Diabetic Nephropathy is kidney disease caused by diabetes.


What Is Diabetic Nephropathy?


You must’ve heard endless times that high sugar blood puts you at risk of so many health issues, which one of them is kidney disease (Nephropathy).

Chronic high blood and high glucose levels cause harm to the inner lining of the blood vessels. The smallest of the blood vessels are known as capillaries, capillary damage results in leakage of protein into the urinary system, that alone is a sign of kidney damage. 


Diabetic kidney disease definition


The high blood sugar is very poisonous to the internal organs, more especially the blood vessels, and with the blood damaged, a doorway of illnesses has opened , due to the control mechanisms being defective.

The kidneys need oxygenated blood to function well at cleaning the system, that is the main role of kidney function. When the blood has high sugar levels, for the kidneys; that will contradict everything that kidney function does because the blood itself, the main thing that is needed to cleanse the system has too much unbalanced sugar levels.

Diabetic kidney disease affects 1/3 of people with Type 1 diabetes and 1/2 of people with Type 2 diabetes.



What are the signs of Diabetic nephropathy?




  1. Headaches
  2. Fatigue
  3. Loss of appetite
  4. Decreased mental ability
  5. Nocturia
  6. Feeling cold even its warm
  7. Weak trembling knees


What habits causes nephropathy?

  • Not managing blood sugar levels well 
  • An insulin deficiency due to diabetes
  • High blood pressure 
  • Not treating your diabetes 
  • Consuming too much fast-digestive carbohydrates
  • Not eating at the right time (skipping breakfast)
  • Lack of exercise
  • Consuming too much medication
  • Other causes of kidney disease 

5 Stages of Nephropathy


What are the stages of Nephropathy

Stage 1: Kidney damage present but normal kidney function and a GFR of 90% or above.

Stage 2: Kidney damage with some loss of function and a GFR of 60–89%.

Stage 3: Mild to severe loss of function and a GFR of 30–59%.

Stage 4: Severe loss of function and GFR of 15–29%.

Stage 5: Kidney failure and a GFR of under 15%.



Managing Diabetic Nephropathy includes:

  • Blood pressure control- It's recommended that high blood pressure gets lowered as it leads to more kidney dysfunction.
  • Glycemic control- Controlled intake of carbohydrates
  • Lifestyle modification- A change of diet, style of cooking, controlling one's emotions and regularly exercising
  • Lipid lowering through food- Eating Low fat foods
A disease like Nephropathy is most likely to rock up if the diabetes is not well managed.  Make sure to check our posts about managing diabetes and improving your glucose levels.
If you liked this post make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and receive weekly updates about diabetes and kidney related posts.