It takes about 15 years to show its first real effects and about 22 years to cause noticeable organ damage. It puts extra strain on the tiny, delicate blood vessels with which the kidneys filter the blood and remove waste products for excretion, Eknoyan said. Dr. Thomas McCune compares the kidney's filtering units to colanders. Like a kitchen strainer, they can break if hit with liquid at a very high pressure. You lose the entire filtering surface.
Many people have both hypertension and diabetes.
She was diagnosed with diabetes in 1983. She said she's scheduled to begin dialysis in a few weeks. Hypertension is also much more common in the black community, Eknoyan said. About one in three blacks has high blood pressure, compared with one in four people in general, according to the heart association. And for unknown reasons, black people are especially susceptible to kidney disease.