Symptoms of a Kidney Disease : Do I Have One?

Signs and symptoms of a kidney disease are very wide considering the wide variety of functions our kidneys perform. Due to the increase in the metabolic syndromes like diabetes, the diseases of the kidney are also on the rise.

Quite often a pain in the loin or a red coloured urine or pain in lower part of the abdomen can bother you with the nightmare of a kidney disease. While very few of them might signify the underlying serious condition, most are just benign symptoms.

The signs and symptoms of kidney and urinary tract (considered together because they often coexist) are

Tiredness-this is a very nonspecific complain by itself .In kidney disease tiredness is usually the result of the anaemia and the fluid imbalance that is present. Anaemia occurs in a chronic kidney disease because kidney in health is responsible for secretion of a hormone that stimulates the formation of red blood cells.

Pallor-ie paleness. You can find out the paleness by comparing your palms with those of other persons. But be careful since the paleness is highly individual dependent.

Brown line pigmentation of the nails-as in the picture the nails can turn brown. It is seen in kidney disease of longer duration

Elevated Blood Pressure-it can have many other causes kidney disease being one of them.

Swelling-ankle and leg swelling can be due to kidney diseases like nephrotic syndrome. The swelling in a kidney disease usually starts around the eyes which might make a face look puffy.

Little or no urine(oliguria or anuria)-the body is supposed to void at least 500ml of urine per day failure of which combined with other symptoms may point to a kidney disease.

Hematuria or a red colored urine- the urine may look red coloured also due to consumption of beetroot and some drugs like Dindevan,Pyridium and Furadantin. Blood appearing at the end of voiding urine is due to a bladder stone or infection in the bladder. Blood appearing at the beginning of the urinary stream is usually due to a disease in the urethra.(urinary canal which brings urine from bladder to the outside). Blood appearing throughout might points to a cause in the kidney

Pain -pain in the lower back due to many other conditions is often blamed to a kidney and urinary tract disease. In a pain arising from kidney is a deep-seated, sickening ache in the loin while that from obstruction of ureters (passage for urine from the kidneys to the bladder) often due to a stone is acute pain in the loin, which feels like having moved to the genitalia. If the pain is due to a bladder cause it is felt as lower abdominal discomfort made worse by bladder filling. Urethral pain is a scalding or burning felt in the vulva or penis especially during voiding.

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