Chronic kidney disease
What causes chronic kidney disease (CKD)?
Symptoms of chronic kidney disease
Complications of CKD
How can I prevent CKD?
How do I know if I have CKD?
How is CKD treated?
How long can you live with chronic kidney disease?
What are the first signs of kidney disease?
How is early kidney disease treated?
Can chronic kidney disease be cured?
30 million people in the United States are living with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The term “chronic kidney disease” means lasting damage to the kidneys that can get worse over time. If the damage is very bad, your kidneys may stop working. This is called kidney failure, or end-stage renal disease (ESRD). If your kidneys fail, you will need dialysis or a kidney transplant in order to live.
Read more about : Urinary Incontinence
Read more about: How much does kidney transplant cost in Iran?
Read more about: kidney stone surgery complications
What causes chronic kidney disease (CKD)?
Anyone can get CKD. Some people are more at risk than others. Some things that increase your risk for CKD include:
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Heart disease
- Having a family member with kidney disease
- Being African-American, Hispanic, Native American or Asian
- Being over 60 years old
Read more about : Bladder stone
Read more about: kidney cancer symptoms
Symptoms of chronic kidney disease
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) usually gets worse slowly, and symptoms may not appear until your kidneys are badly damaged. In the late stages of CKD, as you are nearing kidney failure (ESRD), you may notice symptoms that are caused by waste and extra fluid building up in your body.
You may notice one or more of the following symptoms if your kidneys are beginning to fail:
- Itching
- Muscle cramps
- Nausea and vomiting
- Not feeling hungry
- Swelling in your feet and ankles
- Too much urine (pee) or not enough urine
- Trouble catching your breath
- Trouble sleeping
If your kidneys stop working suddenly (acute kidney failure), you may notice one or more of the following symptoms:
- Abdominal (belly) pain
- Back pain
- Diarrhea
- Fever
- Nosebleeds
- Rash
- Vomiting
Having one or more of any of the symptoms above may be a sign of serious kidney problems. If you notice any of these symptoms, you should contact your doctor right away.
Read more about: What is the latest treatment for kidney cancer?
Complications of CKD
Your kidneys help your whole-body work properly. When you have CKD, you can also have problems with how the rest of your body is working. Some of the common complications of CKD include anemia, bone disease, heart disease, high potassium, high calcium and fluid buildup.
Stages of CKD
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) refers to all 5 stages of kidney damage, from very mild damage in Stage 1 to complete kidney failure in Stage 5. The stages of kidney disease are based on how well the kidneys can do their job – to filter waste and extra fluid out of the blood.
Read more about: kidney cancer survival rates by age
How can I prevent CKD?
Diabetes and high blood pressure are the most common causes of CKD. If you have diabetes or high blood pressure, working with your doctor to keep your blood sugar and blood pressure under control is the best way to prevent kidney disease.
Living a healthy lifestyle can help prevent diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease, or help keep them under control. Follow these tips to lower your risk for kidney disease and the problems that cause it:
- Follow a low-salt, low-fat diet
- Exercise at least 30 minutes on most days of the week
- Have regular check-ups with your doctor
- Do not smoke or use tobacco
- Limit alcohol
Read more about: Kidney transplantation
How do I know if I have CKD?
CKD usually does not have any symptoms until your kidneys are badly damaged. The only way to know how well your kidneys are working is to get tested. Being tested for kidney disease is simple. Ask your doctor about these tests for kidney health:
- eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate): The eGFR is a sign of how well your kidneys are cleaning your blood.
Your body makes waste all the time. This waste goes into your blood. Healthy kidneys take the waste out of your blood. One type of waste is called creatinine. If you have too much creatinine in your blood, it might be a sign that your kidneys are having trouble filtering your blood.
You will have a blood test to find out how much creatinine is in your blood. Your doctor will use this information to figure out your eGFR. If your eGFR is less than 60 for three months or more, you might have kidney disease.
- Urine test: This test is done to see if there is blood or protein in your urine (pee).
Your kidneys make your urine. If you have blood or protein in your urine, it may be a sign that your kidneys are not working well.
Your doctor may ask you for a sample of your urine in the clinic or ask you to collect your urine at home and bring it to your appointment.
- Blood pressure: This test is done to see how hard your heart is working to pump your blood.
High blood pressure can cause kidney disease, but kidney disease can also cause high blood pressure. Sometimes high blood pressure is a sign that your kidneys are not working well.
