How does a high blood glucose damage the kidneys?
admin | Feb 12, 2011 | Comments 0
We don’t know all of the ways that high blood glucose levels can damage the kidneys. The kidneys are one of the main filtering systems in your body. They work to filter chemicals out of your blood so that you retain the correct amounts of water, electrolytes, protein, and other important substances. High levels of glucose seem to “gum up” this filtering system. In the first few years of someone having diabetes, the kidneys can actually increase in size slightly and seem to be able to filter even better than a non-diabetic person’s kidney. The kidney contains lots of little filtering units (called nephrons). Over time the filtering membrane of these nephrons gets thickened and leaky. They begin to allow small amounts of protein to leak out into the urine. A strange protein called amyloid gets deposited in the nephrons. They become scarred. Eventually, the kidneys stop being able to get rid of important chemicals from the body. A substance called creatinine starts to build up in your blood. The blood pressure starts to rise. Eventually, the kidneys start to fail so that the person needs kidney dialysis or a kidney transplant in order to stay healthy.
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