Important Warning Signs That Your Kidney Is Failing

The kidney is an amazing organ that filters your blood. They eliminate waste, regulate fluid balance, and maintain proper electrolyte levels in the body. Every drop of blood in your body passes through them approximately 40 times per day. The kidney filters blood removes waste and adjusts salt, water, and minerals as needed. The filtered blood is reintroduced into the body. Waste is converted into the urine, which collects in the kidney's pelvis – a funnel-shaped structure that drains to the bladder via a tube called the ureter. Each kidney contains millions of tiny filters known as nephrons. You might only have 10% of your kidneys working and not notice any symptoms or problems. How Do You Know Your kidney is in Trouble: If we learn a little bit about the kidney and appreciate how amazing it is and how to care for it, we may never need to see a doctor. While the kidney does function as a filter, it also performs many other functions. It's a sensor, It detects various metabolites in the body and then produces hormones in response, it also helps regulate various functions in the body. One of that it detects and regulates pH. It can get rid of acid and base to regulate the pH of the blood. What Does Kidney Do: The kidney filters the blood, it pushes fluid out through a very fine filter, but then it reabsorbs most of it, it filters out over 200 liters of fluid every day, but it is a selective filter because it wants to keep certain material while getting rid of others. It reabsorbs 99 percent of all the water and sodium, it's very effective at getting rid of the extra sodium that it doesn't want. When it comes to potassium, it reabsorbs 88 percent of it, but when it comes to glucose and amino acids, which are valuable fuel and building blocks, it doesn't want to lose any of them, so it reabsorbs 100 percent of them. Unless someone is diabetic and blood sugar is so high that exceeds the re-absorption threshold and will be spilling glucose in the urine, which is not a normal state. Then there are some things that the body wants to get rid of, such as creatinine, and it is so good at it that it eliminates everything it doesn't want and reabsorbs nothing. As a result, it's incredibly clever and extremely selective. This is where creatinine comes in handy. We know that the kidney is supposed to filter out 100% of it so there is only supposed to be a tiny amount left and based on that we can estimate the glomerular filtration rate(GFR) which is a number that tells us about how the kidneys are working. When the kidneys become clogged, that number changes and falls. The creatinine is based on muscle activity, if we have more muscle activity or more muscle mass, it can skew the numbers a little bit. Or have a muscle breakdown, such as from an injury or a hard workout, it can change the number. They estimate this number based on age, race, and gender because everyone is different, but the whole point is that the eGFR is a pretty good metric. There are five stages to chronic Renal Disorder All of the other places I looked listed signs and symptoms as if they occurred randomly or equally throughout the various stages of degeneration, but knowing when they occur makes all the difference in knowing what to look for. Stage One The glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) is still working in stage one of kidney disease, but the kidney may have suffered some damage. There could still be some infection, some bacteria or something breaking it down that is causing us to find something abnormal going on, possibly in the blood or in the urine. Stage two In stage two now we have a reduced filtration rate, it is down to 60 to 89 milliliters per minute. Stage 3 is 35 to 59 milliliters per minute Stage 4 is 15 to 29 milliliters per minute Stage 5 Kidney is starting to shut down and reaches less than 15 milliliters per minute and we have pretty much a complete shutdown of the kidneys and we certainly want to avoid this we want to find out what to do in the early stages and recognize that. This is quite a complex topic, and we are only covering one variable, the eGFR estimated glomerular filtration rate, but in real life, normally we look at the bigger picture, functionality of other organs, the liver and the kidney. In stage one, have no or very few symptoms. If you have an infection, urination may burn, you may notice a change in color or smell, and if this occurs and you have not eaten or drink anything a lot of proteinous, it could be a sign that your kidney is in trouble. If there is a change in frequency, change in appearance, and some discoloration, cloudiness, or foam, that is not a good sign. If there is a protein in the urine or bacteria, it could cause a change in any of the above. Stage 2 of chronic kidney disease, we are seeing a decrease in filtration rate because the filter is becoming clogged. We might see a 30% decrease in infiltration rate, but still have none or very few symptoms. Stage 3 of chronic kidney disease is where the real problems start, the filtration rate is down to about half 30 to 59 milliliters per minute and we are starting to get a lot more symptoms. Symptoms: Not everyone gets them, but they are becoming more common, and there are quite a few people who could get high blood pressure because the kidney senses blood pressure and if it is not working well then it cannot regulate blood pressure as well, but it can also work the other way that high blood pressure causes a lot of damage and puts a lot