What is Kidney Disease?
Kidney disease is when your kidneys have been affected by an illness or injury and no longer work the way they are supposed to.
How is Kidney Disease Diagnosed?
Kidney disease can be diagnosed by taking a blood test to determine the amount of blood that is filtered in your kidneys over a period of time. There is also five stages of kidney disease.
Stages of Kidney Disease
Stage One:
You will have normal kidney function but there is still damage to the kidney. They could find protein or blood in your urine that could be causing inflammation in your kidneys.
Stage Two:
You will have a reduced level of kidney function and you will have damage or some disease to your kidneys. At this stage you technically won’t have kidney disease at this stage.
Stage Three:
Kidney function is moderately reduced. You may or may not have kidney disease.
Stage Four:
At this stage you have severely reduced kidney function. Kidney disease at this point is a strong possibility.
Stage Five:
Very severe reduction of kidney function. This is the end stage of kidney disease, it also means kidney failure is on the way.
Who Normally Gets Blood Work Done?
It’s usually a routine procedure when kidney disease is suspected. Not only that but high blood pressure or diabetes could be a reason to get blood work done. If they discover that you do have kidney disease blood work is usually done in regular intervals to monitor your kidneys.
How Common is Kidney Disease?
Surprisingly enough there is 1 in 10 people that have some degree of kidney disease. There is no age limit on it and there are many reasons that could lead to it.
Over half of people over the age of 75 have some form of kidney disease, but that doesn’t mean that their kidneys are in such disrepair that kidney failure will arise. It’s just the result of normal ageing to their kidneys. Most of the cases involve stage 1-3.
What Causes Kidney Disease?
There are many conditions that can cause permanent damage to the kidneys that can lead to kidney disease:
• Diabetes. It’s a common cause of kidney disease.
• High blood pressure. Untreated or poorly treated high blood pressure is a major cause of kidney disease. However, kidney disease can also cause high blood pressure, as the kidney has a role in blood pressure regulation. About nine out of ten people with kidney disease stages 3-5 have high blood pressure.
• Ageing kidneys. There appears to be an age-related decline in kidney function. About half of people aged 75 or more have some degree of kidney disease. In most of these cases the kidney disease does not progress beyond the moderate stage unless other problems of the kidney develop, such as diabetic kidney disease.