Kidney Failure: Causes, Symptoms, And Treatment

Dealing with kidney issues may not sound like the worst thing in the world, especially when compared to different problems you could have with your heart and other parts of your body. However, kidneys are very delicate and you need to remember that they require tons of care and dedication. This is true for all categories of patients, regardless of their age, sex, and previous issues they had in the past. That’s why dealing with kidney failure is a serious task we all need to approach very carefully, so if you need some help recognizing the causes and symptoms of this problem, here are a few things you need to know. You also need to learn how to handle your troubles adequately, so make sure you find out everything you can about different treatment ideas and tactics that will ease your pain and make you feel better straight away!

What does kidney failure really mean?

Before you learn everything you need to know about kidney failure, you need to understand what this actually means. In short, kidney failure means that one of your kidneys, or even both of them, doesn’t work as well as it should. This process comes in several stages, and it all depends on your kidney function – how well your kidney can function on its own – but the point is that these organs need some help to start working properly once again.

This scenario can happen to us all, but it’s more common with certain groups of people, including those struggling with diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, as well as people whose parents used to suffer from kidney failure as well. So, if you’re among these people, don’t forget to check your kidneys from time to time and talk to your doctor if you notice that something might be wrong.

How to recognize kidney failure?

Unfortunately, kidney failure may not be that easy to notice, especially if you’re not aware of the symptoms. This is why some people go untreated for some time and just make their condition worse and worse, which is why you have to learn how to recognize kidney failure and react as soon as you can. Unfortunately, symptoms vary from one person to the next, and that’s why there’s a whole list of problems that might be telling you that something’s wrong with your kidneys.

Those include simple things like unusual tiredness, nausea, and trouble digesting your food, to something a bit more complex like muscle cramps, extreme urination, and a metallic taste of the food you’re eating. If you notice some of these symptoms, you should start paying more attention to your kidney, and in case these problems don’t go away, don’t hesitate to contact your doctor immediately! Adequate and timely responses can go a long way in these situations, and talking to experts on time might end up meaning quite a lot in the future.

How to treat kidney failure?

Unfortunately, dealing with a serious case of kidney failure can turn out to be quite hard and demanding, and that could become a very time-consuming and challenging process. What’s great, though, is that you can do quite a lot if you react on time. If you use a dependable Bookdialysis platform to explore more about treatments, you can gain significant knowledge about different approaches to this disease. Testing your blood and urine might give your doctor all the answers they need to come up with a diagnosis and a proper treatment plan.

Depending on the state of your kidneys and how severely damaged they are, your treatment might range from easy and simple to long and painful. You’ll need to take frequent blood tests and check your vital organs, as well as take your medication regularly, and that should be enough. In case your kidneys are too damaged, you may need hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis, but these things are now easier than ever, and you can receive these treatments at home as well.

What are the causes of kidney failure?

As mentioned before, people who are already dealing with diabetes and high blood pressure are susceptible to kidney failure, which is why they need to treat their diseases regularly and adequately. Unmanaged diabetes is one of the most common causes of kidney failure, and the same goes for high blood pressure which causes your blood to put extra pressure on your kidneys over time.

Some of the other causes you need to be aware of include different conditions such as lupus, glomerular disease, urinary tract obstruction, and acute kidney failure. If you’re having problems with these things, you should get your kidneys checked frequently and react on time. If you don’t do that, these vital organs might lose their ability to function properly, and that’s never a good outcome.

What are the stages of kidney failure?

As you can anticipate, not all cases of kidney failure are the same, and not all people react to these issues in the same manner. That’s why we can distinguish several stages of kidney failure, and everything that happens later – from the diagnosis to treatment – starts by carefully pinpointing the stage you’re currently in. These stages are defined by your estimated glomerular filtration rate, also known as eGFR, which defines how adequately your kidneys filter different substances. The range of eGFR goes from 0 to 100, the latter being a normal eGFR, while 0 indicates that your kidneys don’t function at all.

Stages 1 and 2 range from 90 to 100 and 80 to 89, respectively, and those mean that your kidneys are still working, but not as well as they should. The damage here isn’t still as severe as it can be, but being in these stages should still urge you to get proper help. In stage 3, which means that your eGFR is between 30 and 59, you start experiencing certain loss of kidney function that may still not be too severe, but it’s there. However, if you reach stage 4, this will mean that your eGFR will be lower than 29, but still higher than 15, and that translates into severe loss of function. Unfortunately, but stage 5, your eGFR will drop below 15 and indicate a complete failure of kidney function.

 

As you can see, dealing with kidney failure isn’t as simple as it sounds, but it doesn’t have to be too difficult either. Just listen to your body, react on time, and follow your doctor’s orders, and you should be fine!