DRWF Podcast: Raising awareness about kidney and heart health for people living with diabetes
For this World Kidney Day (12th March), DRWF has launched essential information on two tests for chronic kidney disease.
DRWF is marking this year’s World Kidney Day with the launch of new diabetes information resource.
It is estimated around one in three people living with diabetes will go on to develop kidney disease.
Have you had your “double check”? The two vital tests for kidney and heart health for people living with diabetes was published to coincide with the global campaign aimed at raising awareness of the importance of our kidneys.
For the latest DRWF Living with Diabetes podcast we talked with several experts on the impact of kidney and heart health on diabetes including healthcare professionals and people living with diabetes.
The resource was written by Janaka Karalliedde, Clinical Professor of Diabetes at King’s College London.
Professor Karalliedde said: “Many people with kidney disease will have diabetes, and around 30 to 40% of people with diabetes will develop kidney disease in their lifetime. In the UK, diabetes remains one of the most common causes of kidney failure, which is dialysis. Diabetes can damage the kidneys and also increase the risk of associated heart or cardiovascular disease. There is a very close inter-relationship, and sadly, the numbers of people with kidney damage due to diabetes is increasing exponentially across the world, including in the UK.”
DRWF: How can the new resource and supporting media help people living with diabetes understand more about kidney and heart health tests and what healthcare professionals are looking for?
Professor Karalliedde said: “I would like this resource to be a prompt for people to talk to their healthcare professionals, and also for healthcare professionals to be aware of the importance of kidney and heart health.
“The key priority for me is to raise awareness of kidney disease in diabetes and get people to ask, have I had this check? Do I have chronic kidney disease? If I do have it, how do I stop it from getting worse?”
“Share it with family and friends who may have diabetes and increase awareness about early detection and screening before we get advanced disease, because that is when the greatest opportunity is available for us to prevent complications.”
The new information was produced with thanks to review support and endorsement from Kidney Research UK.
Download the Podcast
Swati Bhagat-Jones, Multiple long-term conditions lead at Kidney Research UK, said: “We are jointly aligned with DRWF in really thinking about early detection of these conditions and prevention before progression to end stage renal failure.
“Empowering and giving patients some agency in this space is really important. But that has to be combined with also upskilling and raising awareness amongst healthcare professionals.
“So arming patients with this information for us as a kidney charity is really important. Working alongside DRWF helps us to reach an audience that otherwise may not be interested in chronic kidney disease, because perhaps they have not yet developed a complication, which is exactly where we want to be sitting and passing this information on.”
Dr Sarah Davies, a GP based in Cardiff with a special interest in diabetes said: “People living with diabetes, we know, are at increased risk of a number of different complications related to diabetes itself. And one really important one is kidney disease.
“That is why we really want to have a close eye on kidney health to get these checks done regularly and early, to spot any issues happening with the kidneys at the earliest possible stage so that we can intervene to protect the kidneys, but also that helps to protect the heart, because your kidneys and your heart health are really closely linked.”
Dr Davies added: “It is important to have a lovely, user friendly, well-researched resource that people can go to. I know that when you go to see your GP or practice nurse or your consultant, they will tell you an awful lot of information in one sitting. There is a lot to take in, a lot to remember, and it can go in one ear and out the other, quite understandably so.
“To have a resource available that is dependable, easy to understand, and is relevant to you, is so important that people can go and check. What are we meant to be having done again? Why am I having it done? What can I do to protect my kidneys? I'm really delighted with this new resource.”
Daniel Newman is a type 1 diabetes ambassador and received a kidney transplant in 2018.
Daniel said: “I have been living with type 1 diabetes for more than 29 years. That will be 30 years in August this year. I have had a really mixed relationship with the condition, seeing all sides, from the good, the bad and the ugly.
“In 2013, I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease, and in 2018, I received a kidney transplant. For me, the topic of diabetes and chronic kidney disease, diabetes-related kidney disease is something personal to me.
“When I received a kidney transplant I was very fortunate that I had not been on dialysis. It was a pre-emptive transplant from a living donor. My mother was my donor, so I was very fortunate in that aspect, and I remember I was determined to not let the diagnosis overtake me.
“There was a lot going on at the time, but I feel that it has given me a new lease of life. A second chance of life.”
DRWF: Do you think people living with diabetes are aware of the links to kidney function and diabetes?
Daniel said: “I think they are aware, but I feel that is on a very surface level because it is not spoken about as much. I do not think they are as aware as they should be, or as they need to be.
“I think that is missing, and I think what is really good about this new resource, and the conversations that DRWF is having, and something that I feel has been missing from the community for a number of years, is people talking about all the complications of diabetes. That is almost like a taboo subject, because sometimes people do not know how to talk about them.
“You can talk about complications in a way that is educational, that is preventative, and that is meeting people where they are at.
“What this resource can do, is take away the fear of the unknown. If we take the time to just go and empower ourselves and learn more about it. Knowledge is power, but knowledge equals power and then equals better decisions as well.
“Kidney health is a whole new terminology. People might know HbA1C, or bolus, basal, insulin pumps. The kidney world is different, and you need to understand what is going on in the kidneys and then understand how your blood pressure can impact your kidneys and then impact your diabetes. What controlling your blood pressure can do.
“The resource is there to really lay out to somebody living with diabetes the importance of educating yourself, it is done in a nice way. It does not use scare tactics and that is key as well.”
See our Kidneys and Heart Health leaflet here.
Also available in audio format.
Watch our new special edition podcast on kidney and heart health here
Read the DRWF diabetes information resource Kidney health and diabetes for people living with diabetes here in digital and audio format
Listen to the interviews in full as part of the DRWF Living with Diabetes podcast series
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