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What Happens If You Have No Kidneys

Diabetes And Kidney Failure

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Diabetes is the most common cause of kidney failure. Uncontrolled high blood sugar can damage kidneys. The damage can become worse over time.

Diabetic nephropathy, or kidney damage caused by type 1 or type 2 diabetes, cant be reversed. Managing blood sugar and blood pressure can help reduce damage. Taking medicines prescribed by your doctor is important, too.

If you have diabetes, your doctor will likely perform regular screenings to monitor for kidney failure.

What Is Kidney Transplantation

Kidney transplantation involves placing a healthy kidney into your body where it can perform all of the functions that a failing kidney cant. Kidneys for transplantation come from two sources: living donors and deceased donors. Living donors are usually immediate family members or sometimes spouses. This is possible because a person can live well with one healthy kidney.

Can I Be Active With Kidney Failure

Yes. Physical activity is an important part of staying healthy when you have kidney failure. Being active makes your muscles, bones, and heart stronger. Physical activity also makes your blood travel through your body faster so your body gets more oxygen. Your body needs oxygen to use the energy from food.

You may find that physical activity can also improve your mood and make you feel better.

Talk with your doctor before you start a new exercise routine. Start slowly, with easier activities such as walking at a normal pace or gardening. Work up to harder activities such as walking briskly. Aim to be active on as many days as possible.

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What Health Problems Can People With Kidney Disease Develop

Kidney disease can lead to other health problems. Your health care team will work with you to help you avoid or manage:

High blood pressure. High blood pressure can be both a cause and a result of kidney disease. High blood pressure damages your kidneys, and damaged kidneys dont work as well to help control your blood pressure. With kidney failure, your kidneys cant get rid of extra water. Taking in too much water can cause swelling, raise your blood pressure, and make your heart work harder.

Blood pressure-lowering medicines, limiting sodium and fluids in your diet, staying physically active, managing stress, and quitting smoking can help you control your blood pressure.

Heart disease. Kidney disease and heart disease share two of the same main causes: diabetes and high blood pressure. People with kidney disease are at high risk for heart disease, and people with heart disease are at high risk for kidney disease.

The steps that you take to manage your kidney disease, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose will also help you prevent heart attacks or strokes.

Anemia. When kidneys are damaged, they dont make enough erythropoietin , a hormone that helps make red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen from your lungs to other parts of your body. When you have anemia, some organssuch as your brain and heartmay get less oxygen than they need and may not function as well as they should. Anemia can make you feel weak and lack energy.

Cancer Prognosis What Actually Is It

Kidney Stone Symptoms, Risk Factor And Treatment

If youre diagnosed with kidney cancer, you may wonder about how serious it is and your chances of survival. But, you will face a lot of unknowns.

In fact, its not always easy for people with cancer to understand what the prognosis means. The good news along with early diagnosis, new treatments are now helpful a lot for them to live longer than ever before.

The prediction of how your cancer will improve and go is called prognosis. In other words, cancer prognosis is the chance /outlook of recovery from the cancer.

Its difficult or even almost impossible to exactly predict what will happen for each case. But in general, some factors and conditions can be used to help estimate the cancer prognosis.

There are many factors that can have an effect on your prognosis. The main ones include:

  • The kind of cancer that you have and where it grows. Kidney cancer has several types, some may become aggressive and more difficult to treat .
  • The cancer grade. It points to how abnormal the cancer cells appear if compared to normal cells. This can be closely observed under a microscope. The more abnormal they look the greater chance they grow, spread, and become aggressive.
  • The stage of the cancer, which points to how large the cancer has grown and how far it has spread.
  • Other factors such as your overall health, age, and how well you respond to the treatment.
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    Tests And Diagnosis In Pregnancy

    The 20 week antenatal ultrasound scan looks at your baby growing in the womb. If the person doing the ultrasound cannot see kidneys, or can only see a small amount of tissue where the kidneys should be, bilateral renal agenesis will be suspected.

    The scan also measures the amount of amniotic fluid , the fluid that your baby floats in. The babys kidneys start making urine and pass this out into the amniotic fluid. This fluid protects your baby from getting hurt from the outside and helps his or her lungs mature so he or she is ready to breathe after birth. If there is very little or no fluid, this is another sign of a serious problem with the kidneys, such as bilateral renal agenesis.

    What Causes Kidney Disease

    Kidney diseases happen when your kidneys are damaged and cant filter your blood. The damage can happen quickly when its caused by injury or toxins or, more commonly, over months or years.

