How To Know If Kidneys Are Good

Causes Of Low Lymphocyte Count

Lymphocytopenia or lymphopenia is when you don’t have enough lymphocytes.

If your lymphocyte count is less than 1,000 lymphocytes per microliter of blood, this is generally considered to be lymphocytopenia in adults. In children, a low lymphocyte count is when it’s less than 3,000 lymphocytes per microliter of blood. The normal ranges of lymphocytes can vary depending on the test.â

Some underlying conditions may cause low T lymphocyte numbers, while others may cause low B lymphocyte numbers.

A number of conditions can cause low lymphocyte count:

What If My Numbers Are Not Normal

If your numbers are not in the normal or healthy range, your doctor will work with you to come up with a treatment plan. There is no cure for chronic kidney disease , but you can prevent further damage, particularly if you are in the early stages. Much of the prevention efforts will include changes to diet and lifestyle, like avoiding excess salts and proteins, exercising, quitting smoking, and controlling your blood pressure.

If you are in the later stage of kidney disease, you may have to undergo dialysis, which helps your kidney filter the blood when it cannot do it on its own. In the case of renal failure, a transplant may be needed.

What Causes A Uti

If you have had a UTI in the past, youre at a higher risk of getting one before. Women are also more likely to get a UTI than men based on their female anatomy.

Your genetic background can also put you at a heightened risk. Other risk factors of a UTI include sexual intercourse, menopause, obesity and uncontrolled diabetes.

During intercourse, the area near the urethra is prone to bacteria therefore, its important that you urinate immediately following intercourse to prevent fecal bacteria from being transmitted to the bladder.

Women with a higher body mass index are also at a higher risk of a UTI because they typically have an increase in the folds of the labia, which can harbor bacteria.

Finally, anyone with uncontrolled diabetes typically struggle with a weakened immune system, causing them to be more susceptible to infection.

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Are Your Kidneys Weak

There are many factors in modern day life that can weaken a persons kidneys, even though that person might not have a diagnosable kidney disorder.

Your kidneys are made of delicate filters called nephrons, the tiny functional units of the kidneys. The nephrons filter and clean the blood. If the blood pressure or blood sugar is too high, though, these filters can be damaged and thus cant perform the kidneys duties.

Certain lifestyle habits can damage the nephrons of the kidneys by producing oxidative stress, inflammation, or high blood pressure.

If your kidneys are not as strong as they should be, there are clues that your body gives you. You just have to look for them.

Keep Your Kidneys Healthy

Your kidneys arent very bigeach is about the size of your fistbut they do important work. They keep you healthy by maintaining just the right balance of water and other substances inside your body.

Unfortunately, if your kidneys start to malfunction, you might not realize it for a long while. Kidney disease usually doesnt make you feel sick until the problem becomes serious and irreversible. March is National Kidney Month, a perfect time to learn more about how to keep your kidneys healthy and how to catch problems early.

Your kidneys are 2 reddish, bean-shaped organs located on either side of your spine in the middle of your back. Their main job is to filter your blood. Each kidney contains about a million tiny filters that can process around 40 gallons of fluid every dayabout enough to fill a houses hot water heater. When blood passes through the kidney, the filters sift and hold onto the substances your body might need, such as certain nutrients and much of the water. Harmful wastes and extra water and nutrients are routed to the nearby bladder and flushed away as urine.

Your kidneys also produce several hormonesMolecules sent through the bloodstream to signal another part of the body to grow or react a certain way.. These hormones help to control your blood pressure, make red blood cells and activate vitamin D, which keeps your bones strong.

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What Are The Other Signs Of Kidney Damage

As kidney disease progresses, waste products remain in the blood, so you may experience fluid retention, fatigue, nausea, and vomiting. You also may have anemia, which means you have too few red blood cells.

Your kidneys make a hormone called erythropoietin that signals your body to make red blood cells. With kidney disease, you dont make enough erythropoietin, so you may not have enough red blood cells. Without them, your blood wont be able to carry enough oxygen to all parts of your body, leaving you feeling tired and weak. Your health care provider may give you an injection of erythropoeitin and have you take iron pills to combat the anemia.

Feeling To Urinate Frequently

If you have the feeling of urinating frequently, particularly during the nighttime, it may indicate a sign/symptom of a kidney disease. Reason for this is that damaged kidneys filters increase the urge of urinating frequently. This sometimes may even indicate a sign of enlarged prostate or urine infection problem.

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Symptoms Of Chronic Kidney Disease

Most people with CKD have no symptoms because the body can tolerate even a large reduction in kidney function.

In other words, we are born with a lot more kidney function than is necessary for survival. Kidney function is often sufficient if only one kidney is working. That is why people can give a kidney to someone needing a kidney transplant.

