More than 34 million Americans have diabetes, the leading cause of kidney disease. Learn more about diabetes and your kidneys.
Diabetes
What is Diabetes?
Diabetes is a condition in which your body has trouble controlling the level of sugar (glucose) in your blood. Insulin is a hormone that regulates the amount of sugar in your blood. With diabetes, your body either does not make enough insulin or cannot use the insulin your body produces effectively.
Risk & Diagnosis
Diabetes injures small blood vessels in the body. When this happens, your kidneys cannot clean your blood properly.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends screening for prediabetes and referring to diabetes prevention programs, in addition to screening for undiagnosed diabetes.
Even if you did not have diabetes before, you may develop diabetes after an organ transplant. This type of diabetes is called "new-onset diabetes" after transplant, or "NODAT" for short.
Diabetes & kidney disease
Diabetic kidney disease is a decrease in kidney function that occurs in some people who have diabetes.
Good management of blood sugar and other self-care efforts can help slow or stop damange to your kidneys from diabetes.
Over time, having high blood sugar can cause damage to your eyes, nervese, heart, blood vessels, and kidneys.
A high level of sugar in your blood can cause problems in many parts of your body. Over time, this can lead to kidney disease.
When kidney failure happens, you need treatment to replace the work of your failed kidneys.
Diabetes requires daily self-management. At times, this can be challenging. But the benefits are very real.
