What goes wrong in the body?

In our first blog post, we touched a little bit on what causes diabetic nephropathy, but today we’ll go into more detail and answer the question: “What goes wrong in the body that causes diabetic nephropathy? You know, as they say, prevention is the best medicine. So, if we know what causes it, hopefully we can better prevent it.

Remember diabetic nephropathy is a complication of diabetes that causes kidney damage or kidney disease. Diabetes significantly impacts the function of our kidneys (a very important organs in the body)! As previously discussed, the kidney contains million of small blood vessels that filter waste from the blood. The blood flows through vessels in the kidney and small molecules in the blood (some are waste products) squeeze through the holes acting a filter. These waste products then become part of the urine.

High sugar levels in the blood related to diabetes damages the structures that filter waste from the blood. These structures thicken and scar which decreases their ability to filter waste and remove fluid from the body. Due to the damange, waste products that would normally be eliminated via urine begin to build up in the blood. As the damage accumulates, an important protein called albumin is leaked in the urine.

So back to our original question: What goes wrong in the body that causes diabetic nephropathy? The answer is that when our blood sugar levels are too high for too long, the kidney gets damaged and loses its ability to filter our blood efficiently. So prevention is the best medicine, now what? The most important thing a person with diabetes can do is keep his blood sugar in his target range.

If you’re interested in learning more, please check out this link for a great explanation. 

Gross, J.L., Azevedo, Silveiro, Canani, Caramori, Zelmanovitz. (January 2005). Diabetic Nephropathy: Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment. Diabetes Care, 28 (1) doi:10.2337/diacare.28.1.164