Types of Kidney Disease
Kidney disease usually affects both kidneys. If the kidneys' ability to remove and regulate water and chemicals is seriously damaged by disease, waste products and excess fluid build up occur, causing severe swelling and symptoms of uremia (kidney failure).
There are many different types and causes of kidney disease. These can be characterized as hereditary, congenital or acquired.
Hereditary Disorders
These can be transmitted to both males and females, and generally produce clinical symptoms from teenage years to adulthood. The most prevalent hereditary kidney condition is polycystic kidney disease. Other hereditary conditions include Alport's syndrome, hereditary nephritis, primary hyperoxaluria and cystinuria.
Congenital Disease
This usually involves some malformation of the genitourinary tract, usually leading to some type of obstruction which subsequently produces infection and/or destruction of kidney tissue. The destruction can eventually progress to chronic kidney failure.
Acquired Kidney Disease
These diseases are numerous, the general term being nephritis (meaning inflammation of the kidney). The most common type of nephritis is glomerulonephritis, and again, this has many causes.
Kidney Stones
These are very common, and when they pass, the pain can be extremely severe in the side and back. Stone formation can be an inherited disorder, secondary to a malformation and/or infection in the kidney, or can occur without any prior problem. The pain can appear suddenly and in waves, and then disappear rapidly when the stone is passed.
Nephritic Syndrome
This refers to a large protein loss in the urine [frequently in association with low blood protein (albumin) levels, an elevated blood cholesterol and severe retention of body fluid, causing swelling (edema)]. This disease can be a primary disorder of the kidney or secondary to an illness, affecting many parts of the body (for example diabetes mellitus).
Long-standing High Blood Pressure (hypertension)
This can cause kidney disease itself or can be a result of a kidney disorder. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can accelerate the natural course of any underlying kidney disease.
Diabetes Mellitus
Long standing diabetes can lead to kidney failure. However, tight control of blood glucose levels over the years may reduce those complications.
Drugs and Toxins
Certain medications, toxins, pesticides and "street" drugs (i.e., heroin) can also produce kidney damage.
Types of Skin Disease
Acne is the term for pimples and complexion problems which occur in young people and some adults. Pimples usually occur on the face, but may involve the neck, chest, back and upper arms. Acne is only a skin problem and does not affect your general health.
II. Causes:
• At puberty, the oil glands of the skin start producing an oily material called sebum. Sebum lubricates the skin. Sometimes the wall of the oil gland breaks and spills the sebum within the skin which causes redness, swelling, and pus - in other words a pimple. Plugged oil glands may form blackheads and whiteheads. Blackheads are not caused by dirt.
• There is a bacteria that normally lives on the skin called Propionibacterium acnes. This bacteria lives on the sebum produced by the skin oil glands. Sometimes, this bacteria multiplies and causes inflammation and acne.
• Acne is built into your genes; it runs in families.
• In women, acne frequently worsens at the time of menstruation.
• Foods do not cause acne. In some people, certain foods will make acne worse. The most common ones are chocolate, nuts, carbonated beverages, and milk. Most people's acne is not aggravated by these foods.
• Acne may become worse under stress.
• Cosmetics make acne worse.
• Adult women often have trouble with acne through middle age. The reason is unknown.
Sun spots (age spots) also known as lentigines, are harmless, flat, brown discolorations of the skin which usually occur on the back of the hands, neck and face of people older than 40 years of age. These spots more than anything else, give away a person's age. Sun spots are caused by the skin being exposed to the sun over many years and are a sigh of sun damage. If you do not believe that these brown, ugly marks on the back of your hands and face are caused by sunlight, look at the skin on your inner thigh. You will see that the skin of the inner thigh is completely devoid of age spots. Sun spots are harmless and do not need to be treated unless they are changing or getting bigger than the surrounding sun spots.
I. Prevention:
• The only way to prevent age spots is to use liberal amounts of sunscreen before the age of forty, avoid the sun, and wear protective clothing. These measures will also help prevent the formation of skin cancer and wrinkles.
Tinea pedis or athlete's foot is a skin infection caused by a kind of mold called a fungus. The fungus causing tinea pedis prefers moist, warm skin; this is why tinea pedis favors the folds between the toes and is often worse in hot weather. In some people tinea pedis can get so bad that blisters form. Not all foot rashes are tinea pedis, only those caused by fungus growing on the skin.
