Saurabh Paukhariyal
Healthy kidneys in a human body are responsible for filtering of excess fluid and waste from blood. But conditions of diabetes and high blood pressure can affect functioning of kidneys, and cause loss of function over time. This medical condition is referred to as Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD).
If left unchecked, the disease can progress further and may eventually lead to kidney failure. In such events when the functioning of the kidney is compromised, processing of waste gets affected. This leads to the conditions where the patients require extrinsic support to facilitate cleansing of the blood via a recurring therapy termed as dialysis. This makes it evident that kidneys are critical body parts. The wellbeing of the people is incumbent upon maintaining healthy kidneys.
The interplay of diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney diseases is at times hard for people to understand. This interplay is a vicious cycle. Diabetes and high blood pressure are both to a large extent lifestyle diseases and directly cause kidney malfunction. This in a time span causes progressive worsening of kidney disease.
Yet, it must be understood that this vicious circle doesn’t take shape in a human body overnight, and rather the process is slow and mostly taking place without the understanding of the patients. It is a slow-paced deterioration, which may go undetected for a long time as the disease manifests itself at quite an advanced stage for most individuals, making it difficult to treat the disease.
The symptoms of CKD include loss of weight, poor appetite, fatigue, swollen ankles, hands and feet, blood in urine, insomnia, itchy skin, muscle cramps, and headache.
Accounting for 17 per cent of the total global diabetic burden, India is referred to as the ‘diabetic capital of the world’. The country has around 80 million diabetic people and the number is likely to increase to 135 million in the next 25 years.
High blood pressure is also not far behind, which has been ranked the third-highest health risk factor in Asia. In India, about 33 per cent of the urban population and 25 per cent of those in the rural areas are said to be suffering from the conditions of high blood pressure.
Additionally, the burden of such non-communicable diseases has been rising in India. This is evident from a growing incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes and the resultant kidney diseases due to their interplay. According to a report, more than three per cent of the total deaths in India between the age group of 15-69 occur every year due to renal failure or kidney diseases. In addition, around 1.5 lakh new cases of kidney failure are reported in India each year and a lot of them succumb to the disease either due to the lack of awareness or due to the shortage of dialysis units. This rate is only going to further increase with the increasing number of patients suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure.
If detected timely, the progression of kidney disease can be slowed down. Symptoms of the disease can be managed through medications and regular consultations with a nephrologist.
Yet, most important is to make lifestyle changes, including maintaining an optimum weight, exercising, meditating, consuming less salt and alcohol, and quitting smoking. This is indeed key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It must be noted that regular exercise is advised to stay away from most of the ailments.
For the diabetic, monitoring blood glucose level regularly and controlling it with medicines as well as following a diet chart recommended by a nutritionist is essential.
(The author is Co-founder,
VitusCare Dialysis Centres)
