Kidney Problems

Your kidneys remove extra water and waste from your blood. They form part of your urinary tract, making you produce urine and eliminating the waste from your body. If you suspect something is wrong with your kidneys, it’s essential to talk to dr in NYCor seek local medical care as soon as you can.

Sometimes kidney problems can be an early sign of chronic kidney disease that will gradually worsen over time and which could ultimately lead to kidney failure.

When these problems are detected and treated early, it can prevent chronic kidney disease from turning into kidney failure.

Potential signs that can indicate kidney problems include:

• Kidney infection
• Kidney pain
• Kidney stones
• Blood in urine

Kidney Infections

If bacteria get into your kidneys, they can become infected and may affect one or both of your kidneys. It’s crucial to seek treatment for kidney infections as soon as possible as otherwise, it can cause permanent kidney damage, or the infection may spread to other parts of your body.

Potential symptoms of a kidney infection include fever, pain in your side, groin or back, feeling nauseous or chilled, urinating frequently or feeling as if you need to urinate, and vomiting. It may be painful to urinate, and you could notice blood in your urine or that it looks cloudy or smells unpleasant.

How to Treat a Kidney Infection

If our internal medicine doctors suspect you have a kidney infection, we will ask you for a urine sample to check for bacteria. You might also need imaging tests like an x-ray or ultrasound, or a blood test. These tests can identify the most common types of infections so we can provide you with the most appropriate kidney infection treatment.

Usually, kidney infections are treated with antibiotics, and initially, NYC internists may provide you with an antibiotic that treats a broad spectrum of infections until we can analyze your urine more closely. It’s possible you may need to take a different type of antibiotic once we have identified the infection.

Kidney Pain

If you experience pain in your sides or the middle or upper back, it could be related to your kidneys. It’s possible to have pain on one or both sides, depending on whether both kidneys are affected.

Kidney pain may be caused by a urinary tract infection, a kidney infection, or blood clots or bleeding in your kidneys. It could also be due to polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disease that can cause chronic kidney disease.

Kidney Pain Treatment in NYC

The treatment New York top doctors provide will depend on the cause of your kidney pain. We will most likely want to test a urine sample for signs of infection. Imaging tests like a CT scan or ultrasound can also provide us with more information as to what’s causing your pain.

Kidney Stones

Your kidneys remove fluid and waste from your blood to create urine, but if you don’t have enough fluid in your blood and have too much of a specific type of waste, this can build up creating kidney stones. Kidney stones can be diagnosed with a urine test, x-ray, or CT scan.

Kidney Stone Treatment

The treatment provided for kidney stones depends on the size of the stones, whether they are blocking your urinary tract and are causing you pain. When the kidney stone is small, drinking plenty of fluids and taking pain medication can help push the stone through the urinary tract. Otherwise, one treatment option is using shockwave lithotripsy, where shock waves break up the kidney stones into smaller pieces that can be flushed out of your body in your urine.

Usually, the shockwave lithotripsy treatment is given under general anesthesia. Another potential treatment is ureteroscopy, which is also completed under general anesthesia and is a procedure where the stone is removed or is broken into smaller pieces using a laser.

Blood in Urine

If you notice blood in your urine, it could be a sign something is wrong with your kidneys or with another part of your urinary tract. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have kidney disease, but it is critical to seek professional care as soon as possible.

There are many different reasons for blood in the urine, and the treatment depends on the problem. For example, if it is an infection, you may need antibiotics. Otherwise, you could need a different type of treatment.

Chronic Kidney Disease

Millions of people live with chronic kidney disease where their kidneys have lasting damage that can worsen over time. If the damage is severe, the kidneys may stop working entirely, and you would need dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Anyone can develop chronic kidney disease, but your risk may be higher if you have heart disease or high blood pressure, diabetes, or a family member with kidney disease. Your risk also increases over age 60. Initially, you may not have any symptoms until your kidneys are damaged and beginning to fail., By which time extra waste and fluid are building up in your body.

Signs of chronic kidney disease can include muscle cramps, itching, swelling in your feet and ankles, producing too much urine or not enough, trouble sleeping, and trouble catching your breath. It can also be accompanied by abdominal or back pain, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and nosebleeds.

Diagnosing Chronic Kidney Disease

It is simple to be tested for kidney disease. One test measures the amount of creatinine in your blood and is used to figure out the estimated glomerular filtration rate, which shows how well your kidneys are cleaning your blood. A urine test will assess if there is blood or protein in your urine, which can be a sign your kidneys are not working properly. Your blood pressure can tell how hard your heart is working to pump your blood, and high blood pressure can cause kidney disease and vice versa.

Chronic Kidney Disease Treatment

If you are diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, NYC primary care physicians can provide medications to help control complications. These include medications for high blood pressure, or to lower cholesterol levels, or to treat anemia. People with chronic kidney disease can retain fluid, and we can prescribe diuretics to help you to maintain the balance of fluids more easily.

Usually, the damage to your kidneys is permanent, but it is possible to take steps to help prevent further damage and to ensure your kidneys remain as healthy as possible for as long as possible. These include:

• Following a low-fat, low salt diet and maintaining a healthy weight
• Controlling your blood sugar if you have diabetes
• Maintaining a healthy blood pressure
• Exercising regularly and on most days of the week
• Not smoking or using tobacco and limiting alcohol

It can also be helpful to follow a low protein diet which will minimize waste products in your blood. This reduces the workload for your kidneys, and primary care physicians may suggest you work with a dietician so you can eat less protein while still maintaining a healthy diet.

Resource: https://www.manhattanprimarycaredoctorsnyc.com/kidney-infection-treatment-nyc-best-kidney-pain-specialists/