Our body facilitates for several life functions to be carried out simultaneously, to keep us healthy. Malfunctions in such complex systems might occur, but our body does send warnings to inform us of the same. Sometimes identifying these signals from our bodies can be difficult as there is no definite metric to judge symptoms on; they are subjective.
Discussed below are ten signs that you might ignore, or not understand, about your kidneys not functioning effectively.
1. Sleeplessness
A feeling of sleeplessness takes over you due to the presence of extra toxins in your body. The kidney, not being able to flush out toxins, causes discomfort in the body. Chronic kidney diseases can cause pausing of breath in sleep for a few seconds. It can turn into heavy snoring too. This is called Sleep Apnea, a common issue faced by people with problems of the kidney.
2. Weakness and exhaustion
The kidneys help convert vitamin D to make our bones stronger, and also process this hormone called EPO (erythropoietin). EPO helps in the production of red blood cells, which help oxygenate, and in turn, energize the body. The lack of either can cause fatigue, and a general feeling of tiredness all the while. Be warned that such problems can also result in anemia.
3. Scratchy skin
If your skin feels all dry and itching without any external agents causing it, you should probably get your kidneys checked. The kidneys flush out toxins, maintaining a healthy balance of vital nutrients in our body. The lack of water in our body can cause the toxins to not be expelled and the skin to be, as a result, dry and scratchy. Drink lots of water to avoid this.
4. Foul taste in the mouth
If the blood toxin level increases, it can lead to bad taste, bad breath, and a metallic flavor persisting inside our mouths. This could be a result of several other issues like poor oral health, and so on, but if after looking into that, the problem still exists, consult your doctor.
5. Breathlessness
Sometimes, people with kidney problems experience breath troubles, especially after putting some kind of physical effort. This could be due to two reasons – firstly, extra fluids from the body that were failed to be expelled by the kidneys can get into the lungs, and secondly, the lack of EPO causes anemia which can lead to deoxygenated blood in the lungs, causing difficulty in breathing.
Do take breathlessness seriously, as it could be an outcome of multiple issues of the kidneys, as well as of the lungs, heart, etc.
6. Swelling up of joints
Joints in our body, especially in our ankles, hand and feet can be prone to retaining extra fluids in the body. A healthy kidney flushes out these extra fluids, but in case of malfunctioning, these joints retain fluids and swell up.
7. Severe non-muscular back pain
Back pain caused due to the malfunctioning kidneys is accompanied by nausea, fever, and frequent urge to urinate. The lower back of the body may keep paining in case of cysts in the kidneys. If simple pain relief techniques do not work, visit your doctor.
8. Swollen eyes and eye-bags
The first sign of the kidney not functioning properly is the presence of high levels of proteins in the blood. These protein levels can be detrimental to health. It can be detected by the puffy and swollen eyes of a person. If you’re well rested and still have bags under your eyes, visit your doctor.
9. Blood pressure
One of the leading causes of kidney failure is high blood pressure. When the nephrons in the kidneys cannot filter the waste properly from the blood, and also, do not receive enough nutrients to do so, the kidneys fail. Foods rich in folic acid are often the best to treat such situations.
10. Urinary pattern affected
The urine is the final product of the kidneys that expels waste out of our body. Any changes in the frequency, color, or smell of urine should be taken note of and be treated. Foamy urine is proof of high protein levels in the body, i.e., the body is not processing the proteins. Four to ten visits to the urine stalls in a day is normal. Blood in urine indicates the lack of filtration of your waste.
Keep these symptoms in mind and do take note if you’re experiencing any, because it could be your kidneys subtly pointing at a problem in your body.