Kidney Health
Reviewed by CDE Mehandi Sharma · Updated
Your kidneys filter waste from your blood through millions of tiny blood vessels. High blood sugar damages those vessels over time, and high blood pressure accelerates it.
Kidney disease produces no symptoms until a great deal of function has been lost. This is why the yearly test matters so much — it is the only way to find it while it can still be slowed.
Two tests together give the picture:
- A urine test for albumin, a protein that leaks into urine when the filters are damaged. It is usually reported as a ratio against creatinine, from a single sample.
- A blood creatinine test, used to calculate eGFR — an estimate of how well your kidneys are filtering.
One raised albumin result does not confirm kidney disease. Infection, fever, heavy exercise or a very high blood sugar reading can all raise it temporarily, so an abnormal result is repeated before conclusions are drawn.
What protects your kidneys, in rough order of impact: blood pressure control, blood sugar control, and specific medicines — ACE inhibitors and ARBs — that protect the kidneys directly and are often started when albumin appears in urine. Some newer diabetes medicines also have kidney benefits.
Two everyday cautions matter in India. Painkillers of the ibuprofen and diclofenac family are hard on kidneys when used regularly, and are widely available without prescription. And any herbal or unlabelled remedy taken alongside your treatment should be mentioned to your doctor, because some are toxic to kidneys.