Dialysis: Kidney Disease
The more kidney disease information someone has, the better care they can take care of their health. Having information about renal disease early can help people diagnose it earlier. This is especially important since some people with chronic kidney disease do not have any symptoms.Good sources of kidney disease information include your physicians, textbooks and Websites much like this one.
Kidney Disease Basics
As the kidney functioning declines, symptoms can include problems such as fatigue, frequent headaches and a loss of appetite. Additionally, sleep problems may start to take place at this point, as well as itchy skin, frequent urination, nausea, water retention, skin darkening and muscle cramps.
Unfortunately, chronic renal disease may not always have symptoms. In fact, symptoms often do not appear until the patient has lost about 70% of their kidney function. For that reason, doctors may have to screen you for it to catch it early and take measures to stop its progress. This is especially important if you are at high risk due to other conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Health professionals typically use blood and urine tests to measure changing levels of bloodstream chemicals.
This helps determine how well the kidneys are working. Specifically, levels of certain chemicals, such as urea and creatinine, begin to increase as kidney function declines. Doctors can also do an ultrasound scan to check the kidneys for abnormalities.
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