Kidney Failure, Symptoms and Causes

Greetings to all and sundry in this great community, I deem it a great honor to write and share another science-related article here, as I stated in my previous post, I would try to be active here once again and I would do so by writing posts and also commenting and upvoting on authors posts. From my previous posts where I spoke about dialysis, I promised to write about kidney failure or disease in my next post and here I come. Tonight, I shall be writing about kidney failure, functions of kidneys, symptoms, and causes of kidney failure.

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What is Kidney Failure?

Kidney failure is a condition whereby either one or both of the kidneys stop functioning properly. It can either be an acute or a chronic disease. It does not have treatment and we need to be very careful with how we treat our kidneys because it is very expensive to transplant one or stay on dialysis to survive. Let's briefly look at some of the functions of the kidneys.

What is the Function of the Kidneys?

Kidneys as we all know, are seen to be bean-shaped and they are located beneath the ribcage. Each and every human has two kidneys functioning but one can live normally with only one kidney functioning so far as that kidney works properly. Kidneys are known for their excretions of toxins from the human body. In addition, they are responsible for filtering the human blood and sending out waste products out of the body. There is an accumulation of waste products when the kidneys do not function as expected. Let's look at people that are prone to kidney failure easily.

People with the Higher risk of developing kidney failure

They include people with any of the following characteristics;
over the age of 60, with abnormal kidney structure, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, a family history of kidney disease, etc.

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The Stages of Kidney Failure?

According to one's estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), kidney disease is grouped into five stages and they are;

Stage I: At this stage, one's kidney functions normally but it has mild damage. The GFR level is estimated to be above 90 but below 100.
Stage II: At this stage the kidney still functions but the damage here is more than that which was experienced in stage I. The GFR level is estimated to read as high as 89 and as low as 60.
Stage III: At this stage, the kidney is said to have a mild or severe loss of kidney function, and the GFR level is observed to be as low as 30 and as high as 59.
Stage IV: At this stage, the kidney is said to have a severe loss of kidney function, and the GFR level is observed to be as low as 15 and as high as 29.
Stage V: At this stage, the kidney is said to be at complete or nearing failure and the GFR level is observed to be below 15.

Symptoms and Causes of Kidney Failure

In the early stages of kidney failure, many people do not experience symptoms or do experience just a few symptoms. The symptoms may vary between people depending on how severe your disease is, but the following symptoms may be observed; cramps, nausea, vomiting, peeing frequently, extreme tiredness, poor appetite, swelling, dry or itchy skin, and confusion.

Generally, high blood pressure and diabetes are the major cause of kidney failure. Other Chronic Kidney Diseases can also cause kidney failure some of which include glomerular disease, lupus, and polycystic kidney disease (PKD). As said earlier, there is no specific treatment for kidney failure but then dialysis can be used to play the role of a kidney.

Moreover, in diagnosing kidney failure, the following methods can be used; imaging tests, blood tests, and urine tests. The Kidney is a vital organ in the human body and we need to take good care of it indeed. Prevention is better than cure as the saying goes, don't wait until you have kidney failure, and stay away from all acts that will damage your kidney to stay safe and stronger.

Reference:https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17689-kidney-failure
Reference:https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/kidney-failure/symptoms-causes/syc-20369048

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