Heart disease is any heart or blood vessel problem that keeps your heart from pumping blood as well as it should. Kidney disease can cause heart disease, but heart disease can also cause kidney disease. When you have kidney disease, your heart has to pump harder to get blood to your kidneys, which can cause heart disease. Heart disease is the most common cause of death in people who are on dialysis.

When the kidneys don't work well, more stress is put on the heart. When someone has CKD, their heart needs to pump harder to get blood to the kidneys. This can lead to heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Change in blood pressure is also a CKD complication that can lead to heart disease.

Recent research has shown that heart failure is a significant risk factor for kidney disease. When the heart is no longer pumping efficiently it becomes congested with blood, causing pressure to build up in the main vein connected to the kidneys and leading to congestion of blood in the kidneys, too.

Signs that your kidney or heart may be in trouble:

Puffy eyes

High blood pressure

Swelling around your extremities

Protein or blood in the urine

High cholesterol