What is Renal Function?
Renal function is literally the same thing as kidney function or another name for it. It is the assessment of your kidney’s and the function’s they carry out. To understand its functions you have to understand what a kidney does. A kidney within your body has a complicated task of excreting water or soluble waste containing urea interspersed with an array of other materials, for instance drugs.
Its ultimate function is to be responsible for the amount of fluids that are floating around in your body water and acid balance. The kidney also plays a pivotal role in the production of Vitamin D. Based on these facts; the measurement of one’s renal function is relied heavily on how well the kidney manages to perform the roles that I have just stated for you.
Why assess for renal function?
Having your renal function assessed can include a variety of check ups. A significant check up could include searching for any renal impairment. Renal impairment is the explanation given for a medical condition that describes the failure of your kidneys to function. Renal impairment makes it far more difficult for any disease you may have to be managed. If your general practitioner is made aware of your disease, then it can be tackled head on and reverse any changes.
By monitoring the disease you can also assess whether or not it has made progress or not. Another key reason behind assessing your renal function is to monitor baseline measurements before you start treating your disease with drugs to help combat it. It is also worth noting that the most common test of renal function is something called GFR or known in the medical field as “glomelular filtration.”
It is stated that immunosuppression can be one of the main causes of renal impairment. Use of drugs such as cyclosporin can cause slight discomfort to your kidneys as blood flow is reduced. It often causes a scarring or a type of fibrosis and this is one of the unfortunate side affects to
Symptoms of renal failure
Doctors are quickly able to assess if your renal functions will result in failure by assessing your condition. After a transplant you may be susceptible to suffer from renal failure between three to twelve months after an operation. You may even have it before your operation, indicative of the delicate nature of your renal function. Having diabetes or high blood pressure can also alert medical staff prior to an operation of what possible problems that may arise in regards to renal failure.
Symptoms of the renal failure are fairly easy to detect though never great to witness. Those who will suffer from renal failure will often feel tiredness. Your hands and feet getting swollen are common traits of suffering from renal failure as are the swelling of your ankles. This is mainly due to water attention that occurs in these specific areas of your body. The feeling of nausea is also recognisable in this regard as is suffering from a shortness of breath. If these are not sure signs for you, the ultimate tell tale sign will be you releasing blood in your urine.
Is the failure of renal function common?
Unfortunately the failure of renal function or chronic kidney disease (CKD) is pretty common. Connected with age, you are more likely to suffer from it the older you get. It is predicted that at least about a fifth of men and about a quarter of all women aged between sixty-five and seventy-four have some variant of chronic kidney disease.
As stated earlier candidates in line for chronic kidney disease or renal failure are those who suffer from high blood pressure and diabetes. This puts those people of ethnic backgrounds in the line of fire. For example those who originate from South Asia are likely to be susceptible due to the high rate of diabetes. People from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can be exposed to renal function failure. Then there are those who come from an African or Caribbean background are likely to suffer from high blood pressure. All of this amalgamates to both sets of ethnicities being vulnerable to renal failure.
What happens when your renal function fails?
Chronic kidney disease is a very series condition if one should end up suffering from this. If you get this disease, you’ll also be endangered to greater risks such as a stroke or heart failure. All of this is simply down to the change in circulation that your body may end up having to go through.
Whilst chronic kidney disease may ultimately lead to kidney failure, which is less commonly known by the name as established renal failure (ERF). If kidney failure does occur, you’re put on dialysis, which is a machine that ends up performing your kidney’s functions for your for a period of time. One has to bear in mind that dialysis is completely artificial and is only durable until a kidney donor is found that can replace the failing kidney within your body on a permanent basis.. Of course pre-requisites have to be met in the form of the kidney’s size.
Can renal failure be prevented?
With a combination of luck and your general practitioner being able to diagnose renal failure in its early stages, the answer is yes, you can avert the crisis of total renal failure. Medication is just one element of the equation you have to take into consideration to help avoid any long-term problems from renal failure and from having kidney problems in the future. Whereas drugs will protect you in the short term, lifestyle changes would have to suffice to steer completely clear of renal failure. This includes having to avoid alcohol and cigarettes and any other extra curricular activities that may put your overall health in danger. Maintaining a healthy diet including fresh fruit and whole grains would help supplement your body with vital vitamins and fibres. Exercise in moderation would also come in handy, but one stresses this is interspersed with you being lucky as a patient by having it diagnosed as soon as possible. If the condition has progressed beyond its earlier stages then options including dialysis and a future transplant operation would have to commence as soon as possible.