Signs That Your Kidney Is Damaged

While the only way to be sure that your kidney is damaged is through a proper test, however, a few common symptoms can certainly help you know that something isn’t normal.  

Symptoms that might be an indication that your kidney is damaged:

• Feeling tired or difficulty in concentrating: A noticeable decrease in the kidney function can increase toxins and impurities in the blood. This process can make you feel tired, weak, and unable to concentrate. Another complication of kidney disease is anemia, which can cause weakness and fatigue.

• Sleeplessness: When the kidneys fail to filter in an optimum manner, toxins reside in the blood instead of leaving the body through the urine. This process can make it hard to sleep. Sleep apnea is prevalent in those with chronic kidney disease.

• Dry and itchy skin: Healthy kidneys perform many important jobs. They filter extra fluid and wastes from the body, assist the formation of red blood cells, work to maintain the optimum amount of minerals in the blood, and help keep bones strong. Dry and itchy skin can be a sign of the mineral and bone disease that often accompanies an advanced kidney disease, when the kidneys are no longer able to keep the right balance of minerals and nutrients in your blood.

• Urine Issues:

1. Increased frequency, especially at night: When the kidney filters are damaged, it can cause an increase in the urge to urinate. Also, there is a feeling of pressure during urination.

2. Blood in the urine: Healthy kidneys usually keep the blood cells in the body when they filter wastes from the blood to produce urine; however, when the kidney's filters are damaged, these blood cells can begin to "leak" out into the urine.

3. Foamy urine: Excessive bubbles in the urine, especially those that require you to flush several times before they go away, indicate protein in the urine.

• Swelling around your eyes, face, ankle, feet, and hands: Decreased kidney function can cause sodium retention, resulting in swelling of the feet and ankles.

• Reduced appetite: This symptom is very general, but a build-up of toxins owing to a reduced kidney function may be one of the causes.

• Muscle cramps: Electrolyte imbalances can result from impaired kidney function. For example, low calcium levels and poorly controlled phosphorus may contribute to muscle cramping.

• Metallic taste in the mouth: When wastes start accumulating in the blood, they can lead to bad breath and may even make the food taste different. The build-up of waste can also cause nausea and vomiting.

• Shortness of breath: Kidney damage can cause shortness of breath in two ways. The extra fluid present in the body can build up in the lungs, and/or the depletion of oxygen-carrying red blood cells can leave your body starved for oxygen.

• Pain: Some people who are suffering from kidney damage may experience pain in the upper back or on the same side of the damaged kidney.