Tips to control Diabetes and retain a healthy kidney:
Did you know...Diabetes affects the kidney? Diabetic nephropathy is one of the significant specific complications of diabetes. Around 30 to 50 percent of people with kidney failure are diabetics.
Uncontrolled high blood sugar for long span of time produces functional and later structural changes in the kidneys. But what is unfortunate is that the changes occurring in kidneys are not clinically observable to the treating doctor. The symptom the patient show until the kidney function is harshly affected and the disease has reached an irreversible phase.
Urine test is one trendy way of detecting early kidney damage in diabetes through Presence of albumin leak in urine is called albuminuria of proteinuria.
Albumunuria is a symptom of early diabetic kidney disease. In routine urine examination will identify albuminuria. However, as there are no symptoms this is not given any clinical importance and often goes unnoticed without medical care. Aggressive treatment should start at this time and the progression of the kidney damage could be delayed or arrested.
Routine exam of urine will detect albumunura. However, there is another sensitive test for detection of micro abluminuria. This test detects minute amounts of albumin leaked into the urine (microabluminuria).
Microabluminuria is a sign of early abnormalities of the blood vessels and a forerunner of atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries). Therefore occurrence of albuminuria is sign to aggressive treatment of cardiovascular risk factors.
Research has shown that sufficient and long-term control of blood sugar, blood pressure and dietary changes can help in preventing kidney disease. However, the efforts should start early in the life of people with diabetes. New drugs used for treatment of hypertension are called angiotension-converting enzyme inhibitors. These agents were originally invented and used for treatment of hypertension. But they were found to be helpful in preventing kidney disease in persons with diabetes, particularly in patients who have albuminuria.
Other than the specific diabetes kidney disease, people with diabetes are also more prone to urinary tract infections. Chronic recurrent urinary tract infection is more common due to high blood sugar levels. Diabetes can also affect the nerves supplying the urinary bladder and produce abnormal bladder function. This can lead to deficient urinary evacuation and urinary retention. Therefore avoidance of infections also helps in preventing kidney damage in diabetes.
So, remember, if you are a diabetic then have urine test for albumin periodically to detect kidney disease.