Kidney Complications

Many of the complications of diabetes occur because of the weakening of the walls of the small blood vessels. Kidney disease called diabetic nephropathy is another one of those diseases.

The kidneys are the policemen on round the clock duty, ready to remove any harmful wastes and chemicals from the blood vessels that act as filters. They produce urine, which is made of the body’s extra water and all of the wastes.

The kidneys should function as good filters throughout a person’s lifetime. However, high blood sugar levels, high blood pressure and infections can all damage the capillaries so that they unable to filter as well as they should. Because diabetics are likely to develop blood vessel damage, they are 18 times more likely to have serious kidney damage than nondiabetics are. Put more simply, one diabetic in every 10 will likely develop kidney disease.

The urine of a person with healthy kidneys does not usually contain protein except during an infection or a urinary tract infection. Once in a while, a healthy person may have a very small amount of protein in the urine called albuminuria, but this should usually clear up after some time.

However, when the capillaries of the kidneys become damaged, they begin to leak and let protein spill out into the urine. So, if a person has protein in his urine for quite some time but has not infection to blame, the doctor may consider the possibility of diabetes.

As more and more of the filtering capillaries are damaged, those which remain have to work harder to keep up. As they work more, they too will become less and less efficient, until at last the person has kidney failure. Kidney failure can cause death, so it is extremely important to try to prevent it.

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