diabetes - Kundan Kidney Care Centre

One of the most undemanding and the most workable ways to knock over blood sugar amount, eliminate the dangers of “cardiovascular disease,” and perk up health and welfare in general is exercise.

In spite of that, in today’s inactive world where almost every indispensable job can be carried out online, from the ergonomic chair in front of a computer, or with a streaming line of messages from a fax machine, exercising can be a hard argument to win over.

The Weight of Exercise

Everyone should exercise, yet the health experts tells us that only 30% of the population gets the recommended thirty minutes of daily physical activity, and 25% are not active at all. In fact, inactivity is thought to be one of the key reasons for the surge of type 2 diabetes., because inactivity and obesity promote insulin resistance.

The good news is that it is never too late to get moving, and exercise is one of the easiest ways to start controlling your diabetes. For people with type 2 diabetes in particular, exercise can improve insulin sensitivity, lower the risk of heart disease, and promote weight loss.

Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes is on the rise. The number of people diagnosed with diabetes every year increased by 48% between 1980 and 1994. Nearly all the new cases are Type 2 Diabetes, or adult-onset, the kind that moves in around middle age. Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes include increased thirst, appetite, and need to urinate; feeling tired, edgy, or sick to the stomach; blurred vision; tingling or loss of feeling in the hands.

The causes of type 2 diabetes are complex and not completely understood, although research is uncovering new clues at a rapid pace.

However, it has already been proven that one of the reasons for the boom in type 2 diabetes is the widening of waistbands and the trend toward a more deskbound and inactive lifestyle in the United States and other developed countries. In America, the shift has been striking; in the 1990s alone, obesity increased by 61% and diagnosed diabetes by 49%.

For this reason, health experts encourage those who already have type 2 diabetes to start employing the wonders that exercise can do for them. Without exercise, people have the tendency to become obese. Once they are obese, they have bigger chances of accumulating type 2 diabetes.

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that over 80% of people with type 2 diabetes are clinically overweight. Therefore, it is high time that people, whether inflicted with type 2 diabetes or not, should start doing those jumping and stretching activities.

Getting Started

The first order of business with any exercise plan, especially if you are a “dyed-in-the-wool” sluggish, is to consult with your health care provider. If you have cardiac risk factors, the health care provider may want to perform a stress test to establish a safe level of exercise for you.

Certain diabetic complications will also dictate what type of exercise program you can take on. Activities like weightlifting, jogging, or high-impact aerobics can possibly pose a risk for people with diabetic retinopathy due to the risk for further blood vessel damage and possible retinal detachment.

If you are already active in sports or work out regularly, it will still benefit you to discuss your regular routine with your doctor. If you are taking insulin, you may need to take special precautions to prevent hypoglycemia during your workout.

Start Slow

For those who have type 2 diabetes, your exercise routine can be as simple as a brisk nightly neighborhood walk. If you have not been very active before now, start slowly and work your way up. Walk the dog or get out in the yard and rake. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park in the back of the lot and walk. Every little bit does work, in fact, it really helps a lot.

As little as 15 to 30 minutes of daily, heart-pumping exercise can make a big difference in your blood glucose control and your risk of developing diabetic complications. One of the easiest and least expensive ways of getting moving is to start a walking program. All you need is a good pair of well-fitting, supportive shoes and a direction to head in.

Indeed, you do not have to waste too many expenses on costly “health club memberships,” or the most up-to-date health device to start pumping those fats out. What you need is the willingness and the determination to start exercising to a healthier, type 2 diabetes-free life.

The results would be the sweetest rewards from the effort that you have exerted.

Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre, Risk Factors

Even With a Kidney Transplant, it’s Still Not Over

KundanKidneyCare May 15, 2015

There are so many reasons we should maintain our health to prevent kidney disease in the first place, or maintain as much health as possible after contracting the disease. But if kidney failure progresses so far that a transplant occurs, most people would expect that the surgery solves everything. With a lower rate of organ rejection than ever before, almost all transplant recipients should finally rest easy that health problems related to diseased kidneys are over. Right?

Unfortunately, that may not be entirely true.
Over time, more than half of all kidney transplant recipients develop endocrinal, or hormonal, problems. These can lead to later health issues such as diabetes, higher cholesterol levels, and even osteoporosis. Kidney patients may feel that it’s just not fair, to be at risk of something like diabetes because of failing kidneys, and then be at risk for the same thing after that problem was supposedly rectified.

The reasons for these risks stem in part from the procedures connected with the transplant itself. Immunosuppressants are given to transplant patients to help the body not reject the new organ. But these suppressants include drugs that can reduce the body’s ability to make insulin. By some accounts, as many as one-quarter of kidney transplant patients develop diabetes some time after their surgery.

Other complications may involve leptin levels. Leptins help to regulate appetite, but researchers have recognized another correlation in which they are involved. In transplant patients, when leptin levels are high, bone production appears to be reduced, meaning the possible development of osteoporosis.

Transplantation can save lives, but it’s not the ideal solution to kidney disease. The real solution should be for people to be in excellent health before any disease can develop. And if it does occur, they need to try to heal the kidneys and maintain the best health possible in the meantime.

