People with diabetes are 20 times more likely to get end-stage renal disease.
Your kidneys are the filters of your body. They filter out the toxins that our bodies make themselves or take in. When the kidneys can no longer do this, this is called end-stage renal disease. There are only two treatment options for this—kidney dialysis or kidney transplantation. Luckily, there is much that can be done to prevent end-stage renal disease.

The most important thing in preventing kidney damage and disease is to keep blood glucose levels well-controlled. This can reduce your risk by 35 to 56 percent. A healthy diet, exercise, weight loss (if needed) and taking the right kind and right amount of medications can all help you achieve good blood glucose control.

The other important factor in reducing your risk of kidney disease is controlling blood pressure. If your blood pressure is elevated, this can damage the capillaries in your kidneys that filter out toxins. A healthy diet that is low in salt, weight loss and exercise can all help control blood pressure. Sometimes medications are needed, as well.
Weight loss and exercise will likely have more of an impact on blood pressure than just avoiding salty foods. Even a loss of 7% of body weight (that would be 14# if you weigh 200#) can help reduce blood pressure and blood sugar.

What does kidney damage feel like? You usually don’t feel anything at all. Noticeable symptoms may not occur until 80% of the kidney is damaged. This might include fluid buildup, tiredness or weakness. These are subtle symptoms and they might not even be noticed. The amount of urine produced is also not related to kidney damage until it is advanced. Many times people will tell me “my kidneys are fine, I’m always running to the bathroom”. This is not a way to test for kidney disease!

So, how can you tell if your kidneys are healthy or not? Your physician can test for kidney damage by checking the level of waste products in your blood and the amount of protein in your urine. If your physician finds small amounts of protein in your urine, that is a sign of early kidney disease.

The treatment for this may be tighter blood glucose control and tighter blood pressure control, if your blood pressure is elevated. Some blood pressure medications are prescribed because they can slow down the progression of kidney disease.

In more advanced kidney disease, your physician may recommend that you reduce the protein in your diet. This will reduce the amount of work that the damaged kidneys have to do.

Talk to your physician about the health of your kidneys and ask what you can do to keep them healthy. Then call a diabetes educator to help you get started!

Stay well!

Diabetes News
Yvonne Thigpen, RD, CDE