of stress on the kidney, and the friction actually hurts the kidney. Anemia Symptoms No.3. kidney senses how much oxygen is in the blood and if there is not enough it will produce a hormone called EPO or erythropoietin that means making red blood cells, for example, if you go up into the mountains for a few weeks your kidney senses there is less oxygen let's make more red blood cells but if the kidney is damaged then it cannot keep up with making enough of this EPO and are not making enough red blood cells, as a result, we will be anemic. Bone Disease Symptom No 4. In stage three as things get more serious, we will observe a bone disease called “Osteoporosis” and this is because there is a mineral called phosphate and phosphate needs to be balanced with calcium. The ratio is much more important than how much we actually have of each. If the kidney gets damaged it cannot continue to eliminate phosphate, as a result, the phosphate builds up in the blood and now we have to balance it with calcium. Therefore the body makes a hormone that is going to pull calcium from the bone to balance that phosphate. That is how kidney disease can actually cause osteoporosis. But there are even more things going on in stage 3 Edema we can have edema primarily in the hands, feet, and in the face around the eyes and this happens because as the kidney starts getting damaged and perforated, the protein spills out of the kidney into the urine and one of those proteins is called albumin. Albumin is the number one blood protein and it acts like a sponge. It has an osmotic pull that keeps the water in the appropriate amount inside the vessel. As we start dropping and lose albumin we also start losing water it just leaks into the surrounding tissues, causing swelling called edema. Back pain is also very common and there are two ways this can be noticed. If it is more diffused like all over and not in a non-general way in the back then it is usually a referred pain and any time an organ has a lot of distress, we can get some referred pain around that organ. If this pain is sharper and feels like someone stabbed in the back and would not let go that is probably a kidney stone. Feel like that we cannot get out of that pain because the kidney stone is like a glass shard that is just sitting trying to make its way out through a tiny tube and it does not matter how we move our body it will still going to hurt. Stage 4 of chronic kidney The disease is now getting very serious the filtration is close to shutting down 15 to 29 milliliters per minute. The symptoms are going to be the exact same ones as in stage 3, but they are going to happen more frequently to a greater percentage of people to a more severe degree. So all the symptoms become more severe the damage to the kidney goes from moderate to severe and now we are in a serious state. We really want to catch it way before it ever gets to this stage because it is rare that you can do anything about it at this point. Unfortunately, Kidneys are very near to failure and a Physician typically gives counseling to start preparing for dialysis or to get a transplant. Nobody really wants to get to this point. Stage 5 of chronic kidney disease Stage 5 is pretty close to complete failure. (eGFR) less than 15 milliliters per minute And now we are going to start seeing some more extreme symptoms that were not observed in the earlier stages. Breathing is going to suffer because this fluid that is leaking out into the tissues from edema from a lack of albumin now it can start filling up into the lungs known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. sleeping trouble occurs patient cannot sleep through the night because the body gets so toxic whole nervous system is basically on fire. The patient may have ammonia breath. Ammonia is something we normally get rid of through the urine but nothing getting out that way, the body is desperately trying to get rid of it anyway, it can such as through the lungs. also, we can find a metallic taste, as more toxins start building up trying to leave the body, and overall toxicity levels just keep increasing and we are going to see things like itching, nausea, and vomiting. The body tries to get rid of the toxins any way it can and at this point obviously, Patients do not go to have much appetite because the body does not want anything coming in. Commonly we observe muscle cramps because minerals, electrolytes are a mess because at this stage kidneys cannot regulate any of that anymore. At this last stage, there is not a whole lot anybody can do it is just a matter of time before there is dialysis, kidney transplant, or death. We agree that it is a pretty unpleasant picture, pretty dark, none of us would ever want to get to that point. So here is the big question what does it look like before it ever gets to any of these stages? Would you agree that it is time that you want to do something about keeping your kidney safe and healthy, First indicator is your urine, keep an eye on it, it should not be burning smelly and dark in color, if you observe these changes in urine consult your physician, start drinking plenty of water, it is advisable to have lukewarm water a day especially in the morning empty stomach. From Today start eating fresh vegetables and fruits, minimize fast food and sugary drinks, cut down on alcohol Importantly control Type 2 Diabetes: Type 2 diabetes is the number one cause of kidney failure and how does it do that because diabetes destroys tiny delicate blood vessels and the kidney has lots of them.