What Your Eyes Tell You About Your Kidneys
Dr. Berg’s Healthy Keto and Intermittent Fasting Podcast
Dr. Eric Berg
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Your eyes can give powerful clues about your kidney health. It’s critical to catch kidney disease before it hits stage 4, and eye changes are among the first kidney warning signs. Learn to spot the signs early.
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0:00 Introduction: Eye kidney health connection
0:35 Puffy eyes and kidney disease
1:34 The best lab tests to detect kidney damage
4:08 Kidney disease symptoms related to the eyes
7:21 The best diet for kidney health
Puffy eyes can be one of the earliest signs of kidney disease. Your kidneys help filter protein, and when they become damaged, excess protein can leak into the urine. As protein levels drop in the blood, fluid can build up in the tissues, often showing up first as puffy eyes.
You can lose up to 90% of kidney function without noticeable symptoms, which is why early detection is so important.
If you notice early kidney disease symptoms, the following tests can help assess kidney function and damage:
• eGFR test
• Urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio
• Blood pressure testing
It’s best to catch kidney disease before stage 4, and the eyes can provide important clues about kidney health. Foamy urine, pitting edema, and anemia are also common signs of kidney problems.
Following a low-carb diet is one of the best ways to support kidney health.
Dr. Eric Berg DC Bio:
Dr. Berg, age 61, is a chiropractor who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting. He is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals and author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media.
Disclaimer:
Dr. Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 1988. His use of “doctor” or “Dr.” in relation to himself solely refers to that degree. Dr. Berg is a licensed chiropractor in Virginia, California, and Louisiana, but he no longer practices chiropractic in any state and does not see patients, so he can focus on educating people as a full-time activity, yet he maintains an active license. This video is for general informational purposes only. It should not be used to self-diagnose, and it is not a substitute for a medical exam, cure, treatment, diagnosis, prescription, or recommendation. It does not create a doctor-patient relationship between Dr. Berg and you. You should not make any change in your health regimen or diet before first consulting a physician and obtaining a medical exam, diagnosis, and recommendation. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.*Dr. Eric Berg, DC is not AI-generated. AI-enhanced elements may be used in this video for production purposes only
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | What your eyes can tell you about your kidneys. True story. A 25-year-old showed up in the |
| 0:05.8 | Burnsview Room with puffy eyes. The doctor sent him home with a water pill to get rid of the fluid. |
| 0:12.4 | No urine test, no kidney test. Five minutes later, he went back. His kidneys were failing. Okay, |
| 0:18.4 | he had advanced kidney disease. He was silently leaking protein in his urine, okay, from his kidneys. His kidneys were failing, okay? He had advanced kidney disease. He was silently leaking protein |
| 0:22.2 | in his urine, okay, from his kidneys. His kidneys were damaged, and then the protein went through |
| 0:26.9 | into his urine. And they finally picked it up when they did a urine analysis because the kidneys |
| 0:31.2 | filter protein. And if there are holes in them, like their Swiss cheese, it just kind of goes right |
| 0:35.3 | through. And then when there's less protein in the |
| 0:38.2 | blood, the tissues fill up. And you'll notice it first right around your eyes. And because I was in |
| 0:45.3 | practice for 30 years and I've seen this so many times, I can spot a person 25 feet away and just, |
| 0:51.7 | oh, kidney problems. Now I'm not going to go up to them and tell them, |
| 0:54.9 | but I want to, but I don't. I'm going to give you other clues that relate to the eyes, |
| 1:00.2 | but puffy eyes are one of the best indications of kidney issues. You can literally lose |
| 1:05.7 | up to 90% of your kidney function and feel absolutely nothing. Now, you probably have puffiness in the |
| 1:13.4 | eyes, but she won't feel tired. You're not going to feel sick. You're not going to feel anything. |
| 1:18.8 | Right now, 35 million Americans have chronic kidney disease, and the great majority of them |
| 1:24.7 | are not diagnosed. 80 to 90 percent of them don't even know yet because the kidneys |
| 1:29.8 | have this incredible ability to compensate and adapt. There's two really important lab test that I would |
| 1:37.6 | highly recommend if you suspect any of the things I'm going to talk about. And this is called |
| 1:42.1 | an estimated glomerular filtration rate test. |
| 1:46.9 | Basically, it measures how well your kidneys are filtering. And then when the filter becomes |
| 1:50.5 | damage, not only will the good things pass through and you can't recycle them, but some of the |
... |
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