16 Signs & Symptoms Of Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease is often called a silent killer, because 90% of people don’t notice they have it until the disease has progressed to an extreme level.

While none of these signs or symptoms are guaranteed to appear, especially in the early phases, if they do show up then they are cause for getting a check-up done:

Watch out for…

These should serve as alarm bells:

1. Foamy urine: persistent dense foam (like beer head) in urine suggests protein (albumin) leakage due to kidney filter damage
2. Swelling (pitting edema): especially in the legs, feet, or around the eyes, caused by low blood albumin leading to fluid leakage into tissues
3. Nocturia (peeing at night): frequent nighttime urination due to kidneys losing the ability to concentrate urine
4. Half-and-half nails: nails with a distinct brownish band on the distal half, linked to chronic kidney disease
5. Calcinosis cutis: hard white-yellow skin bumps from calcium phosphate deposits due to high blood phosphate
6. Artery calcification: hardened arteries visible on X-ray caused by phosphate-induced bone-like deposits in blood vessel walls
7. Muscle cramps: especially at night, due to low calcium, low magnesium, or high blood acidity from impaired kidney function
8. Osteoporosis: weak, brittle bones from calcium being leached out due to disrupted calcium regulation—may cause height loss or fractures
9. Itchy skin: intense, often nighttime itching caused by uremic toxins irritating nerves or accumulating in skin
10. Restless legs syndrome: irresistible urge to move legs at night due to iron deficiency from chronic inflammation and hepcidin overproduction
11. Metallic taste in mouth: due to urea breakdown in saliva causing ammonia and other metallic-tasting compounds
12. Loss of appetite: also, potentially, nausea and vomiting triggered by toxins activating brain regions that sense food poisoning
13. Easy bruising: from reduced platelet stickiness, leading to frequent unexplained bruises, gum bleeding, or nosebleeds
14. Uremic frost: white crystalline powder on the skin in advanced kidney failure due to urea excreted through sweat
15. Pericarditis: inflammation of the sac around the heart causing chest pain and a scratchy sound due to uremic toxins
16. Fatigue (anemia): low red blood cell count from reduced erythropoietin production by kidneys, leading to extreme tiredness

Attentive readers will have noticed two things here:

• Many of these could indicate a lot of other things (e.g. fatigue can be almost anything, osteoporosis isn’t something one sees unless one checks for it, loss of appetite can be many things, etc), which helps mask kidney disease.
• Dr. Deshauer says “17 signs” in her title, so where’s the 17th? The answer is that she listed in 17th place “no symptoms”, because many people have no noticeable symptoms until the disease reaches moderate or advanced stages.

Both of those factors contribute to kidney disease’s “silent killer” status, but with good vigilance, we can stay as healthy as possible.

For more on each of these, plus some visual illustrations where appropriate, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

Keeping Your Kidneys Healthy (Especially After 60) ← there’s a lot more to it than just hydration!

Take care!