This makes kidney disease particularly insidious and regular tests particularly important. If tests show some loss of kidney function, you can control your kidney disease by following strict guidelines such as those at How to Protect Your Kidneys . The Diabetes Control and Complications Trial, a large clinical study completed in 1993, showed that intensive treatment prevented the development and slowed the progression of diabetic kidney disease by 50 percent. The real problems come if you have less than 20 percent renal function. If it drops below 10 to 15 percent, you have what is called end-stage renal disease and have only two or three choices, Teri says.
Some people can get kidney transplants.
One is called hemodialysis, where they take your blood out and cleanse it in a machine three or four times a week and return clean blood to your body, generally in a hospital. Another is peritoneal dialysis, where you put a fluid that captures waste products in your abdomen, usually at home. Forty years ago it made sense to call it end-stage renal disease, because there wasn't anything doctors could do about it. But the name no longer makes sense. And people in our profession are beginning to lean towards names such as chronic renal insufficiency.