Diabetes — or uncontrolled high blood sugar — is the most common cause of kidney disease in the United States and around the world. As average weight increases and activity levels decline, diabetes continues to reach epidemic proportions.
Who Is at Risk?
Risk of diabetes increases with weight gain, inactivity, age, and high blood pressure. Certain races and ethnic groups are more susceptible. Genetics and family history of diabetes play an important role as well.
Types of Diabetes
Type 1 Diabetes
Approximately five to ten percent of people diagnosed with diabetes have type 1 diabetes, which most often occurs in young adults and children. In type 1 diabetes, the body stops producing insulin, requiring daily insulin injections or an insulin pump. Type 1 diabetes is more likely to lead to kidney failure — 20 to 40 percent of people with type 1 diabetes develop kidney failure by age 50, and some before age 30.
Type 2 Diabetes
About 90 to 95 percent of people diagnosed with diabetes have type 2 diabetes, which generally occurs in people age 40 and older but can occur at any age. With worsening childhood obesity and poor lifestyle habits, type 2 diabetes is beginning to occur at earlier ages.
Diabetic Kidney Disease
The earliest signs of kidney damage from diabetes are usually protein or albumin in the urine. Even though diabetic kidney disease takes many years to develop, early signs of kidney damage can be detected. Significant kidney damage rarely occurs in the first ten years of diabetes, but most type 2 diabetes can go undetected for many years before diagnosis. Proper control of diabetes affects progression of kidney disease. Most type 2 diabetics can have hypertension, which accelerates the kidney-damaging process.