Diabetes and Kidney Disease

Diabetes and Kidney Disease Diabetes is a potentially crippling condition that affects kidneys, stomach and every other organ in the body. It is a problem in which the body is unable to produce or properly use insulin. Insulin, a hormone that is necessary for converting starches, sugar and other food into energy. The thing that leads to diabetes is unknown and there is no known cure. However, effective control may be achieved under a physician's care. Endocrinologists are specialists that treat diabetes. They are easy to find in most areas. Here are some examples: David Alster, MD of Tucson AZ, Dr Sophie Jamal of Toronto, Sarah Harper, MD of Washington, DC, Shahid Athar, MD, FACP, FACE of Indianapolis, IN, Michael Rayner Davis, MD, FACP, FACE of Mobile, AL In 2005, it was estimated that there were 20.8 million children and adults who are afflicted with the disease. That is pretty close to 7% of the population. Of all of those, 14.6 million people were diagnosed, but 6.2 million people were thought to have diabetes but they had not seen a doctor. In addition, neaerly 54 million folks are pre-diabetic with one and a half million new disease found in people age 20 and older, emerging each year. Diabetes is the most common cause of renal disease. For a fact, high blood pressure and diabetes are the primary causes of kidney disease. This is responsible for about 70 percent of kidney failure with diabetes accounting of 44 percent of kidney failure cases. The early stages of kidney disease have no symptoms . It injures your body and eventually when it is finally detected, the injury is so far advanced that it quite often is too far to prevent kidney failure. Once your kidneys fail, you have two options: dialysis or kidney transplant. If you do not receive either of these, you will die. How Diabetes causes Kidney Disease When your kidneys are functioning as they should, the glomeruli (tiny filters that are in the kidneys) keep proteins inside of your blood. Protein is essential for quite a few functions inside of your body and are required to keep you healthy. Diabetes makes an increased concentration of glucose in the blood which damages the glomeruli. This means that they can't maintain the protein in the body and it is leaked into the urine from the kidneys. When the kidneys are damaged they no longer function properly and do not cleanse our extra fluids as they should. When this occurs, the fluids and waste build up in the body instead of being secreted through urine. As this continues, the worse the damage becomes until the kidneys eventually fail. The Progression of Renal Disease It often can take years for diabetic kidney disease to develop. Some experience hyperfiltration in the first few years of their diabetes. This means that the glomeruli actually function at a much higher capacity than normal. Once the damage starts, though, it is progressive. While developing kidney disease, they will have a blood protein named albumin that starts to flow into the urine in small amounts. At this time, the glomeruli are actually functioning normally. The progression of the disease leads to more protein leaking into the urine and the glomeruli begin to fail as the filtering begins to drop. Waste is kept in the blood because of the filtration failure. Finally, the kidneys cease to function. How to Prevent Kidney Problems if you have Diabetes Once you have diabetes, you can usually prevent kidney problems. Take these suggestions to keep your kidneys healthy: * Control your blood sugar by maintaining a healthy diet and a good exercise regimen * Take your medication as your doctor has directed * Have your physician test your urine routinely for kidney problems * If testing shows that you do have kidney problems, look into medications such as angiotensin II receptor blockers that can help keep your kidneys healthy. A diagnosis of diabetes does not have to automatically mean kidney disease. As long as you adequately treat your condition, manage it well and follow your endocronologist's orders, there is no reason that you can't live a long, healthy, happy life - without kidney disease. Diabetes News is free