Being Kind to Your Kidneys: Preventing Problems

By Amy Campbell Now that you know a little more (or have refreshed your memory a bit) about diabetes and kidney disease, as well as the tests you need to see how healthy your kidneys are, you're ready for the most important part: what you can do to prevent kidney problems from happening in the first place. Focus on blood glucose control. It's no surprise that keeping your A1C and your blood glucose levels in a safe range is the first step. In fact, doing so can help reduce your risk for all of the complications related to diabetes. In case you need reminding, your A1C level should likely be less than 7%. However, your goal may be different, so that's why it's important to have a talk with your health-care provider about this. As far as blood glucose levels, for most people, the goal is 70–130 mg/dl before meals and less than 180 mg/dl two hours after meals. If your numbers aren't within these ranges, you'll likely need a tweak to your diabetes treatment plan. This may involve increasing and/or adding medicine, focusing on your food and activity plan, checking your blood glucose more often, or all of the above. Keep your blood pressure under control. I've written previously about blood pressure, so I won't go into too much depth here about it. But you should know that the blood pressure goal for people with diabetes has changed slightly, from less than 130/80 to less than 140/80. Again, yours may be different. Blood pressure can be notoriously tricky to manage, and mos...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs