Does Proteinuria Mean You Have Kidney disease
Proteinuria is common symptom in patients who have kidney disease. To patients who have proteinuria, they may find there are foams in their urine, and the foams will exist for a long time. Thereby, does proteinuria mean you have kidney disease?
Kidney is mainly consisted of glomeruli and kidney tubules. Glomeruli have the function of filtration, and kidney tubules have the function of reabsorption. Glomeruli have two barriers, and they are the mechanical barrier and the electrostatic barrier. The mechanical barrier mainly hinder the filtration of macromolecular Substances, and the electrostatic barrier mainly stop the filtration of small molecular substances. Because of the function of the mechanical barrier and the electrostatic barrier, most useful substances including proteins will be kept in patients’ blood. On the other hand, the kidney tubules will reabsorb the leaked nutrients including proteins back to patients’ blood, so little protein can be found in patients’ urine.
While when patients have kidney disease, their kidneys’ filtration and reabsorption functions may be damaged, and the leaked protein may be much more than its normal volume. Thereby, patients may find they have foamy urine, which is caused by proteinuria.
In fact, proteinuria may be a symptom of kidney disease, but just as we have mentioned, there may be little protein in our urine even if we are healthy, and that is also called proteinuria. Besides, when people have had strenuous exercise, or heavy labor, their proteinuria will also rise. In addition, the protein in patients’ urine may also rise when they have excited emotion, or when they are in a circumstance which is too cold or too hot. On the other hand, these kinds of proteinuria are one-off, the protein level in patients’ urine can be normal soon.
Thereby, proteinuria may not mean people have kidney disease, but if people have foamy urine, which can exist for a long time and its foam is small, or if people find they have persistent proteinuria, it may mean they have kidney disease.
Tag: Protein in Urine
