Are you worried about your Proteinuria?
Your kidneys are responsible for filtering waste products out of the blood, unfortunately there’s a wide variety of diseases and conditions that allow some things, like protein, to be filtered out in error leading to high levels in your test results. Conditions that may indicate kidney failure include heart failure, amyloidosis, endocarditis, lupus, malaria among others.
A possible explanation for urine in the blood is diabetes mellitus, usually a lifelong condition that affects your blood sugar levels. While it is possible to get a temporary form of diabetes while pregnant called gestational diabetes most people who have it will fit in to two main types, type 1 or type2, both characterised by an abnormally high blood sugar level caused by the body’s inability to produce enough insulin, producing ineffective insulin or even no insulin at all. If untreated or mismanaged diabetes can cause serious damage to your heart, eyes, feet, or kidneys. So, if you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, looking after yourself should be your number one priority. We’ve listed some helpful advice below that you can follow at home to help you maintain your health.
- Maintain a healthy and balanced diet but limit the level of salt, fat, or sugar in your diet
- Remain active, exercising regularly
- Don’t skip meals
- If you are overweight, losing weight can help your body control it’s blood sugar levels
- Monitor your blood sugar levels
- Ensure you have a urine test every two years to monitor protein levels in your urine and help prevent kidney disease
A high level of protein in the urine is usually found following a urine test. If you have recently had a urine test that reveals a high level of protein in your urine your doctor may need to do further urine tests in the next few days to determine if it was a temporary spike in your protein levels or a more chronic problem that warrants further investigation. If you have previously been diagnosed with diabetes you may also need to take a urine test every two years to monitor the level of protein in your urine as this is an early indicator of diabetic kidney damage, a common problem with poorly managed diabetes.
Here at VIDA we have expert clinicians on hand to help diagnose and treat your condition. To find out more about these services, we recommend visiting the following pages:
- Amyloidosis
- Certain drugs
- Chronic kidney disease
- Diabetes
- Emotional stress
- Endocarditis
- Exposure to extreme cold
- Fever
- Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS)
- Heart disease
- Heart failure
- High blood pressure (hypertension)
- Hodgkin's lymphoma (Hodgkin's disease)
- IgA nephropathy (Berger's disease)
- Kidney infection (pyelonephritis)
- Lupus
- Malaria
- Multiple myeloma
- Orthostatic proteinuria
- Preeclampsia
- Pregnancy
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Sarcoidosis
- Sickle cell anemia
- Strenuous exercise