    High blood pressure and diabetes are the two most common causes of chronic kidney disease. Other causes and conditions that affect kidney function and can cause chronic kidney disease include:

    • Glomerulonephritis. This type of kidney disease involves damage to the glomeruli, which are the filtering units inside your kidneys.
    • Polycystic kidney disease. This is a genetic disorder that causes many fluid-filled cysts to grow in your kidneys, reducing the ability of your kidneys to function.
    • Hypertensive nephrosclerosis. Kidney damage caused by chronic, poorly controlled hypertension.
    • Membranous nephropathy. This is a disorder where your bodys immune system attacks the waste-filtering membranes in your kidney.
    • Obstructions of the urinary tract from kidney stones, an enlarged prostate or cancer.
    • Vesicourethral reflux. This is a condition in which urine flows backward refluxes back up the ureters to the kidneys
    • Nephrotic syndrome. This is a collection of symptoms that indicate kidney damage.

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    Can You Drink Alcohol With Only One Kidney

    Many of your bodys organs are affected by alcohol including your kidneys. Drinking in moderation usually wont harm your kidneys.

    Alcohol increases the amount of urine you produce but reduces your kidneys ability to filter blood. This disrupts the fluid and electrolyte balance in your body, and you become dehydrated.

    Without enough fluid in your body, the cells in your organs, including your kidneys, cant function properly. Eventually it may cause permanent damage.

    Your liver is also important for maintaining fluid and electrolyte balance. Liver damage from excessive alcohol interferes with this balance, making it even harder for your kidneys to work correctly.

    The risk of kidney damage is even higher for heavy drinkers who also smoke.

    Alcohol has this effect whether you have one or two kidneys, but it may lead to kidney failure more quickly when you only have one functioning kidney.

    Can You Live Without Your Kidneys

    10 Signs Your Kidneys Are Crying for Help

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    Medically Reviewed by Transplant Services

    Your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs found just below the rib cage. Most people are born with two one on each side of the spine.

    Your kidneys are two of the most vital organs in your body. They work to keep your blood stable, allowing your body to function properly.

    Each day your kidneys filter about 120 to 150 quarts of blood into urine. They prevent the buildup of waste and extra fluid, and produce hormones that help your body:

    • Regulate blood pressure
    • Build healthy and strong bones

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    Will It Happen In Affect Other Family Members

    Unless you have been told that your babys renal agenesis was caused by a genetic mutation, it is unlikely that a future pregnancy will result in renal agenesis, or other problems with the kidneys. If one of your children has renal agenesis, it is unlikely that another of your children or family members will get it. Your doctor or healthcare professional will be able to give you more information.

    What Happens When Your Kidneys Fail

    Kidneys act as a natural filter for all the waste products produced in the body, they also help to regulate the fluid and electrolyte balance. They help to keep the blood pressure within normal limits and secrete a hormone which helps in red blood cell production.

    When kidneys fail to perform their normal function, the waste products accumulate in the blood and the fluid balance is disturbed, this is termed as kidney failure on ESRD , which can happen gradually or suddenly. People with ESRD need dialysis or transplant to sustain life.

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    Fatigue Being Tired All Of The Time

    Why this happens:

    Healthy kidneys make a hormone called erythropoietin , or EPO, that tells your body to make oxygen-carrying red blood cells. As the kidneys fail, they make less EPO. With fewer red blood cells to carry oxygen, your muscles and brain tire very quickly. This is anemia, and it can be treated.

    What patients said:

    I was constantly exhausted and didn’t have any pep or anything.

    I would sleep a lot. I’d come home from work and get right in that bed.

    How Is Kidney Disease Treated

    WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR KIDNEYS ARE NOT WORKING SO WELL ...

    How kidney disease is treated depends on the particular problem and what’s causing it:

    • Kidney infections are treated with .
    • Medicines to decrease may help with nephritis and nephrotic syndrome.
    • Medicines can treat high blood pressure or help the kidneys make extra pee if fluid or swelling is causing a kidney problem.
    • A person might need to eat a special diet that limits salt or other things.

    Occasionally, if medicines and other treatments don’t work, the kidneys can stop working well. They may not clear enough of the body’s waste products and excess water. In that case, a person might need dialysis. This process uses an artificial filtering system to do the job of the kidneys when they can’t.

    Some people who need dialysis on a permanent basis might be candidates for a kidney transplant. This means they get a donated kidney from another person. Someone who gets a transplanted kidney no longer needs dialysis to clean the blood of waste products and remove excess water. The donated, healthy kidney takes over the job.

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    How Is Kidney Failure Diagnosed

    Doctors use a variety of tests to measure kidney function and diagnose kidney failure. If your doctors suspect you may be at risk for kidney failure, they may recommend:

    • Blood tests, which can show how well the kidneys are removing waste from the blood.
    • Advanced imaging, which can show kidney abnormalities or obstructions .
    • Urine tests, which measure the amount of urine or specific substances in the urine, such as protein or blood.