A change in kidney function is usually discovered through a routine blood or urine test. If you are diagnosed with kidney disease, your kidney function will be monitored with regular blood and urine tests, and treatment aims to keep any symptoms to a minimum.

If the kidneys continue to lose function and there is progression towards kidney failure , this will usually be tracked by blood tests and monitoring. If kidney failure does occur, the symptoms may include:

• weight loss and poor appetite
• swollen ankles, feet or hands
• shortness of breath
• blood or protein in your urine
• an increased need to urinate, particularly at night
• erectile dysfunction in men

These are general symptoms and can be caused by many less serious conditions. Many of the symptoms above can be avoided if treatment begins at an early stage, before any symptoms appear.

If you are worried by any of the symptoms above, arrange to see your GP.

Want to know more?

• National Kidney Federation: Symptoms and Problems

Monitor Weight And Eat A Healthy Diet

People who are overweight or obese are at risk for a number of health conditions that can damage the kidneys. These include diabetes, heart disease, and kidney disease.

A healthy diet thats low in sodium, processed meats, and other kidney-damaging foods may help reduce the risk of kidney damage. Focus on eating fresh ingredients that are naturally low-sodium, such as cauliflower, blueberries, fish, whole grains, and more.

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Common Signs Of Kidney Disease

Most of the signs of kidney diseases are unnoticed, ignored, or appear very late in the disease. Over 37 million American adults have kidney diseases, and most are not aware of them.

The surest way to know whether you have kidney disease is to consult a doctor to get examined and tested. Some of the common signs that may indicate that you have kidney disease are as follows:

Feeling tired or lethargic: Kidney diseases may make you feel as if you lack energy. You may get tired easily and have difficulty concentrating. A severe decrease in kidney function can lead to a buildup of toxins and impurities in the blood. It also causes a reduction in red blood cells. This can cause people to feel tired and weak and can make it hard to concentrate.

A change in urine frequency and quantity: Kidney diseases may be associated with an increase in urine frequency and amount. Some people may report decreased urine frequency or scanty urine.

Blood in urine: In certain cases, the urine may be cola-colored or frank red. This is because of damage to the filters in the kidneys.

Frothy or foamy urine: A smelly urine that froths or foams may point to either an infection of the kidneys or filtering out of albumin in the urine. Albumin is a protein, and its presence in the urine points to kidney damage.

Dry and itchy skin: Kidney diseases may cause a buildup of toxins such as urea and uric acid under the skin. This along with an imbalance of nutrients in the body cause skin problems.

Signs Of Renal Failure

People with chronic kidney disease often do not experience symptoms when their CKD is in its earliest stages. In fact, symptoms do not usually appear until the damage associated with kidney disease has reached an advanced stage.

When signs of CKD appear, they may include:

Acute kidney injury can cause signs that include:

Having these signs does not necessarily mean that your kidneys are not working. For more information, contact Associates in Nephrology. Our vein doctor in Taunton, MA, and Brockton, MA specializes in kidney disease, nephrology, and dialysis.

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Feeling Faint Dizzy Or Weak

Why this happens:

Anemia related to kidney failure means that your brain is not getting enough oxygen. This can lead to feeling faint, dizzy, or weak.

What patients said:

I was always tired and dizzy.

It got to the point, like, I used to be at work, and all of the sudden I’d start getting dizzy. So I was thinking maybe it was my blood pressure or else diabetes was going bad. That’s what was on my mind.

Difficulty In Sleeping During Night

When kidneys fail to filter waste products properly, toxins remain present in human blood instead of leaving from the body via urine. This may cause difficulty in sleeping. In addition, there is a close connection in between chronic kidney disease and obesity, while the problem of sleep apnea becomes common among individuals suffering from chronic kidney diseases.

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Shortness Of Breath After Very Little Effort

Why this happens:

Being short of breath can be related to the kidneys in two ways. First, extra fluid in the body can build up in the lungs. And second, anemia can leave your body oxygen-starved and short of breath.

What patients said:

At the times when I get the shortness of breath, it’s alarming to me. It just fears me. I think maybe I might fall or something so I usually go sit down for awhile.

I couldn’t sleep at night. I couldn’t catch my breath, like I was drowning or something. And, the bloating, can’t breathe, can’t walk anywhere. It was bad.

Coronavirus Kidney Damage: A Serious Sign

Organ systems like the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys rely on and support one anothers functions, so when the new coronavirus causes damage in one area, others might be at risk. The kidneys essential functions have an impact on the heart, lungs and other systems. That may be why doctors note that kidney damage arising in patients with COVID-19 is a possible warning sign of a serious, even fatal course of the disease.