(Further reading: The Times of India, January 6, 2011; RxPG News, December 27, 2010)

Kidney Diet, Kidney Disease, Kundan Kidney Care Centre

Lowering Salt Will Always Help Your Kidneys

KundanKidneyCare May 3, 2015

The idea seems straightforward when you think of high blood pressure: if you lower your salt intake, you will help to lower the blood pressure, or at least prevent it from getting worse. But the systems in our bodies don’t operate in isolation, and the good you do for one of them is bound to have positive effects in others. This was demonstrated yet again by a review conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration Renal Group.

This group reviewed thirteen studies relating to salt intake in diabetic patients. What they found was not entirely surprising, but the implications of their conclusions are widespread. First of all, they confirmed once again the connection of high salt intake and blood pressure issues. So clearly, diabetics would do well to reduce salt levels in their diet for that reason alone, because this reduction lowers the risk of strokes, heart attacks, and heart failure.

But the evidence gathered in the same studies also reinforces the understanding that high blood pressure is just as hard on the kidneys as on the heart. The studies also suggested that even for people whose blood pressure hasn’t yet inched into the “high” range, lowering salt intake will still have a positive effect on heart and kidney health.

This isn’t necessarily a rule condemning people to a life of tasteless food, however. Removing salt from one’s diet provides the opportunity to discover the natural, intrinsic tastes of food, and to combine these tastes into something that as delicious without needing a salty boost. While easing the blood pressure and helping the heart and kidneys, the lessening of salt might open up a whole new culinary world.

(View the Cochrane Renal Group Summary: Suckling RJ, He FJ, MacGregor GA. Altered dietary salt intake for preventing and treating diabetic kidney disease. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 12. Art. No.: CD006763. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006763.pub2)

(Further reading: PulseToday, December 9, 2010; Nursing Times, December 10, 2010)

Kidney Disease

Diabetes as a Cause of Kidney Disease

KundanKidneyCare April 27, 2015

There are different types of kidney disease, and different ways that the kidneys can begin to fail. In some cases, the cause of disease in someone’s kidneys stems from genetic factors that are out of the control of the sufferer. But the vast majority of causes are things that a person has some control over.

One of the well-known conditions that can lead to kidney disease is diabetes, but not everyone understands how a diabetic condition might eventually produce problems with the kidneys. As blood flows to the kidneys, impurities are filtered out while the healthy, more useful material, such as protein or blood cells, continue through the blood stream. But as sugar levels in the blood increase, the kidneys find themselves filtering more and more material.

What eventually occurs is that protein cells, too, begin to “leak” into the kidneys and get discarded in the urine. This happens because as the kidneys find themselves working much harder to filter the blood properly, eventually they start wearing out, and will become permanently damaged if the process is not somehow reversed. In the early period, this condition is called microalbuminuria, and it’s at this stage — when extra protein starts showing up in the urine, indicating a problem — at which the process may be stopped. If it progresses to macroalbuminuria, a high level of protein, the kidneys are damaged enough that complete failure is the most likely result.

Regular testing of protein levels in the urine can help a diabetic guard against the development of this problem. But the best way to try to prevent kidney disease in diabetics is to keep the blood sugar levels carefully controlled, and to control blood pressure as much as possible. Diabetes may be a condition that is inevitable for some people, if their bodies are unable to produce enough insulin. But kidney disease as a result of diabetes doesn’t have to be equally inevitable.

(For more detailed information, check the American Diabetes Association.)

Kidney Disease

Diabetes Drug and Polycystic Kidney Disease

KundanKidneyCare April 9, 2015

It’s well known that there’s a relationship between kidney disease and diabetes, but usually that connection is thought of as a causal one. That is, people with diabetes are at higher risk of developing kidney disease, because high glucose levels and high blood pressure can damage the kidneys. But now researchers from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, along with fellow researchers from the Mayo Clinic, have uncovered a connection between the two that’s a bit more positive.

Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) is somewhat different from other types of kidney disease in that it is caused by genetic factors. These lead to the growth of cysts in the kidneys, gradually reducing kidney function. But the researchers have now discovered that pioglitazone, a substance that treats diabetes by making the body more sensitive to insulin, does other things as well. One of those is to inhibit what is called a “chloride channel.”

This made the researchers sit up and take notice, since excessive chloride and water, which helps kidney cysts expand and multiply, is a characteristic of PKD. Pioglitazone is already approved for use for other conditions, and has a “good safety profile,” according to researcher Bonnie L. Blazer-Yost. This drug may be just what is needed to treat PKD and stop cyst progression, because at the moment, there are few other options for treating PDK.

Blazer-Yost and her other colleagues have published their paper in the online medical journal, PPAR Research. They hope that human trials for the use of this drug on PKD can be conducted in the not-too-distant future. It could mean real hope for effective treatment for many who have no other realistic hope at the moment.

(Further reading: Medical News Today, November 15, 2010)

Kidney Disease, Risk Factors

Decrease in Diabetes-related Dialysis: Good News? Not so Fast.