II. Causes:
• Tinea pedis is caused by a fungus that is only mildly contagious. Everyone is exposed to the fungus which causes tinea pedis; why only some people get it is unknown.
• Tinea pedis may stay in the skin indefinitely. Even if the rash seems to have been cured, microscopic examination may reveal the fungus to be present. While medicines will clear up the rash, the fungus may merely be "lying low" and may cause the same rash again.
Dandruff
A person's entire body surface continuously sheds dead skin cells. The skin itself sheds every twenty-four days. Dandruff, the shedding of dead skin cells from the scalp at an excessive rate, is the result of the normal growing process of the skin cells of the scalp.
II. Causes:
• Dandruff is seasonal. It is most severe during the winter and mildest during the summer.
• The most common symptom of dandruff is scaling; itching is occasionally present.
• Dandruff scales usually occur as small, round, white-to-gray patches on the top of the head; however, scaling can occur anywhere on the scalp.
• The following factors may make the flaking of dandruff worse:
- Excessive use of hairsprays and gels.
- Improper use of hair-coloring products or excessive use of electric hair curlers
- Cold weather and dry indoor heating.
- Tight fitting hats and scarves.
- Infrequent shampooing of the hair or inadequate rinsing.
- Stress, anxiety and tension.
Scabies also known as "the itch" is an intensely itching rash caused by a tiny mite (bug) that lives in the skin. Since it is only 1/60 th inch long, the scabies mite is almost impossible to see without magnification. The rash usually involves the hands, wrists, breasts, genital area, and waistline. In severe cases scabies can spread to almost the entire body, but rarely the face. Scabies often resembles other rashes. The only way to find out whether you have scabies is for a doctor to scrape off a piece of skin and examine it under a microscope.
II. Causes:
• Scabies is caused by a little mite.
• Scabies is transmitted by close personal contact.
• Scabies is very contagious.
keloid is a greatly enlarged scar that projects above the skin surface. The skin heals by formation of scar tissue, which at first is often red and somewhat prominent. As the months pass, a scar usually becomes flat. Unfortunately, sometimes scars enlarge to form firm, smooth, hard growths called keloids.
II. Causes:
• We don't know why keloids form.
• While most people never form keloids, others develop them after minor injuries and even insect bites or pimples.
• Keloids may form on any part of the body, although the upper chest and upper back are especially prone to keloid formation.
• Keloids are a cosmetic nuisance and never become malignant.
• Keloids occur more frequently in dark-skinned people.
Onychomycosis is a fungal infection of the finger or toe nails which is very difficult to cure.
II. Causes:
• Onychomycosis is caused by a fungus. Often a person has had athlete's foot for a long time prior to the development of onychomycosis.
• Sometimes trauma or damage to a nail predisposes to the development of onychomycosis.
Tinea corporis is commonly known as "ring worm." Tinea corporis is the term used for fungal infection of the skin. The fungus causes a characteristic lesion which is often clear in the center with a rough, scaly, circular border. The lesions vary in size from very small circular patches to very large patches. Diagnosis is aided through scraping the lesion and examining the scales under the microscope.
II. Causes:
• Tinea corporis is caused by a fungus.
• Tinea corporis is contagious and is spread through infected pets or through direct contact with infected individuals. Most cases are acquired from household pets.
Lentigines, also known as sun spots, age spots or liver spots, are harmless, flat, brown discolorations of the skin which usually occur on the back of the hands, neck and face of people older than 40 years of age. These spots more than anything else, give away a person's age. Lentigines are caused by the skin being exposed to the sun over many years. If you do not believe that these brown, ugly marks on the back of your hands and face are caused by sunlight, look at the skin on your inner thigh. You will see that the skin of the inner thigh is completely devoid of age spots. Sun spots are harmless and do not need to be treated unless they are changing or getting bigger than the surrounding sun spots.
I. Prevention:
• The only way to prevent age spots is to use liberal amounts of sunscreen before the age of forty, avoid the sun, and wear protective clothing. These measures will also help prevent the formation of skin cancer and wrinkles.
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