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What Causes Renal Disease?

Renal disease is the gradual loss of kidney function over an extended period of time. The kidneys are delicate organs and the loss of function is often permanent. Furthermore, renal disease is often present with no symptoms until it is well developed.

  1. Function

    • The kidneys are bean-shaped organs about the size of a fist that sit in your lower back. They have many functions but their main one is to filter circulating blood of waste products and impurities. It does this using blood pressure and an intricate system of tiny blood vessels. Leaving proteins and other nutrients in your blood, the kidneys create urine from the waste products. The urine then leaves the kidneys through the ureter and is stored in the bladder until it can be excreted.

    Renal Disease

    • Renal disease (also known as kidney disease or chronic kidney disease) is the gradual, permanent worsening of kidney function over time. A renal disease is often called a silent killer because it does not present symptoms in the early stages. In many cases, the first symptoms of renal disease do not become apparent until the disease has progressed extensively. Symptoms of kidney disease include trouble urinating, bloody urine and intense pain in the lower back.

    Diabetes

    • Diabetes is often a cause of renal disease. The body's cells use insulin to help absorb glucose, a sugar used for energy. When your body does not produce enough insulin or does not respond to the insulin it does produce, glucose builds up in your body because it cannot be absorbed. This is called diabetes and it can lead to renal disease through the buildup of glucose. Your kidneys help your body stay healthy by removing excess glucose from the bloodstream. When your glucose levels start to climb, your kidneys must work much harder to filter it from the blood. Over time, this can lead to renal disease.

    Hypertension

    • Another cause of renal disease is hypertension, or high blood pressure. Blood pressure is the force that the circulating blood places on the blood vessels it flows through. Diet, weight and genetic background are the main causes of hypertension. High blood pressure is detrimental to the kidneys because they use blood pressure in the filtration process. Your kidneys also have a network of tiny blood vessels called capillaries, which can be damaged by intense pressure. Once those capillaries are damaged, the kidneys stop being able to filter the blood as effectively as possible.

    Urinary Infection

    • The kidneys are the major component of the urinary system, which functions to remove waste from the blood, convert it to urine and then excrete it from the body. Urinary disease can affect your kidneys negatively and cause renal disease. Something as simple as a urinary tract infection can develop into serious infections if left untreated. Kidney infections can develop from the spread of bacteria from other infected urinary structures, such as the bladder or urethra. Kidney infections are the most dangerous types of urinary infection and can cause damage to the kidneys, which leads to renal disease.

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