Treatment Options for Diabetic Kidney Disorder: Medications and Therapies

Diabetic nephropathy can be life-threatening if not treated on time. Learn the available treatment options for Diabetic Kidney Disorder in this article.

Management of Diabetic Nephropathy

To manage diabetic nephropathy, your healthcare provider will treat and control your diabetes and blood pressure. Treatment includes medicines and lifestyle changes or a combination of both. Managing blood sugar levels or blood pressure may delay or prevent kidney issues and other complications.

Medications

In the initial stages of diabetic nephropathy, these types of medicines may be prescribed to you, including medicines for:

  • Blood pressure: For blood pressure, the doctor may recommend angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin 2 receptor blockers (ARBs) to treat high blood pressure.
  • Blood sugar: To manage high blood sugar levels doctors usually recommend insulin. Several new drugs such as Metformin (Fortamet, Glumetza, others), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, and SGLT2 inhibitors are used instead of insulin for better-managing blood sugar levels. Your doctor may recommend SGLT2 inhibitors or GLP-1 receptor agonists for your treatment because they also protect the heart and kidneys from getting damaged from diabetes.
  • High cholesterol: To manage bad cholesterol, doctors may prescribe cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins to treat high cholesterol and reduce the amount of protein in urine.
  • Kidney scarring: To prevent or reduce tissue scarring due to diabetic nephropathy, the doctor may prescribe Finerenone (Kerendia). Research has shown that this medicine may also lower the risk of kidney failure. Additionally, it also lowers the risk of dying from heart disease, heart attacks, and needing to go to a hospital for treatment for heart failure in adults with chronic kidney disease associated with type 2 diabetes.

If you have taken these medicines, then you’ll need regular follow-up testing to see if your kidney disease is getting better or not.

Late-stage intervention

If your diabetic nephropathy progresses to ESRD (End-Stage Kidney Disease), then a person needs either dialysis or a kidney transplant. Usually, dialysis is needed for the rest of their life until a kidney transplant is available.

Dialysis

Kidney dialysis is a procedure where a machine is used to remove waste materials from your blood and body and send clean blood back to your body. So, in other words, it works as a substitute for kidney.

There are 2 different types of dialysis, including:

  1. Hemodialysis:

In this procedure, blood leaves your body through a needle that is inserted into your forearm and passes through a tube to the dialysis machine. The machine then filters the blood outside the body and the blood returns through another tube and needle.

This procedure needs to be done from 3 to 7 times a week after spending 2 to 10 hours of a session, depending on the option you choose.

  • Peritoneal dialysis:

In this procedure, the lining of the abdomen is used to filter blood inside the body. It is also two types:

  • Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD): In this dialysis, fluid enters the abdomen through a catheter. The fluid stays inside for several hours to filter waste products before draining out. Draining may take 30 to 40 minutes.
  • Continuous Cycler-assisted Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD): In this dialysis, a person spends 8 to 10 hours overnight connected to a dialysis machine while they sleep. The machine manages the drainage of the fluid.

An individual has a choice to choose where he/she/they want to take dialysis. It is available at home or at the dialysis center. Even overnight options are also available in certain places. Flexible options encourage more people to take dialysis with their work or personal schedules.

Kidney transplant

A kidney transplant is recommended when your diabetic nephropathy reaches the final stages and when a suitable donor can give you a kidney. Finding a donor is difficult sometimes.

A person can survive with one working kidney only, so some people offer to donate a kidney, for example, to their loved one. However, the receiver’s body needs to accept the other person’s kidney to make this transplant successful.

A transplant from a family member is usually the best option, because it has the highest chance of being accepted by the recipient’s body. The person with a kidney transplant will need to take medication to decrease the risk of the body rejecting the new kidney which sometimes can increase the risk of an infection.

If you have diabetic nephropathy, then visit our endocrinology clinic in Brooklyn for professional medical help. Call us on +1-347-384-5690 and get answers to all your queries. Log on to  www.doralhw.org or visit us at 1797 Pitkin Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11212 to book an appointment with our endocrinologist to get the best treatment. We have the best endocrinologists who treat these kinds of diseases and helpful staff to aid you during your treatment.