The Signs of Kidney Disease: What You Need to Know

Who is Most at Risk for Kidney Disease?

Is Kidney Disease Hereditary?

Some types of kidney disease are inherited genetically, such as Alport syndrome and others. Even if a person has close family members with kidney disease, however, their gene expression for the disease may never manifest itself. Nevertheless, if you have close family members with kidney disease or an adjacent risk factor such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes, ask your doctor to test your kidney function, even if you are not showing any of the following symptoms yet.

Signs of Kidney Disease to Watch For

Managing your risk factors and getting tested can help you prevent or at least slow the development of CKD. Remember that signs of kidney disease like the ones in the following list often indicate late-stage kidney disease that may require dialysis to treat. Taken alone or together, all of these signs of kidney disease, whether they are related to kidney disease or something else, should be taken seriously and addressed with your healthcare provider.

Physical Signs

Puffy Eyes

Swollen, puffy skin around the eyes is called periorbital edema. This can also be caused by water retention for hormonal reasons, a high-salt diet, crying, conjunctivitis, or an infection. If the puffiness persists and spreads to the rest of the face, kidney testing is in order.

Swollen Ankles or Feet

Gravity makes swelling from water retention (edema) in the feet, ankles, and legs the most common type of body swelling associated with kidney disease. Other causes include hormonal changes, pregnancy, liver disease, and cardiovascular disease.

Muscle Cramps

Muscle cramps, particularly in the legs, can signal that the kidneys cannot balance the blood’s correct levels of potassium, sodium, calcium, and other necessary electrolytes. This interrupts healthy nerve signals between the brain and the muscles.

Lifestyle & Daily Changes

Constant fatigue is another sign of kidney disease. If your kidneys can’t effectively remove wastes and toxins from your blood, it hampers your blood from delivering nutrients and oxygen to the rest of your body, so you feel weak and tired. The kidneys also generate hormones to tell your body to create fresh red blood cells when needed. If the kidneys can’t do this, your muscles, brain, and other tissues won’t get optimal oxygen levels to maintain healthy energy levels.

Even though you feel fatigued all day, you still can’t get a decent night’s sleep because of kidney disease. Researchers have found links between CKD and sleep apnea, which lowers your blood oxygen level enough to hurt the kidneys and other organs.

Frequent Urination

Needing to pee more frequently, especially overnight, can be one of the signs of kidney disease. In addition to needing to urinate more frequently because of low kidney efficiency, advanced CKD can contain blood as well. Damaged kidneys cannot clean and filter the blood without allowing blood cells to leak into the urinary tract.

Poor Appetite

As waste products and toxins build up in your system, you may experience an upset stomach, nausea, and vomiting, which can dissuade you from wanting to eat anything.

Systemic & Severe Symptoms

Because the kidneys regulate so many functions essential to the operation of other organs like the heart, lungs, and brain, these other organs may struggle too. The body is not simply a collection of individual organs and parts, but a complete and interconnected system where one organ depends on all the others to function well. This is why kidney disease is often linked to other organ dysfunctions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Itchy or Dry Skin

Your skin, the body’s largest organ, can also suffer from signs of kidney disease. As toxins accumulate in your blood, you may break out in an itchy rash or experience dry skin because of the mineral imbalance in your body that affects your skin’s health and barrier function.

Hypertension

Hypertension or high blood pressure often accompanies CKD because the kidneys are unable to filter out excess water from the blood, which leads to higher blood volume. This also happens because plaque builds up in the renal arteries that deliver blood from the heart to the kidneys.

Shortness of Breath

Feeling out of breath and fatigued are common signs of kidney disease. Healthy kidneys produce the erythropoietin hormone, which tells your body to manufacture new, oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Unhealthy kidneys can’t efficiently produce this hormone, which leaves you short on red blood cells carrying oxygen to the rest of your body, leaving you anemic, out of breath, dizzy, faint, light-headed, and exhausted.

Chest Pain

One of the scariest signs of kidney disease is chest pain. Heart disease can be a consequence of CKD and heart attacks are one of the main causes of death for people with kidney disease. Call 911 immediately if you experience chest pain.

The aforementioned effects of low oxygen levels in the blood and toxins building up in the body can affect brain function. CKD can lead to a brain fog feeling, dizziness, memory issues, and an inability to concentrate or focus. Even simple tasks may become difficult.

Taken together or separately, all of these symptoms of kidney disease can indicate systemic health problems, even if they are not related to CKD, but another problem. Heart disease, diabetes, and other complications can lead to kidney disease, and vice versa. Contact your healthcare provider and schedule an appointment to have your symptoms evaluated. Since many of these signs of kidney disease are late-stage symptoms indicating severe kidney dysfunction, your doctor may recommend that you begin dialysis.

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