In China, about one out of ten people will develop into diabetes with the
changing of eating habit and working style. According to the Centers for disease
Control, over 17 million Americans have diabetes. Unfortunately, one third of
them do not even realise that they have the disease. Approximately 45% of
patients suffering from chronic kidney disease had diabetes as the major reason
for this dreadful disease, where once the kidneys are damaged and unable to
perform their filtration of impurities from blood, there is no recourse to
medicinal cure, and the available options are dialysis (Filtering functions of
kidney being substituted by a machine) or kidney transplant, where the donor and
recipient have to undergo major surgery.
Link between diabetes and kidney disease goes as follows: Diabetes damages
small blood vessels in the body. When the blood vessels in kidney are injured,
kidneys lose their capacity to filter the impurities from blood properly. Body
retains more water, salt and this results in increase in weight and swelling in
the ankles. Urine contains protein. Waste materials start building up in the
blood. Besides, diabetes damage nerves in the body. This causes difficulty in
emptying bladder. There is a back-up pressure from the stored urine in the
bladder, damaging the kidneys. Moreover, the stored urine in bladder causes
infection.
The course of kidney disease: The kidney disease takes a longer time leading
to kidney failure. Initially, small amounts of protein / albumin leaks into the
urine. The filtration function of kidney remains normal during this period. As
time passes, more albumin leaks into urine. This stage is known as 'overt
diabetic nephropathy or macroalbuminuria. After this stage, filtration begins to
drop. Body retains various wastes as filtration drops. Creatinine is one such
waste and blood test for creatinine is used to estimate decline in kidney
function. As the damage develops, blood pressure also rises.
Even though diagnosed with diabetic nephropathy, patients needn’t panic for
there have been effective treatment measures to treat it.
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