Here’s a detailed guide on 10 ways your body may be warning you about kidney disease, often without obvious symptoms:
1. Swelling in Feet, Ankles, or Hands
When kidneys can’t remove excess fluid, it accumulates in tissues.
Look for puffiness around your ankles, feet, hands, or even around your eyes in the morning.
2. Changes in Urination
Frequency: Urinating more often, especially at night (nocturia), or less often than usual.
Color: Darker urine, foamy urine, or blood in urine.
Urgency: Feeling an urgent need to urinate or difficulty starting urination.
3. Fatigue and Weakness
Kidneys produce a hormone called erythropoietin that stimulates red blood cells.
When kidney function declines, you may develop anemia, causing fatigue, weakness, and poor concentration.
4. Persistent Itching
Waste buildup in the blood (uremia) can cause severe, persistent itching, often difficult to relieve with creams.
5. Shortness of Breath
Fluid overload can accumulate in the lungs.
Anemia caused by kidney disease can also reduce oxygen delivery, making breathing feel harder during activity.
6. Loss of Appetite and Nausea
Toxins accumulating in the blood can affect digestion.
This can lead to loss of appetite, nausea, or even vomiting.
7. Muscle Cramps
Electrolyte imbalances, particularly low calcium or high phosphorus, can trigger painful muscle cramps, especially at night.
8. Sleep Problems
Toxin buildup can cause restless legs or insomnia.
Poor sleep can also worsen fatigue and mood issues.
9. High Blood Pressure
Kidneys help regulate blood pressure by controlling fluid and hormone balance.
Hypertension can both cause and result from kidney damage.
10. Metallic Taste or Ammonia Breath
Waste accumulation may make food taste different, often metallic.
Breath may smell like ammonia due to high urea levels.
⚠️ Important:
Kidney disease often develops silently, and many of these symptoms appear only in advanced stages. Early detection through blood tests (creatinine, eGFR) and urine tests is crucial.
💡 Tip: If you notice 2–3 of these signs together, it’s worth getting a kidney checkup—even if you feel otherwise healthy.
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