Kidney Disease: Regular Screening Check Is Important (2)

“These are people that will combine Ibrufen, paracetamol, alabukun and so on together and give to people. These are strong pain pills and while the pain may subside, but in the long run, it can damage the kidney. Such cases are on the increase in our society.

Even some health professionals, who ought to know better, are guilty of this practice. Some of these drugs that are injurious to the kidney are quite cheap.

In the case of acute kidney disease, some people experience diarrhoea, watery stool and loss of water. If such person is not rehydrated on time this might result in kidney failure. Loss of blood in accidents, delivery are pointers to renal failure. If not replaced quickly will make the kidney to fail. Even if the kidney had failed already and nothing is done, it can be fatal for the patient. There are several other toxins or chemicals that people take that can damage the kidney. In the acute cases, if something is done fast, the function of the kidney can be recovered,” he says.

So, what are the symptoms of the two types of kidney failure?
“In the acute phase, the symptoms may be slightly different from the chronic phase, but generally, they can all present with reduction in urinary output.
Take for instance, someone who has been passing urine very well before, is now unable to pass urine for hours or even a whole day because the kidney has shut down and can no longer filter.

Many times, that is the complaint I get from patients. They also complain of swelling because the waste products that the kidney is supposed to have removed remain in the blood and when the concentration continues to rise, it is poisonous to the cells of the body and everywhere is sick. The person complains of loss of appetite, sleeplessness, nausea and sometimes the urea level can be so high that it can get to the brain.

The reduction in urinary output and swelling of the body are major symptoms. It starts first with swelling of the eyes and around the eyes. In the morning, the swelling may disappear but after a while the swelling remains. The next phase is swelling of the leg and if nothing is done, it increases. The stomach starts swelling and other parts of the body. In the chronic cases, you have all these mentioned, but the blood level gets low. They have all the symptoms of anaemia (lack of blood).

So, the person is weak, tired and uses the energy to breathe only. The patient will experience bum pains. Like I mentioned earlier the kidney produces that Vitamin D. If there is no vitamin D, calcium that makes up bones cannot be absorbed. So, the bone of that person is weak, anytime he is walking about or standing, he can’t stand for too long. When it gets to that stage and you do not control the urea poison and all that, it gets to the brain, which will result in seizures, convulsion and the person will pass out.

Most people do not do screening, which is important because this will help you know what is wrong with you. Kidney diseases don’t just become serious in one day. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) could take five to 10 years to manifest. The kidney can struggle until it has lost at least 50 per cent of its ability, but if the person had done urinalysis, the person will find albumen (protein) in the urine. In Chronic Kidney Disease, normally there should not be albumen in the urine, but when there is kidney damage, you will find it there. If you are the kind of person that goes for urine test regularly, this could be detected early and there are things that could be done to treat it fast.”