For most people a normal blood pressure is less than 120/80 (120 over 80). Ask your doctor what your blood pressure should be.
Read more about: Kidney transplant rejection
How is CKD treated?
Damage to your kidneys is usually permanent. Although the damage cannot be fixed, you can take steps to keep your kidneys as healthy as possible for as long as possible. You may even be able to stop the damage from getting worse.
- Control your blood sugar if you have diabetes.
- Keep a healthy blood pressure.
- Follow a low-salt, low-fat diet.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes on most days of the week.
- Keep a healthy weight.
- Do not smoke or use tobacco.
- Limit alcohol.
- Talk to your doctor about medicines that can help protect your kidneys.
How long can you live with chronic kidney disease?
Many people with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are able to live long lives without being unduly affected by the condition. How long you can live with CKD depends on your age, other health problems, and how involved you become in your care. Most people with early CKD will never have kidney failure. Others will reach kidney failure and may live for decades with dialysis or kidney transplants.
Read more about: Kidney transplant scar
What are the first signs of kidney disease?
In the early stages of chronic kidney disease, you may have few signs or symptoms. Chronic kidney disease may not become apparent until your kidney function is significantly impaired.
Signs and symptoms of chronic kidney disease develop over time if kidney damage progresses slowly. Other ways a person may discover they are in stage 1 CKD include:
- Higher than normal levels of creatinine or urea in the blood
- Blood or protein in the urine
- Evidence of kidney damage in an MRI, CT scan, ultrasound or contrast X-ray
- A family history of polycystic kidney disease (PKD)
Signs and symptoms of kidney disease are often nonspecific, meaning they can also be caused by other illnesses. Because your kidneys are highly adaptable and able to compensate for lost function, signs and symptoms may not appear until irreversible damage has occurred.
Read more about: Second Kidney Transplant
How is early kidney disease treated?
Regular testing for protein in the urine and serum creatinine can show whether the kidney damage is progressing. Living a healthy lifestyle can help slow the progression of kidney disease. It is recommended that people in stage 1 CKD:
- Eat a healthy diet:
- Include a variety of grains (especially whole grains),, fresh fruits and vegetables.
- Change to a diet that is low in saturated fat and cholesterol and moderate in total fats.
- Limit intake of refined and processed foods high in sugar and sodium.
- Choose and prepare foods with less salt or high-sodium ingredients.
- Aim for a healthy weight and include physical activity each day.
- Keep protein within a healthy level, as recommended by a renal dietitian.
- Consume adequate calories.
- Consume vitamins and minerals as recommended by a doctor.
- Potassium and phosphorus are usually not restricted unless blood levels are above normal
- Keep their blood pressure at a healthy level.
- 125/75 for those with diabetes
- 130/85 for non-diabetes and non-proteinuria
- 125/75 for non-diabetes with proteinuria
- Keep their blood sugar or diabetes under control.
- Have regular checkups with their doctor and include a serum creatinine test to measure GFR.
- Take medicines as prescribed by their doctor.
- Exercise regularly.
- Stop smoking.
Read more about: Kidney cancer treatment
Can chronic kidney disease be cured?
There's no cure for chronic kidney disease (CKD), but treatment can help relieve the symptoms and stop it getting worse. Your treatment will depend on the stage of your CKD. The main treatments are:
- lifestyle changes – to help you stay as healthy as possible
The following lifestyle measures are usually recommended for people with kidney disease:
- stop smoking if you smoke
- eat a healthy, balanced diet
- restrict your salt intake to less than 6g a day – that's around 1 teaspoon
- do regular exercise – aim to do at least 150 minutes a week
- manage your alcohol intake so you drink no more than the recommended limit of 14 units of alcohol a week
- lose weight if you're overweight or obese
- avoid over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, except when advised to by a medical professional – these medicines can harm your kidneys if you have kidney disease
Find out more about living with CKD and what you can do to stay healthy.
- medicine– to control associated problems, such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol
There's no medicine specifically for CKD, but medicine can help control many of the problems that cause the condition and the complications that can happen as a result of it.
You may need to take medicine to treat or prevent the different problems caused by CKD.
- dialysis– treatment to replicate some of the kidney's functions, which may be necessary in advanced (stage 5) CKD
- kidney transplant– this may also be necessary in advanced (stage 5) CKD
Read more about: Kidney stone disease