World Kidney Day: 10 Signs You Could Be Having Kidney Disease

Kidney disease, like many other diseases, is treatable if detected early.

Kidney disease refers to the injury or damage to the kidneys that has usually been on for a long time.

Chronic kidney disease often has no symptoms in its early stages and can easily go undetected in most people until it is in its advanced stages. At this stage, an individual can develop kidney failure and require dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life.

There are a number of physical signs of kidney disease, but sometimes people attribute them to other conditions. Health experts say this is one of the reasons why only 10 per cent of people with  chronic kidney disease know that they have it.

The World Kidney Day is observed on the 2nd Thursday of March each year with the primary objective of spreading awareness around the globe on the need for identifying kidney disease as a significant public health problem.

Regular screening in high-risk group population helps in the early identification of the disease. The theme for World Kidney Day 2021 is ‘Living Well with Kidney Disease’.

Joseph Vassalotti, Chief Medical Officer at the National Kidney Foundation in the U.S listed10 symptoms of Kidney diseases.

If you are experiencing at least half of these symptoms, you could be having a kidney issue and you should get yourself tested.

1. Constant fatigue: A complication of kidney disease is anaemia, which can cause weakness and fatigue.

2. Finding it difficult to sleep: When the kidneys aren’t filtering properly, toxins stay in the blood rather than leaving the body through the urine. This can make it difficult to sleep.

3. Dry and itchy skin: Dry and itchy skin can be a sign of the mineral and bone disease that often accompanies advanced kidney disease, when the kidneys are no longer able to keep the right balance of minerals and nutrients in your blood.

4. Urinating more often: If you feel the need to urinate more often, especially at night, this can be a sign of kidney disease. When the kidneys filters are damaged, it can cause an increase in the urge to urinate. Though sometimes this can also be a sign of a urinary infection or enlarged prostate in men.

6. Foamy urine: Excessive bubbles in the urine indicate protein in the urine. Protein in the urine is an early sign that the kidneys’ filters have been damaged, allowing protein to leak into the urine

5. Blood in your urine: Healthy kidneys typically keep the blood cells in the body when filtering wastes from the blood to create urine, but when the kidney’s filters have been damaged, these blood cells can start to “leak” out into the urine. In addition to signaling kidney disease, blood in the urine can be indicative of tumors, kidney stones or an infection.

7. Persistent puffiness around your eyes: This puffiness around your eyes can be due to the fact that your kidneys are leaking a large amount of protein in the urine, rather than keeping it in the body.

8. Swollen ankles and feet: Decreased kidney function can lead to sodium retention, causing swelling in your feet and ankles.

9. Poor appetite: This is a very general symptom, but a buildup of toxins resulting from reduced kidney function can be one of the causes.

10. Cramping muscles: Electrolyte imbalances can result from impaired kidney function. For example, low calcium levels and poorly controlled phosphorus may contribute to muscle cramping.