Blood Pressure and Diabetes

Under the term diabetes mellitus, medicine groups together a set of metabolic diseases that share one characteristic: elevated blood sugar levels or detectable sugar in the urine. In many cases, impaired or absent insulin production can be the cause of elevated blood sugar levels. A typical case is the type 1 diabetic, whose insulin-producing cells in the pancreas have been destroyed by autoimmune reactions. In contrast, type 2 diabetics can (at least at the beginning of the disease) still show sufficient insulin production. However, for various reasons, the biological activity of insulin is limited. As a result, the pancreas produces more insulin to compensate for the deficiency, and due to this overload, it eventually loses its ability to produce insulin. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. It is often accompanied by overweight.

Sweet Damages

Long-term elevated blood sugar levels have a fundamentally negative effect on a number of organs. Glucose has a tendency to bind to tissue proteins at elevated concentrations (glycation or glucation). This can happen, for example, on the retina of the eye, which can lead to blindness in the final stage. Nerve pathways can also be affected, which is why diabetics in advanced stages often have reduced sensation in their feet and hands. In conjunction with elevated insulin levels, high blood sugar content destroys the inner lining of arterial blood vessels, thereby causing hardening of the arteries - arteriosclerosis. For the heart and its coronary vessels, this means an increased risk of infarction. Wounds on the feet and legs heal poorly or not at all (risk of open leg).

Kidneys, Blood Pressure, and Diabetes

A particularly affected organ by diabetes is the kidney, whose task is to filter the blood. In diabetes, glycation of kidney tissue occurs - especially of the filtration apparatus (the glomeruli), which sustainably impairs kidney function. But the kidney does not only have cleaning tasks to perform. It is significantly involved in blood pressure regulation. If diabetes-related damage occurs in the kidney, which usually impairs filtration performance, the kidney interprets this as a necessity to increase the blood pressure to achieve improved kidney perfusion and thus an improved filtration rate. This lays the first cornerstone for high blood pressure. If this condition remains untreated, increased glycation occurs, and due to the damage, blood pressure further increases. However, even without diabetes, hypertension can be damaging to the kidneys over time. In combination with diabetes, both factors together have a long-term destructive effect on the glomeruli.

This interplay of destructive factors can, in extreme cases, lead to total kidney failure and necessitate dialysis or transplantation.

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By Sabine Croci. This article is medically reviewed. Last updated (04/2024).
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Blood Pressure and Diabetes

Sweet Damages

Kidneys, Blood Pressure, and Diabetes

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