While having a family history doesn’t necessarily translate to developing kidney diseases, it is important to be alert and conscious about your health and well being.
Published Mar 13, 2025 | 3:00 PM ⚊ Updated Mar 13, 2025 | 3:00 PM
Kidneys. (iStock)
Synopsis: Understanding this connection between kidney disease and familial background can help in disease prevention and management. Here is a look at different kidney related ailments and ways to take precautions.
Just like certain physical traits and habits are passed down through generations, if there is a history of kidney disease in one’s family, it puts the family members and all the future generations into the risk of developing similar conditions, compromising their overall well-being.
Having an understanding of the connection between kidney disease and familial background can help in disease prevention and management.
Here’s everything you need to know about the hereditary aspect of kidney disorders and diseases.
It is a known fact that kidney disease and its progression have a genetic component to it. Diseases like Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), which causes cysts to form in the kidneys, are directly passed down from the patient to their next of kin via gene mutations.
Other diseases, such as diabetic kidney disease, depend on related pre-existing conditions and risk factors, including diabetes, which has its own genetic predisposition.
When immediate family members like your mother, father, grandparents or siblings have any kidney disease, your susceptibility to it increases by default.
However, the severity of the risk depends on several factors such as the type of kidney disease, how closely you are related to the affected patient and whether you’re exposed to other risk factors in your daily life.
Several kidney diseases are related to genetic mutations and those genes are passed down through generations. Children of Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD) patients have a 50 percent chance of developing the disease themselves.
Other diseases like Alport Syndrome — caused by mutations in the gene producing collagen, which affects kidney function and hearing — as well as Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), have genetic factors affecting their spread and progression.
To avoid leaving genetic kidney diseases undetected, it is important that you and your loved ones take the following precautionary measures:
While having a family history doesn’t necessarily translate to developing kidney diseases, it is important to be alert and conscious about your health and well-being.
When symptoms like swelling in hands and feet, constant fatigue and exhaustion, loss of appetite, foamy or bloody urine, persistent pain while urination, difficulty concentrating on tasks and change in urination patterns start presenting in an individual, it is imperative that they seek professional medical help and test for any kidney disorders or diseases, especially if there is an existing family history for it.
A family history of kidney disease means you should be more vigilant, but it doesn’t mean kidney problems are inevitable.
With appropriate screening, lifestyle modifications, and medical management, many people with family histories of kidney disease maintain healthy kidney function throughout their lives.
Taking an active role in your kidney health in the present can make a significant difference in your long-term outcomes for the future generations.
(Views expressed here are personal. Edited by Muhammed Fazil.)
