Diabetes is a disease that is very common in modern ages. It is represented by symptoms that can be easily overlooked. With type 2 diabetes, your body either resists the effects of insulin — a hormone that regulates the movement of sugar into your cells — or doesn’t produce enough insulin to maintain a normal glucose level.
More common in adults, type 2 diabetes increasingly affects the kidney. There’s no cure for type 2 diabetes, but you may be able to manage the condition by eating well, exercising, and maintaining a healthy weight. If diet and exercise aren’t enough to manage your blood sugar well, you may consult a doctor for a better cure.
Diabetes followed by hypertension is a leading cause of kidney disease. As the burden of diabetes is growing, so is the incidence of chronic kidney disease. In a person with longstanding diabetes, there begins changes in the kidneys which when continuing unabated lead to irreversible or chronic kidney disease.
As your kidneys fail, your blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels will rise as well as the level of creatinine in your blood. You may also experience nausea, vomiting, a loss of appetite, weakness, increasing fatigue, itching, muscle cramps (especially in your legs), and anemia (a low blood count). You may find you need less insulin. This is because diseased kidneys cause less breakdown of insulin. If you develop any of these signs, call your doctor.
About 30 percent of patients with Type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes and 10 to 40 percent of those with Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes eventually will suffer from kidney failure.
Prof (Dr) D Mukherjee is an alumnus of the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College, Pune where he did his MBBS & MD (Medicine). Subsequently he went on to do his DM (Nephrology) from PGIMER Chandigarh, which is the foremost training institution for nephrology in India.