidney diseases may cause frequent urine at night. Especially chronic disease is known to cause an increased frequency of urine at night.
Increased frequency of micturition
Increased frequency of micturition can be a complaint in kidney disease. It can occur in other diseases too but can occur in kidney disease also.
Increased blood pressure
Hypertension that is increased blood pressure is one of the complaints of kidney diseases. Hypertension may be controlled with antihypertensive diseases.
Sometimes this hypertension is difficult to control and needs multiple drugs to control. It may cause resistant hypertension.
Swelling around eyes and limbs
Kidney disease may cause water retention or salt retention. Both conditions can cause edema of limbs and face.
Also in kidney disease, patients may lose proteins in urine. Loss of proteins in urine reduces the osmotic pressure in the blood and causes water seepage in the tissues. This water
Edema may be more prominent in the morning and may reduce as the day passes. Later on, edema may remain all the time and the patient may generalized edema of the entire body. It is called anasarca.
Decreased appetite
Decreased appetite and not feeling hungry is one of the complaints of kidney disease. Diseased appetite is a sign of chronic or acute disease.
Metabolic changes caused by kidney disease manifest as decreased appetite.
Decreased appetite may occur because of the accumulation of toxins in the body because of kidney disease or may be caused by altered motility of the intestine.
The inflammatory process and anemia in kidney disease may also cause decreased appetite.
Weight loss or weight gain
Ongoing kidney disease may cause weight loss. Decreased appetite and disease process itself can cause weight loss.
Also, patients may gain weight. This weight gain is not because of health gain. This weight gain is because of retention water in the tissues and swelling of the limbs or generalized swelling of the body.
Breathlessness
Breathlessness is one of the symptoms of advanced kidney disease. Accumulation of urea in the blood called uremia affects the brain causing breathlessness.
Also, the retention of excess water may cause heart failure causing breathlessness.
Another cause of breathlessness is an electrolyte imbalance and acidosis caused in kidney disease.
Increased fatigue
Kidney disease can cause increased fatigue in multiple ways.
Kidneys normally secrete erythropoietin which helps to enhance blood formation. In reduced erythropoietin secretion blood formation is reduced and anemia occurs. Anemia manifests as fatigue.
Metabolic changes occurring in kidney disease can cause fatigue and weakness, malaise.
Dizziness
Toxin accumulating in the body due to kidney disease and also high blood pressure may cause dizziness in a few people.
Passing of blood in the urine
The color of urine may be altered and it may appear cola-colored as it may contain blood because of kidney disease.
This loss of blood by the kidney may aggravate anemia and fatigue in patients.
Decreased frequency of micturition
Some people may have decreased or absence of urine in some kidney diseases.
Poor sleep
Poor sleep pattern is one of the complaints of kidney disease.
Increased frequency of micturition, uremia, sleep apnea, breathlessness may interfere with the sleep of the patients.
Itching
Some patients with chronic kidney disease may complain of itching of skin. This itching may ey be severe and may be annoying to the patients.
Muscle pain
Muscle pain combined with fatigue and feeling of sickness adds to the difficulty in the life of the patients.
Headache
Kidney disease itself may cause headache or headache may be a symptom of high blood pressure in kidney disease.
Bad smell
When the kidneys aren’t functioning properly, they aren’t able to flush waste out of the bloodstream adequately.
This can cause waste to build up in the bloodstream, leading to a metallic taste in the mouth and breath that smells strongly of ammonia.