Diabetes and high blood pressure are the most common causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Your health care provider will look at your health history and may do tests to find out why you have kidney disease. The cause of your kidney disease may affect the type of treatment you receive.
Diabetes
Too much glucose, also called sugar, in your blood damages your kidneys’ filters. Over time, your kidneys can become so damaged that they no longer do a good job filtering wastes and extra fluid from your blood.
Often, the first sign of kidney disease from diabetes is protein in your urine.
When the filters are damaged, a protein called albumin, which you need to stay healthy, passes out of your blood and into your urine. A healthy kidney doesn’t let albumin pass from the blood into the urine.
Diabetic kidney disease is the medical term for kidney disease caused by diabetes.
High blood pressure
High blood pressure can damage blood vessels in the kidneys so they don’t work as well.
If the blood vessels in your kidneys are damaged, your kidneys may not work as well to remove wastes and extra fluid from your body.
Extra fluid in the blood vessels may then raise blood pressure even more, creating a dangerous cycle.
High blood pressure can damage blood vessels in your kidneys.
Other causes of kidney disease
Other causes of kidney disease include
A genetic disorder that causes many cysts to grow in the kidneys, polycystic kidney disease (PKD).
An infection
A drug that is toxic to the kidneys
A disease that affects the entire body, such as diabetes or lupus NIH external link. Lupus nephritis is the medical name for kidney disease caused by lupus
IgA glomerulonephritis
Disorders in which the body’s immune system attacks its own cells and organs, such as Anti-GBM (Goodpasture’s) disease
Heavy metal poisoning, such as lead poisoning NIH external link
Rare genetic conditions, such as Alport syndrome NIH external link
Hemolytic uremic syndrome in children
IgA vasculitis
Renal artery stenosis
Sign up for our newsletter for more information about this topic.
If you care about kidney health, please read studies about how to protect your kidneys from diabetes, and sunlight may increase your risks of kidney damage, autoimmune diseases.
For more information about kidney diseases, please see recent studies about common eating habits that could harm your kidney health, and results showing this common diabetes drug may reduce chronic kidney disease.
