Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
What is Chronic Kidney Disease?
The kidneys play an important role in filtering waste and excess fluid from your blood, and help regulate blood pressure and keep your bones healthy.
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is when the kidneys are damaged and can’t properly filter blood. This causes fluid and waste to build up in your body, causing other health issues like heart disease and stroke.
In This Article:
What Causes CKD?
The most common causes of CKD are diabetes and high blood pressure, but there are other risk factors like heart disease, obesity, and having a family history of the disease.
Diagnosing CKD
It’s important to get a diagnosis of CKD early so you know what stage you are in and how to treat it.
In the early stages of kidney disease, you may not have any symptoms. But over time, kidney damage can cause symptoms like:
- Itching
- Muscle cramps
- Nausea
- Loss of appetite
- Swelling in feet and ankles
- Feeling out of breath
- Trouble sleeping
To see whether you have kidney damage, your doctor will perform a physical exam and order blood and urine tests to measure how well your kidneys are working.
Imaging tests, like CT scans and MRIs, can also identify kidney damage.
Treating CKD
Treatment for CKD depends on what stage of disease you are in.
Lifestyle changes are a key part of treating CKD, regardless of what stage you are in. It’s important to keep your kidneys as healthy as possible by eating a healthy diet, quitting smoking, and exercising regularly.
Your doctor may also prescribe supplements and medications to improve your production of red blood cells and manage symptoms like constipation and itching. For more advanced stages of CKD, your doctor may prescribe dialysis to help your kidneys filter waste.
How CKD Affects COPD
Having CKD can cause excess fluid to build up in your body, which can make breathing more difficult. CKD medications can also make you urinate more often, and going on frequent trips to the bathroom can increase shortness of breath.
People with both COPD and CKD are more likely to experience more shortness of breath and may find it more difficult to exercise.
What You Can Do Today
- Take all medications as prescribed by your doctor
- Reduce your salt intake
- Start exercising regularly as recommended by your doctor to keep your kidneys and lungs healthy
Resources
https://www.kidneyfund.org/living-kidney-disease/just-diagnosed-kidney-disease
https://www.healthline.com/health/copd/copd-and-ckd#copd-impact-on-ckd