Waking up once to use the bathroom is normal for many people. Waking up two, three, or four times a night, every night, is a different story. It chops up your sleep, leaves you foggy and irritable the next day, and can make you dread bedtime. Doctors call this nighttime urination nocturia, and it’s far

If you’ve ever laughed, sneezed, or lifted a grocery bag and felt that unwelcome little leak, you’re far from alone. Bladder control problems affect a large share of adult women. Estimates suggest roughly one in three women will deal with some form of urinary incontinence or overactive bladder (OAB) in their lifetime, and rates climb

Feeling tired after a poor night’s sleep, a stressful week, or a physically demanding day is normal. But what if the tiredness never really goes away? Persistent fatigue can have many causes, including poor sleep, stress, anemia, nutritional deficiencies, infections, medication side effects, thyroid problems, and other health conditions. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is another

Have you noticed that your feet, ankles, or lower legs look unusually puffy? Maybe your shoes feel tighter than normal, your socks leave deep marks around your ankles, or your legs seem more swollen toward the end of the day. Swelling can happen for many different reasons, but kidney disease is one possibility that shouldn’t

Finding protein in your urine can be concerning, especially if you’ve been told that your kidneys may not be functioning normally. One term you may encounter on a urine test is albuminuria. Albuminuria means that there is an abnormal amount of albumin, a type of protein, in your urine. Healthy kidneys normally prevent most albumin

Creatinine is one of the most commonly discussed numbers on a kidney blood test. If your creatinine level is high, you may immediately wonder whether your kidneys are failing. If it is low, you might assume that everything is fine. But creatinine results are not quite that simple. Creatinine is a waste product produced largely

If you have recently received blood-test results showing an eGFR number, you may be wondering what that number actually means. Is an eGFR of 90 good? What about 60, 45, or 30? Does a low eGFR automatically mean you have chronic kidney disease? And can one abnormal result tell you how healthy your kidneys are?