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
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When kidneys can’t remove excess fluid, it accumulates in tissues.
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Look for puffiness around your ankles, feet, hands, or even around your eyes in the morning.
2. Changes in Urination
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Frequency: Urinating more often, especially at night (nocturia), or less often than usual.
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Color: Darker urine, foamy urine, or blood in urine.
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Urgency: Feeling an urgent need to urinate or difficulty starting urination.
3. Fatigue and Weakness
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Kidneys produce a hormone called erythropoietin that stimulates red blood cells.
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When kidney function declines, you may develop anemia, causing fatigue, weakness, and poor concentration.
4. Persistent Itching
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Waste buildup in the blood (uremia) can cause severe, persistent itching, often difficult to relieve with creams.
5. Shortness of Breath
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Fluid overload can accumulate in the lungs.
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Anemia caused by kidney disease can also reduce oxygen delivery, making breathing feel harder during activity.
