Overview
The kidney is a vital organ in the body and slight damage in it can affect one’s health. A healthy kidney is important and does many important jobs in the body. The kidney helps keep your whole body in balance. The primary job of one’s kidney include:
- To remove waste products and extra water from your body,
- Help make red blood cells,
- Help control blood pressure.
When you have kidney failure, it means your kidneys are damaged and there are several kidney conditions that can be associated with kidney failure. When your kidney fails it cannot do these important jobs well enough. Having kidney failure implies that:
Your kidneys don’t work well enough to keep you alive for that to happen 85-90% of your kidney function is gone.
There is currently no cure for kidney failure (also called end-stage renal disease (ESRD)). But with treatment, it is still possible to live a long life. Having kidney failure is not a death sentence. People with kidney failure live active lives and continue to do the things they love.
Kidneys can become damaged from a physical injury or a disease like diabetes, high blood pressure [1], or other disorders. The two most common causes of kidney damage or failure are high blood pressure and diabetes.
Your kidney doesn’t just fail overnight. It is the end result of a gradual loss of kidney function. In fact, in some cases, people do not even know they have kidney disease until their kidney fails. The reason for this is that people with early kidney disease may not experience any symptoms. Symptoms usually show up late in the progression of the disease.