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What Affects Kidney Function?

Your kidneys are powerful chemical factories that perform life-sustaining functions for your body. They remove waste products and drugs from the body, balance the body's fluids, release hormones that regulate blood pressure, produce an active form of vitamin D that promotes strong, healthy bones, and control the production of red blood cells. The kidneys perform these functions by filtering and returning to the bloodstream about 200 quarts of fluid every 24 hours.

  1. Kidney Failure

    • Kidney failure is a condition characterized by the loss of the kidney's filtering function. This failure can happen suddenly due to injury, poison, or infection, but it can also happen gradually over many years or decades due to disease.

    Hypertension

    • Hypertension is very serious condition that directly affects the kidneys. Kidney function is degraded because high blood pressure damages the small blood vessels in the kidneys.

    Diabetes

    • Too much glucose in the blood can poison the kidneys, causing them to lose their filtering ability. Diabetes prevents the body from breaking down and using this type of sugar, resulting in a dangerous buildup of glucose.

    Glomerular Diseases

    • Several disease are generally categorized as glomerular disease. These diseases affect the tiny blood vessels (glomeruli) of the kidneys. When these blood vessels are destroyed, the kidneys can't function correctly. Two signs of glomerular disease are too much protein in the urine (proteinuria) and blood in the urine (hematuria).

    Heredity

    • Some causes of impaired kidney function are hereditary. Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a genetic disorder in which cysts grow in the kidneys. Eventually, the cysts replace the mass of the kidneys. This leads to reduced kidney function and eventual kidney failure.

    Trauma & Medicine

    • Don't overlook trauma as a cause of impaired kidney function. An accident, a blow to the abdomen and even a severe fall can damage the kidneys ability to filter waste.

      Common over-the-counter medicines may be dangerous to the kidneys. In large doses, acetaminophen, a major component of popular pain medications, damages the kidneys.

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