What are the Symptoms of Chronic Kidney Disease and Kidney Failure? | The Cooking Doc®

what are the symptoms of kidney failure stay tuned to find out [Music] thanks so much for watching today make sure you subscribe to my channel like this video make a comment hit that bell do all the things so you never miss a new recipe or a new health tip my name is dr blake shusman i'm a board-certified kidney doctor and i'm also the cooking doc and everything that i talk about today is for informational purposes only this is not medical advice please talk to your doctor before listening to me on the internet okay now that we got that out of the way one of the questions that i always get from people who come to see me in the office or online is what are the symptoms of kidney failure and how do i know if what i am feeling is because my kidneys are not working so i kind of break this down into two parts the first is the symptoms of kidney failure now kidney disease is a long spectrum so there are people who have kidneys that work at 50 of normal who are diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and there are people whose kidneys don't work at all who are diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and there's a huge difference along the symptoms between the beginning and the end something that is really difficult about kidney disease is that in the beginning it has no symptoms in fact almost until the very end kidney disease can have no symptoms that's right so you can have kidneys that are working 20 to 25 percent of normal and not have any symptoms now that's certainly not true for everyone certain people get symptoms of kidney disease when they're early in their progression because they have swelling in their legs or they have difficult to control high blood pressure or they feel a little bit fatigued so there are some people that get symptoms earlier but the most part kidney disease doesn't have any symptoms until it gets late in the process so stage five or late stage four chronic kidney disease another thing that makes kidney failure so difficult sometimes to determine symptoms is that the symptoms of advanced kidney disease are just about exactly the same as the symptoms of a lot of other diseases some of these are very generic symptoms such as itching some people get itching when they have kidney disease now what else can cause itching a million things so whether or not that itching is from something else dry skin or a rash or allergic reaction or from kidney disease is sometimes difficult to determine kidney disease can also cause nausea and vomiting again a very generic symptom that sometimes can be caused by a whole host of other things gi illnesses gastroparesis there are so many things that can cause nausea and vomiting that are not kidney disease related it's difficult to know whether those stomach ailments are from your kidneys or from something else swelling in your legs because kidney disease leads to difficulty with your body processing both the salt and the water that you take in it can lead to things like swelling in your legs so swelling in your legs is a sign of kidney disease but it's also the sign of other things such as you can see swelling in the legs with heart failure or liver disease or blood clots or lymphedema so swelling definitely kidney disease definitely other things fatigue that overwhelming feeling that you just can't get done the things that you want done now if i see 30 patients in the office 15 of them or 20 may complain of fatigue now fatigue comes with anemia so a low blood count fatigue comes with aging fatigue comes with medications as side effects fatigue comes with sleep apnea fatigue comes with not getting enough sleep so there are a lot of things that cause fatigue including kidney disease so if you wonder where i'm going with this we'll get to the point here in a minute but i wanted to first just cover the point that the symptoms of kidney disease are really similar to the symptoms of other things and i'll tell you how to determine which symptoms are from your kidneys or from something else as we get further along stick with me one of the things that is a little bit unique to the symptoms of kidney disease is a metallic taste in the mouth now that usually doesn't develop until people have stage five kidney disease and are close to needing dialysis now there are some other things that cause that change such as medications can cause that you know we've learned over the last couple of years that covid can cause loss of taste and smell or alterations in your taste and smell so while it is a little more specific to kidney disease and some of these other symptoms there are definitely things that can cause that alteration of your taste besides kidney failure what are some of the other symptoms of kidney disease well you can become confused you can urinate less there are a whole host of other symptoms that can come with kidney disease so if you have any of these symptoms how do you know if they're related to kidney disease or to something else well sometimes it's very difficult to tell and it really takes the expertise of a doctor to look at your labs to look at your trend of your kidney disease to look at your medications to put it all together with these symptoms to kind of give you an idea of whether or not these symptoms are related to your kidneys and kidney failure or related to something else these are also a good reminder that if you're having any of these things to talk to your doctor about your kidneys most people should be screened for kidney disease especially if they have risk factors like family history of kidney disease or high blood pressure so if you have any of those things ask your doctor to screen you for kidney disease with either a urine test or a blood test or probably both kidney failure is a very serious disease and chronic kidney disease should be managed by a kidney doctor the reason is that we are able to help determine whether the symptoms are from kidney disease or from something else thanks so much for watching me today make sure you talk to your doctor about any questions you have about kidney disease make sure you subscribe to my channel like this video click that bell check out my book the cooking doc's kidney healthy cooking and modern 10-step guide to preventing and managing kidney disease go to my website thecookingdoc.com and we will see you next time [Music]

Channel: The Cooking Doc

Views: 180,164

Keywords: kidney disease, nephrology, nephrologist, kidney health, health, doctor, kidney doctor, nutrition, ckd, kidney diet, diabetes, diabetic, salt, low sodium diet, kidney dietician, diabetes diet, recipe video, chronic kidney disease, kidney failure, dialysis, kidney disease supplements, kidney disease cure, creatinine, gfr, blood test, bloodtest results, muscle mass, bodybuilding, medications, high protein, kidney filter, metabolic, metabolic panel, renal panel, kidney disease symptoms

Id: I2cLixEKBsQ

Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 16 2022