Questions:I am a patient with stage 5 kidney failure. Recently, I always feel fatigue. I do not have spirit to do things and I can not focus on them. My doctor said that I need dialysis, so I am on dialysis now. I am eager to know why fatigue will occur and how to deal with fatigue in stage 5 kidney failure?

Answers: I am glad to help you! First of all, you need to know that stage 5 kidney failure is the advanced stage of kidney disease. At this stage, your kidney function can not maintain as it should be, which has declined to 15% even less. It not only affect the kidney, but also other organs of your body. But you do not need to worry. Fatigue is a common symptom of stage 5 kidney disease. You should first make clear the reason of fatigue in stage 5 kidney failure.

Firstly, with your kidney function falling, the waste product and toxins will buildup in the blood. This is a reason of fatigue.

Secondly, kidney has secretion function. It will secret renin, prostaglandin, plasmakinin and erythropoietin(EPO), which has a close connection with fatigue. EPO can promote producing red blood cells. The failed kidney cannot secret enough EPO thus cause the decrease of red blood cells, which will lead to anemia. This is why you feel fatigue.

Thirdly, you told me that you are on dialysis now. This also explains why you have fatigue. Fatigue is a side-effect of dialysis.

Since you know why you have fatigue, I will explain how to deal with fatigue in stage 5 kidney failure.

Next time, before you begin dialysis, you should talk to your doctor about your condition. He will make some changes on your dialysis.

You can also prescribe some medications that are helpful to create blood cells. These medications will better alleviate fatigue, but they may cause other side-effects, such as headache.

A better treatment for fatigue is to improve kidney function, which is the root cause of fatigue. But only with correct treatment method, can you improve kidney function. Chinese medicine has been proved effective in treatment kidney disease, such as Micro-Chinese Medicine Osmotherapy, Medicated Bath. They are natural therapy applied externally and have no side-effect. They aim at repairing kidney lesions and regain kidney function. Once your kidney function is improved, symptoms like fatigue will go away.

I believe that you have figured out how to deal with fatigue in stage 5 kidney failure. I hope my explanations could give you a favor. Wish you getting better! Still have question? Send an email to renal-disease@hotmail.com, I will reply in 24 hours!