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‘Diabetes is behind most kidney failures’

Mumbai: It has been proved beyond doubt by the recently released figures of National Chronic Kidney Disease Registry that diabetes is the most potent cause behind the rising number of kidney diseases in the country.
    But, diabetic nephropathy, in which the leaking kidney structure of a patient passes proteins into the urine, has been found to be the most lethal condition. The registry that has compiled data from about 165 kidney centres across the country spells both good as well as bad news for the western region.
    The data reveals that a whopping 31.2% of chronic kidney patients there have been pushed to the end stage due to diabetic nephropathy.
    But there is some good news for the western region as well. A diagnosis of 45,885 chronic kidney disease patients being treated in these 165 centres has revealed that the western zone, including Mumbai, comes at the bottom of the list compared to the rest of the country when it comes to prevalence of diabetic nephropathy.
    At the same time, there are also indications that the diabetic population in the western region, again including Mumbai, is rapidly
rising. “In the western region, the rise has been from 1.5% in 1963 to more than 9.3% now,’’ said Dr Vidya Acharya, vice-president (medical), National Kidney Foundation, India.
    According to the registry, almost 30%-40% of all diabetics have been found to have developed chronic kidney disease.
    However, not all diabetics may develop diabetic nephropathy. The prevalence of diabetic nephropathy, the study found, was 33.7% in the east, 33.9% in the south, 30.5% in the north and 27.8% in the west. “Detection of diabetic kidney diseases at the earliest is the best preventive step,’’ said Acharya.
    The registry has found that migration could be one of the many important reasons why diabetics prevalence has shot up in the western region. Besides, genetic factors, growing insulin resistance and inadequate physical activity have also been some of the other causes.
    Nephrologist Dr Bharat Shah said with dialysis facilities scarce in villages and the cost factor adding to it, prevention was the best option. “The government must include a chapter on prevention of kidney diseases in school syllabus so that people may change their lifestyle and food habits early on,” he said.
Scary Predictions
International Diabetes Federation has predicted the number of diabetics will increase from 240 million in 2007 to 380 million in 2025
More than 60% of total diabetic patients will be from Asia
India is estimated to have 40.9 million diabetics in 2010 and that will rise to 69.9 million by 2025