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We all know that people with diabetes are one of the main causes of chronic kidney disease. But if you have kidney disease, is there any possibility of getting affected by diabetes? Does kidney disease increase blood sugar? There are several tests conducted about this topic, and the results are quite shocking. Research conducted at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM) revealed a shocking result that people with kidney disease developed some symptoms of diabetes. Now let’s go from the basic information about kidney disease and diabetes and how kidney disease increases blood sugar?
The kidneys are a pair of bean-shaped internal organs responsible for removing waste products from the body. When the kidneys’ can’t remove the waste from the blood efficiently, that condition is called kidney disease. There are several causes and types of kidney diseases. Kidney diseases are classified into two major types.
There are several causes for acute kidney diseases that can be developed within several days, and they can be fatal. AKD can be reversed in several situations.
Several other conditions cause chronic kidney diseases; unfortunately, there is no cure for CKD. It can be caused by diabetes, blood pressure, heart disease, unhealthy food consumption for a long time, and genetic reasons. CKD patients can extend their lifespan using proper medication, diet, yoga, physical activity, dialysis, and kidney transplant. But the damaged part cannot be healed or recovered. But that doesn’t mean you can’t lead a happy life. If you have chronic kidney disease, you should read these books. They can change your view about living with chronic disease.
While having diabetes, without having enough insulin, your blood sugar level starts to increase. Your kidney starts to struggle to remove the excess sugar from your blood, increasing your kidney’s workload. That leads to kidney damage and kidney failure in people with diabetes.
Hypertension (High blood pressure) creates high pressured blood flow inside the kidneys’ blood vessels, which eventually causes kidney damage. If that happens for a long time, that will end up in chronic kidney diseases.
There were some chronic kidney diseases passed down genetically within the genes. The abnormal genes that carry these diseases are passed down to the next generation that causes these diseases. For example, Polycystic Kidney Disease is a genetic disease that causes cysts on the kidneys. Those cysts affect kidney functions and become fatal.
We all know that kidney disease affects kidney function and causes an accumulation of toxins in the blood. Kidney Patients need to undergo dialysis or kidney transplant to excrete those toxins from blood vessels.
CRCHUM director Dr. Vincent Poitout reported that “We identified molecular mechanisms that may be responsible for the increase in blood glucose levels in patients with non-diabetic kidney disease. Our observations in mice samples and in human samples show that the disease can cause secondary diabetes,” from his research. He explained that chronic kidney patients without diabetes start to develop secondary diabetes because of a specific toxin in the bloodstream.
Nephrologist Dr. Laetitia Koppe who worked on the same research with Dr. Poitout reported in a journal that,
“About half of those patients affected by chronic kidney disease (CKD) have an abnormal blood sugar level. I wondered why. We conducted experiments in mice and found that impaired insulin secretion from pancreatic beta cells, as observed in diabetes. We observed the same abnormalities in samples of pancreatic cells from patients with chronic kidney disease”
As a result of the research she has done. She found the impaired insulin secretion problem in mice with diabetes; also, mice with chronic kidney disease have the same problem. Usually, people with diabetes develop chronic kidney diseases. But that research confirms that patients with kidney disease also have the risk of affected by diabetes lately.
Read also, 14 Foods to Avoid with Kidney Disease and Diabetes
The toxin that causes the problem of diabetes in kidney disease patients is urea, a nitrogenous waste product. Usually, kidneys filter them from the bloodstream: but while kidneys can’t do that properly, that leads to accumulation of urea. She said that as,
“In chronic renal failure patients, the kidneys aren’t able to eliminate toxins. Urea is part of the wastes that accumulate in the blood of patients. In nephrology studies, urea is presented as a harmless product from the body. This study demonstrates the opposite that urea is the one directly responsible for impaired insulin secretion in chronic kidney disease.”
Urea alters a protein called phosphofructokinase inside the pancreatic beta cells. Because of that, impaired insulin secretion is acquired in these cells. That leads to oxidative stress and imbalance in blood glucose level, which leads to diabetes. She explained that clearly as,
“The function of that protein is altered by the increment in blood urea, which occurs in chronic kidney disease. Increased urea causes impaired insulin secretion from these pancreatic beta cells. This creates oxidative stress and excessive glycosylation of phosphofructokinase 1, which causes an imbalance of blood glucose and may progress to diabetes.”
As she said, this research is only conducted on mice, so it needs to be done in humans.
From her journal, this condition can be cured with medical therapies. With a medical professional’s advice taking antioxidants can help to reduce increased blood sugar levels with chronic kidney disease. Also, diet, medication, and physical activities with expert advice will help to prevent diabetes.
We know that type 2 diabetes causes diabetic kidney disease, but chronic kidney diseases are not the only thing we need to take off if we have them for a long time. Without having diabetic kidney disease, people have higher chances for the development of diabetes. So take care of your health, don’t forget to diagnose for diabetes and blood pressure if you already have kidney disease. It’s better if you prevent them early before those diseases start to spoil our health. Hope you find the answer to your question, “does kidney disease increase blood sugar?”
Read also, Symptoms of Stage 3 Chronic Kidney Disease.
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