    Kidney Cancer In Both Kidneys Prognosis

    The prognosis in cancer is derived from statistics that researchers have gathered over many years. There are several types of statistics, these include:

  • Cancer-specific survival, which may also be the most commonly used statistic. This refers to the percentage of patients with specific type and stage of cancer who keep survive during a certain period of time after the diagnosis. The period of time can include 1, 2, or 5 years.
  • Overall survival, which is percentage of cancer patients who keep survive within certain period of time after their diagnosis.
  • Relative survival. It points to the percentage of people with cancer who have survived within a certain period of time after the diagnosis compared to people without cancer. The cause of the death in the relative survival statistic is usually not used .
  • Disease-free survival, which is the percentage of cancer patients who dont have signs and symptoms of cancer for a certain period of time after following the treatment.
  • Again, there are a number of variables and factors that can affect the cancer prognosis. The stage of your cancer is one of the main ones.

    If the cancer has become advanced, it can be harder to treat. For example, the goal of treatment for stage IV is usually aimed to prevent the cancer from getting worse and control its progression. For such case, its usually impossible to completely remove the cancer in other words, the cure is more difficult to achieve.

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    What The Ultrasound Can Tell Us

    Although your doctor will not always know how your baby will be affected at birth, he or she is less likely to have significant problems if:

    • he or she is growing well in the womb

    • no other problems have been found, and

    • there is a normal amount of amniotic fluid.

    You may need to go back to the hospital for more ultrasound scans during the reainder of your pregnancy .

    Does Kidney Failure Cause Pain

    10 Signs Your Kidneys Are In Trouble

    Kidney failure in itself does not cause pain. However, the consequences of kidney failure may cause pain and discomfort in different parts of the body.

    Amyloid proteins

    Normal functioning kidneys filter amyloid from the blood stream. In kidney failure amyloid proteins in the blood rise, and can separate and clump together forming amyloid deposits into a variety of tissue and organs, including joints and tendons. This can result in symptoms of:

    • Patients who are on dialysis may have discomfort when on the dialysis machine.

    Underlying chronic disease pain

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    How Is It Tested

    As part of standard blood tests, your doctor can check the creatinine level to assess kidney function. Creatinine is released from muscle cells into the blood stream.

    Creatinine is one of the things that the kidneys filter from the blood. If the kidneys start to lose some function, blood creatinine level rises. The creatinine level is used to calculate an estimate of the GFR and provide an estimate of your kidney function.

    Most people who have a minor reduction in kidney function can take steps to not keep the kidneys from getting worse. If the function is somewhat low but stable, you may need to see your doctor only once per year. If the GFR is declining or it is already under 50, it’s best to see a kidney doctor, if for no other reason than to become educated.

    How high blood pressure damages the kidneys

    High blood pressure can cause tiny cracks in the lining of arteries, which provide a breeding ground for fatty deposits that hamper blood flow. As the arteries that feed blood to the kidneys narrow, the body produces renin, a hormone that makes small arteries narrow further. This worsens high blood pressure, causing even more kidney damage. Over time, restricted blood flow can damage or destroy the nephrons, the tiny filtering units inside your kidneys.

    How Low Is Low

    A healthy kidney filters wastes from the blood at a rate of 90 milliliters per minute or more. This is known as the glomerular filtration rate, or GFR. With time, many men’s kidneys start to slip, but function must decline quite a lot before you start to really feel the impact. You feel fine up to the point that kidney function is almost gone, which means you can lead a normal life with reduced kidney function.

    On the other hand, lack of early warning from symptoms can deny you the chance to slow the slide. Most people don’t start feeling really ill until kidney function is under 10%.

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    Dialysis For Kidney Failure

    Dialysis artificially removes waste from your blood. There are two forms of dialysis haemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis is further broken down into two main types, continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis and automated peritoneal dialysis .The choice of dialysis method depends of factors such as your age, health and lifestyle. Over 2,000 Australian adults start renal replacement therapy each year.

    Feeling Faint Dizzy Or Weak

    Protect Your Kidneys from Stones by Eating a Healthy Diet

    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.

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    Can Kidney Disease Be Prevented

    Seeing your healthcare provider on a regular basis throughout your life is a good start for preventing kidney disease. About one in every three people in the United States is at risk for kidney disease. Identify and manage any risk factors for developing kidney disease.

    • Control your high blood pressure. Normal blood pressure is 120/80.
    • Control your blood sugar if you have diabetes.
    • Eat a healthy diet. Follow a low-fat, low-salt diet.
    • Dont smoke.
    • Be active for 30 minutes at least five days a week.
    • Maintain a healthy weight.
    • Take nonprescription pain relievers only as directed. Taking more than directed can damage your kidneys.

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