KundanKidneyCare March 8, 2015

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has just released a report on the rates of End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) in persons diagnosed with diabetes. ESRD is the stage of kidney failure where the only possible treatment is either dialysis or a transplant, and according to this report, the rates of ESRD among diabetics wentdown thirty-five percent between 1996 and 2007. That’s good news — sort of. But unfortunately, there’s more to the story than that apparent decline.

The problem is that the number of people with ESRD actually went up over that period. In 1996, a total of 32,716 began ESRD treatments, while in 2007, that number had risen to 48,712. The only reason the total percentages were lower is that the number of patients diagnosed with diabetes skyrocketed even more over that decade. So while it’s a good thing that a lower percentage of diabetics are ending up with ESRD — at the moment, anyway — there are still more people with drastic kidney failure than there used to be.

This means that nobody should pat themselves on the back. Steps still need to be taken to reduce and ultimately prevent the incidence of diabetes, and there is still a clear connection between diabetes and kidney disease. The writers of the CDC report speculate that the lower percentage of diabetic ESRD sufferers may be due to better treatments for kidney problems, or some extra attention to risk factors.

But the CDC report points out that the primary risk factors still need considerable attention. The report writers provide a disturbing list:

In addition to diabetes and hypertension, risk factors for kidney disease include cardiovascular disease, obesity, elevated cholesterol, increasing age, and a family history of kidney disease.

While it’s good news that a slightly lower percentage of diabetics are ending up with ESRD, the underlying causes are still there, and still need urgent attention.

(Further Reading: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; MedPage Today;Bloomburg Businessweek – HealthDay)

Kidney Disease

Tell tale signs of kidney disease

KundanKidneyCare January 18, 2015

The symptoms for early stage of kidney disease are so faint that often it takes years to discover that someone may have kidney disease.

The purpose of this article is to empower you with knowledge so that at the end of this reading you are equipped to understand the symptoms of kidney failure or kidney disease. Please keep in mind, many of these symptoms can be caused by something other than kidney disease, so the only way to confirm is to have regular checkups and see your doctor.

1. Urine:Usually urine is a prime indicator for a lot of things happening in your body. Its color, frequency and quantity can deliver a lot of information. Since kidneys make urine, this could be the prime indicator to determine the health of your kidneys.

Some of the things that may point to a potential problem are: foamy or bubbly urine, increase in frequency and quantity, pale urine, dark colored urine, blood in the urine and difficulty urinating.

2. Swelling: Kidneys make urine, and extra fluid is disposed from the body through it.If there is a kidney problem, fluid will start to build up in the body, and that will lead to swelling in the ankles, feet, face and hands.

3. Skin Rash/Itching:Kidneys remove waste from the bloodstream. When kidneys fail, the buildup of waste in your blood can cause severe itching.

4. Nausea and Vomiting:A severe buildup of waste in the blood (uremia) can also cause nausea and vomiting. Loss of appetite can lead to weight loss.

5. Shortness of Breath:Trouble catching your breath can be related to kidneys in two ways. First, extra fluid in the body can build up in the lungs. And second, anemia (a shortage of oxygen-carrying red blood cells) can leave your body oxygen-starved and you short of breath.

Other symptoms may include tiredness, metallic taste in the mouth, pain in the side and trouble concentrating.

Here is a chart indicating the stages of kidney disease:

Stage	Description	GFR
1	Slight kidney damage with normal or increased filtration	More than 90
2	Mild decrease in kidney function	60-89
3	Moderate decrease in kidney function	30-59
4	Severe decrease in kidney function	15-29
5	Kidney failure requiring dialysis or transplantation	Less than 15

What to do once you realize you have kidney disease?

Understand your lab tests: Once your doctor suspects that you have kidney disease, he/she is going to request some lab tests including blood and urine. Make an effort to understand the readings and what the consequences are if the readings get out of range. Get involved in your own care. Be proactive and know what is going on with your body.

Diabetes and Hypertension: The two main causes for kidney disease are diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure). Take charge and monitor these two conditions very closely. If these are ignored, things may get out of control sooner than you think. Diabetes will also start to impact your eyesight. Speak with your doctor and learn how both diabetes and hypertension can be kept under control.

Protein: Kidneys that are already compromised will need to work overtime to digest high protein food. Start a low protein diet.

Smoking: If you are a smoker suffering from diabetes and start to have kidney issues, stop smoking immediately. Smoking will cause irreparable damage and will cause the kidney disease to grow much faster.

Medication: Do not take any medication without consulting your doctor, especially pain killers.

Anemia: Anemia is a pretty common side effect of kidney disease. Consult your doctor to address this issue.

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Tag Archives: diabetes

Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes

Even With a Kidney Transplant, it’s Still Not Over

Lowering Salt Will Always Help Your Kidneys

Diabetes as a Cause of Kidney Disease

Diabetes Drug and Polycystic Kidney Disease

Decrease in Diabetes-related Dialysis: Good News? Not so Fast.

Tell tale signs of kidney disease