Chronic Kidney Disease: What Is It? Symptoms and Causes

Chronic Kidney Disease: The kidneys were once said to be the seat of emotions, conscience, and yearnings and the origin of morality and ethical behaviour. The kidneys connect the core aspects of a person’s personality and well-being. Although we now know that the kidneys do not directly influence our morals, emotions, or characters, these two bean-shaped organs are nevertheless essential to our health.

The Kidney serves as the body’s filtering system and is an astonishingly complex organ. Your kidneys play a crucial role in maintaining the chemical equilibrium of your entire body. The kidneys control the sound and dangerous molecules that circulate throughout the body and keep them within stringent limits so that the body can run like a well-oiled machine. The term for this is renal function.

Even with artificial kidney assistance, good renal function is necessary for survival. Without the numerous tasks that these organs carry out, life could not exist. Most people know that the kidneys’ job is to eliminate waste and bodily fluid. The urine eliminates these wastes and excess fluid. The production of urine is by a series of highly complicated excretion and re-absorption processes. This procedure is required for the body’s chemical composition to remain stable.

The kidneys regulate the body’s salt, potassium, and acid levels. The hormones that the kidneys produce also affect how well other organs work. An example of a hormone produced by the kidneys encourages the production of red blood cells. Other hormones the kidneys produce help regulate blood pressure and calcium metabolism.

Where Are the Kidneys and What Functions Do They Perform?

Two kidneys are on both sides of the spine, near the base of the rib cage. There are up to a million nephrons, or functional units, in each Kidney. A tubule and a glomerulus, a collection of tiny blood arteries used for filtration, make up a nephron. The glomerulus filters the blood as it enters, and the left liquid travels along the tubule. According to the body’s requirements, chemicals and water are either added to or subtracted from this filtered fluid in the tubule, resulting in the urine we expel.

Every 24 hours, about 200 quarts of fluid are filtered and returned to the bloodstream by the kidneys. Two quarts of urine are excreted from the body, and around 198 quarts are retrieved. The bladder has been holding onto the pee we expel for between one and eight hours.

Why Does Chronic Kidney Disease occur?

The leading causes of chronic kidney disease in Indians are-

• Long-term or uncontrolled diabetes
• Chronic interstitial disease
• Hypertension

Additional elements that could result in kidney injury include:

• Obstruction of the urinary tract due to stones, cancer, or an enlarged prostate. Recurrent kidney infection.
• Renal conditions like polycystic kidney disease, interstitial nephritis, and glomerulonephritis.
• Heart disease
• High triglycerides
• Smoking
• Obesity
• Kidney illness runs in the family

What Signs or Symptoms Indicate Chronic Kidney Disease?

Early chronic kidney disease exhibits no symptoms or indicators. Advanced symptoms  of kidney problems include:

• Excessive fatigue/ill feeling
• Breathing difficulty
• Enlarged hands, feet, or ankles
• Nausea/Vomiting, reduced appetite
• Difficulty sleeping
• Urine with Blood
• Urination frequently, especially at night

Despite the rising incidence of kidney disorders worldwide, there are still many cases of inequality and discrepancy in Kidney health. Transplantation requires highly skilled teams, the availability of organ donors, and dialysis backup to function. It also involves substantial infrastructure setup expenses. In many nations, the lack of adequate physical and legal infrastructure and cultural stigmas against organ donation force dialysis as the only viable option.

FAQs 

What else do you call diabetic kidney disease?

Diabetic Kidney Diseases are also known as

• Diabetic kidney disease
• Chronic kidney disease
• Diabetic Nephropathy

How are the Kidneys affected by diabetes?

The little blood veins inside the Kidney’s filtration units are just one of the ways diabetes harms the kidneys. Over time, these veins may become damaged and clogged due to high blood sugar levels, reducing blood flow. The kidneys suffer harm when there is not enough blood.

Read Also: World Kidney Day & Date, History, Objective and Theme