Do you know that your kidneys filter out all the wastes, toxins, and excess fluid from your blood about 40- 60 times a day? However, diabetes increases the risk of chronic kidney disease by hindering the normal process of blood filtration.
“Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms that around1/3 of adults suffering from diabetes eventually develop CKD.”
So managing your blood sugar level up to normal limits can definitely reduce the chances of kidney damage.
What is Diabetes?
“A chronic condition of high blood glucose level that eventually leads to severe complications of heart, kidneys, eyes, and blood vessels if remains untreated for a long time.”
Types of Diabetes
Type I Diabetes/ juvenile/ insulin-dependent diabetes
In this type of diabetes, the pancreas produces very little insulin by itself so the body needs an outside source of insulin to control the blood sugar level.
Type II Diabetes/ Adult/ Noninsulin-dependent diabetes
It shows body resistance to insulin. It is the most commonly occurring type of diabetes in adults. A sedentary lifestyle and extra weight gain are the 2 main reasons for type II diabetes.
Gestational Diabetes occurs in pregnancy that makes the mother and child more prone to develop type II diabetes in future life.
How Does Diabetes Increase the Risk of CKD?
“According to a published research in The Lancet, the 2 most prominent causes for chronic kidney disease are diabetes and hypertension.”
The below-mentioned points are depicting the series of steps for developing Chronic kidney disease due to diabetes:
- Normally, waste products of proteins in your diet go through the tiny network of filters in kidneys called nephrons.
- These wastes are then excreted out of the body via urine produced by the kidneys.
- However, in the case of diabetes, excess glucose causes the nephrons to clog and minimize the functionality by rupturing the filters over time.
- Due to damage, nephrons cause the leakage of the useful proteins too through urine. A healthy kidney prevents the leakage of albumin from the blood into the urine.
- Microalbuminuria– Excretion of less amount of useful proteins or urinary albumin through urine, 30-300mg/day.
- Macroalbuminuria or proteinuria– Leakage of a high amount of useful proteins through urine, higher than300mg/day
- Starting of kidney disease is represented with micro-albuminuria that later on converts into macro-albuminuria.
- This macro-albuminuria is actually the indication of the onset of severe kidney disease or CKD.
However, you can slow down advancement in CKD by controlling the blood sugar level.
The link b/w Diabetes & Hypertension, and CKD
Clogging blood vessels due to high sugar content may lead to high blood pressure. This hypertension issue occurs due to continuous blockage of the blood vessels with sugar content so the walls of the vessels are always under pressure.
The network of filtering units (nephrons) is much delicate so the tiny vessels can damage when blood tries to pass through them with high pressure. This may result in nephron damage and stroke.
Facts & Figures About Diabetes
World Health Organization released the following facts and figures related to diabetes and its expected negative outcomes in the form of various health complications.
Facts and Figures released by WHO about Diabetes and other chronic conditions.
Diabetes Increase the Risk of CKD- How to Minimize It?
Diabetics should get a regular checkup by carrying out various screening tests by consulting with the doctor to minimize the diabetes-associated risks.
“National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases recommends that you should get proper tests, screening or checkup for your kidneys every year if you have Type II Diabetes or in case of Type I Diabetes if you have it for more than 5 years .”
How Can Diabetics Avoid CKD
Despite having a worldwide prevalence of diabetes and CKD at such a high level, not enough guidelines and education is provided to patients, particularly in developing countries. It is the duty of the health care team to launch awareness campaigns from time to time.
“Centers of Disease Control and Prevention claims that by adopting CDC- recognized lifestyle changes, the risk of developing diabetes II reduce to almost 58%.”
You should pay huge attention to the below-mentioned points to get yourself protected for a long time.
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Maintain a normal Blood Glucose Level
Test your A1C test that indicates the average blood sugar level over the period of the past 3 months. This test is done to know whether the graph of blood glucose level is going high or low.
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Maintain Normal Blood Pressure
Over time, nephrons become weak due to continuous blockage of their vessels with high glucose content or excess toxins in the blood. At this time, high blood pressure can cause the nephrons to become overly destroyed thus chances of CKD rise.
So maintaining healthy blood pressure in the range of 130/85mm Hg is ideal for kidney health.
Medicines for high blood pressure like ACE inhibitors and ARBs protect your kidneys (not safe for pregnant women).
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Stop Using Medicines without Consulting your Doctor
Stop using medicines without the consultation of your doctor as certain medicines have much negative impact on your overall health. So avoid any nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines that enhance the risk of kidney damage.
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Healthy Diet to Reduce Increased Risk of CKD due to Diabetes
Diabetes and CKD patients have to focus primarily on their proper diet. A good diet plan can help them to avoid the disease progression for a longer time.
Take a lot of vegetables, fruits (low in sugar level), and healthy protein. Limiting sodium, refined carbs, and glucose in the diet is of prime concern.
With CKD, your kidneys lose control in balancing sodium and water content in the body. So limiting sodium is the best option to avoid fluid buildup.
For this purpose, check the label of contents and their percentages on each food item.
Diabetics should take a diet chart from their health care advisor or a good dietician and follow it strictly. This diet chart is formulated on the basis of nutrient contents and calories requirement by the patients.
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Active Lifestyle and Healthy Body Weight
Obesity is the principal cause of diabetes so try to manage your body weight according to your height. Be active all the time to avoid extra weight gain problems. Having an active lifestyle is paramount for healthy living.
A slow walk for about 10-15 minutes a day and exercise can improve insulin production in the body. Proper exercise and yoga are the 2 magic steps to control diabetes and the progression towards CKD.
As long as your blood glucose level remains in the optimum range, the risk of developing CKD reduces.
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Avoid Alcohol and Soft drinks
Your strong protector to fight diabetes is choosing the right diet plan. Add healthy twists in your routine food choice to get its health benefits.
‘American Diabetes Association suggests taking zero-calorie or low calories drinks to avoid a sudden rise in blood sugar levels.’
The better choices for drinks for diabetes patients can be:
- Plain water
- Vegetable juice
- Low-fat milk
- Unsweetened coffee/tea
- Lemon water
Here, one point should be taken into consideration that choosing the food for diabetes can be properly discussed with your doctor in case you are at the borderline for CKD. Patients suffering from CKD also have to closely monitor the potassium, phosphorus, calcium content of food to avoid any cardiovascular complications.
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Quit Smoking
Smokers are even at a much higher risk of developing many chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and CKD. Quitting it will help you to prevent complex cardiovascular issues.
Check out Your Pre-diabetes Risk
If you are living a sedentary lifestyle and feeling any symptoms of diabetes in your body then it’s time to check out the risk. See your prediabetes risk test result in less than a minute here.
This test will figure out the possible chances of developing CKD on the basis of certain factors such as genetics, age, lifestyle etc.
Can Herbal Remedies cure CKD?
Mostly, people rely on herbal remedies in case if they are diabetics. But, if you are suffering from diabetic kidney disease, then stop using them immediately.
Mostly, herbal supplements not only make the situation worse but can also cause severe heart attacks due to having high potassium content. You have to be much concerned about potassium intake in case you are a CKD patient.
Concluding Remarks
A high level of research is required to study the correlation between diabetes and CKD. These 2 diseases are increasing on a large scale as a pandemic so quick action is compulsory to decrease the associated risks.
