Polycystic Kidney Disease Symptoms

Polycystic Kidney Disease Symptoms
The most widespread and life threatening genetic disease in the world is reportedly polycystic kidney disease. The most common polycystic kidney disease symptoms include abdominal pain, blood in the urine, kidney stones and recurrent bladder or kidney infections.

In order to fully understand the polycystic kidney disease symptoms however, it is important to first of all have a brief overview of the disease itself, for purposes of understanding the facts about the disease.

There are three types of polycystic kidney disease. Two of these are genetic. This means that they are transmitted from either one or both infected parents to a baby. The third type comes about through old age, and mainly as a result of dialysis, or through a prolonged history of kidney related problems.

In typical polycystic kidney disease, cysts full of fluids usually form on the kidneys. As these cysts continue to increase in number, the kidneys grow larger in size. In this state, the kidneys begin to lose their ability to function, and this may eventually lead to kidney failure.

The genetic type of polycystic kidney disease only requires one of the parents to pass on the abnormal gene to the child. Therefore, a child has one in two chances of contracting polycystic kidney disease in case one of the parents is carrying the gene. The other genetic form is where the child inherits the gene from both parents. This is very rare though, but it still is very much a real possibility.

It is therefore important to be aware if there is a history of polycystic kidney disease in the family, so that one can be on the watch out for the early polycystic kidney disease symptoms, which usually begin to occur and manifest in mid life.

As mentioned above, some of the most commonly known polycystic kidney disease symptoms include headaches, regular urinary tract infections, bloody urine, and pains in the abdomen and lower back areas. These pains can sometimes be severe, and these symptoms usually begin to be felt some years after the cysts have began to grow in the kidneys.

There is no known cure for polycystic kidney disease, but consulting a medical doctor enables the patient to get timely advice on the medications that can help to ease the pain of the polycystic kidney disease symptoms, and also to help slow down the progression of the disease.