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Food Tastes Like Metal

Why this happens:

A build-up of wastes in the blood can make food taste different and cause bad breath. You may also notice that you stop liking to eat meat, or that you are losing weight because you just don’t feel like eating.

What patients said:

Foul taste in your mouth. Almost like you’re drinking iron.

I don’t have the appetite I had before I started dialysis, I must have lost about 10 pounds.

When Things Go Wrong

A little more than 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 20 show evidence of kidney disease. Some forms of kidney disease are progressive, meaning the disease gets worse over time. When your kidneys can no longer remove waste from blood, they fail.

Waste buildup in your body can cause serious problems and lead to death. To remedy this, your blood would have to be filtered artificially through dialysis, or you would need a kidney transplant.

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Signs And Symptoms Of Kidney Failure

The kidneys remove waste and extra fluid from your body and help maintain proper levels of various minerals. Without correct levels of nutrients, nerves, cells, muscles, and organs may not work properly.

When your kidney function goes below 15% of normal, it’s classified as kidney failure.

Verywell / Ellen Lindner

It might be preceded by kidney disease. The symptoms that occur are typically a result of waste buildup. There are treatments for kidney failure, and your healthcare provider can go over which treatment is best for you.

This article will review the symptoms of kidney failure. Knowing what the symptoms are can help you recognize warning signs early so you can see your healthcare provider about any concerns.

The Link To Kidney Disease

Acute kidney injury, also known as acute renal failure , is not the same as chronic kidney disease , which will eventually lead to chronic kidney failure . Neither CKD or CKF are reversible diseases. Detecting proteins and/or blood in urine labs is an early sign of kidney involvement in people with confirmed COVID-19.

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Organ Meats & Benefits

When dogs ran wild, they received nutrition from rabbits, squirrels, and mice. Modern processed foods contain very little organ meat. So, you can offer Ace or Diamond a healthy treat to round out their kibble. Plus, not all commercial products are safe. There have been dog food recalls due to excess levels of Vitamin D, which were added to the product as a replacement for missing organ nutrition. So what are other options for your pup?

Brain: The pig brain may manage or prevent certain neurologic disorders in canines.

Heart: Bison, beef, and venison hearts are rich in CoQ10. This is an antioxidant enzyme that may offset your dogs chance of developing cancer. Heart meat also has iron, selenium, and zinc.

Liver: Young liver meat is readily available, but some people worry about toxins. Dont. The liver acts as a filter, not a storage unit. Like kidneys, it is a source of various vitamins, specifically A, D, E, and K.

Stomach: The stomach lining from ruminants is called tripe. When obtained from an animal on a grass-fed diet, it produces probiotics that boost Aces immune system and often improve Diamonds digestion. Dogs love the odor and flavor of it, too.

Youve Got Blood In Your Urine

Although blood in your urine can be caused by a variety of underlying health problems ranging from bladder cancer to kidney stones, its also a common sign of chronic kidney disease. Because damaged kidney filters cant always properly separate blood cells from waste material, these leaked blood cells can wind up in your urine.

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Imaging Tests For Kidney Disease

Tests that create various pictures or images may include:

• x-rays to check the size of the kidneys and look for kidney stones
• cystogram a bladder x-ray
• voiding cystourethrogram where the bladder is x-rayed before and after urination
• ultrasound sound waves are bounced off the kidneys to create a picture. Ultrasound may be used to check the size of the kidneys. Kidney stones and blood vessel blockages may be visible on ultrasound
• computed tomography x-rays and digital computer technology are used to create an image of the urinary tract, including the kidneys
• magnetic resonance imaging a strong magnetic field and radio waves are used to create a three-dimensional image of the urinary tract, including the kidneys.
• radionuclide scan.

How Do I Cope With Kidney Failure

Learning you have kidney failure can be a shock, even if you have known for a long time that your kidneys were not working well. You may feel sad or anxious.

Reach out for support from your health care team and your family, friends and community. They can help you make changes to feel your best while you get dialysis and may be waiting for a kidney transplant.

To feel your best, your doctors will recommend that you:

• Go to every dialysis visit and consider getting a kidney transplant.
• Have visits with a nephrologist.
• Meet with a dietitian to help you create and follow a kidney-friendly eating plan.
• Keep your blood pressure at a healthy level. They may prescribe blood pressure medicines
• Keep your blood sugar at a healthy level if you have diabetes.
• Be active for 30 minutes on most days of the week.

• Drink less alcohol and quit smoking or using tobacco.

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Tiredness Less Energetic Or Difficulty In Concentration

Severe reduction in the function of kidney/kidneys may result in the formation of various impurities, including toxins in the human blood. This makes people to feel weak or tired and further create difficulty in their concentration. In addition, a few people may experience anemia trouble with kidney disease, which further results in fatigue and weakness.

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