What is diabetic nephropathy and what symptoms does it produce?

Unlike what is often thought, the reality is that diabetes is a serious disease, that although it does not tend to cause death (especially as a direct cause in itself), it does tend to cause the appearance of certain complications that can finally derive in it.

In any case, the truth is that the diabetes is a chronic disease that in case of not being controlled can lead to serious consequences and serious health problems. For this reason, more and more medical specialists consider it as a serious illness, which when treated properly does not have to give problems.

Explained briefly and simply, we could define diabetes as a disease that appears when our pancreas is not able to produce insulin normally, or when it produces it but our body can not make good use of it.

The insulin It is a tremendously important hormone, since it acts as if it were a key, so that the glucose from the different foods we consume pass from the blood to the cells, to produce energy. But when our body is not able to use it or produce it, our blood glucose levels increase (which is medically known as hyperglycemia).

Returning again to the case that concerns us, and particularly to the different complications that diabetes could produce, among the most common and frequent we find the following:

Heart disease: such as coronary heart disease, heart attack, heart failure and diabetic cardiomyopathy.
Decreased vision and blindness: since the increase in blood glucose, and its maintenance over time, causes damage to the eyes (particularly in the retina).
Stroke: It occurs when blood flow stops to part of the brain, causing damage to brain tissue.

Another serious consequence that diabetes produces over the years is known as diabetic nephropathy, which translates into something very simple: alterations and damage to the kidney caused by the increase in blood glucose, and its maintenance over time.

What is diabetic nephropathy?

The diabetic nephropathy, also known by the names of diabetic glomerulosclerosis or Kimmelstiel-Wilson disease, consists of a kidney disease or damage that occurs in people who have diabetes. That is, when the control of blood glucose (as well as other associated factors) has not been adequate it is common that alterations occur in the kidney.

In fact, kidney disease is extremely common in people with diabetes, so that among the main causes of kidney failure diabetes is one of the most common, accounting for about 44% of cases. It is part of the chronic complications associated with diabetes.

There are different factors that favor kidney damage in people with diabetes. For example, the time of evolution of diabetes, in such a way that the more time that has passed since its diagnosis, the damage to the kidneys is greater. It is common for nephropathy to appear in half of diabetics 20 years after the onset of the disease.

The presence of hypertension is considered one of the most common risk factors.

Other factors also influence, such as the presence of excess weight (overweight and obesity) and hyperlipoproteinemia.

Does it produce symptoms?

Unfortunately, when diabetic nephropathy begins it does not produce symptoms, which makes its diagnosis extremely difficult until a few years have elapsed, when the damage and the kidney disorder have already advanced a lot.

For this reason, it is very important that diabetic people perform periodic blood and urine tests (at least once a year) in order to know the state of the kidneys and detect early loss of protein in inappropriate urine. This article is published for informational purposes only. It can not and should not replace the consultation with a Physician. We advise you to consult your Trusted Doctor. ThemesDiabetes Kidneys