7 Skin Signs of Diabetic Kidney Disease You Don’t Want to Miss

Your skin is talking to you right now. Well, I'm potent to you, but your skin is also talking to you. If you have diabetes or pre-diabetes, it might be screaming at you actually. I'm Dr. Amatan. I am a diabetes specialist. I'm anologist and hormone and thyroid disorders. But today, I'm going to show you something that most doctors miss. Seven skin signs that tells you your kidneys are in trouble. And these signs show up months, sometimes years before standard blood tests catch the problem. And here is what scares me. 90% of people with early kidney disease had no idea that they have kidney disease. But your skin actually shows it. That weird skin rash on your shin or that itch that won't stop. Those dark patches on your neck, they're not random. In the next few minutes, I'll show you what to look for. Then we will go deep into why this happens, what it means for your kidneys, and exactly what you need to do about that. Because if you catch this early, you can stop it. And if you don't, you're looking at dialysis. Let's start with the most obvious signs that most people ignore. Look at your shins right now. Do you see any brown or reddish spots? Maybe they look shiny. Maybe they feel hard when you touch them. This is called diabetic thermopathy. And it is one of the early signs or warning signs that your small blood vessels are damaged. Here's what's happening inside your body. High blood sugar acts like tiny pieces of glass in your bloodstream. It scratches and damages the walls of your smallest blood vessels. Your kidneys are packed with these tiny tiny vessels and millions of them. When they get damaged, they start leaking. They cannot filter properly anymore. But here's the thing, the same damage happening in your kidneys is also happening in the blood vessels of your skin because body work as a whole, the vascular system, right? We call it a vascular system, the heart and the blood vessels. That is why these spots show up on your shins first. The blood flow there is already weak, right? Because of the gravity. Now, not everyone with these spots have kidney disease, don't get me wrong, but studies show that people with diabetic dermopathy are three times more likely to have kidney problems. And if you have these spots plus the high blood pressure, your risk jumps even higher. A lot of people don't care about the blood pressure as much as they do for blood sugar, but that's a mistake. Now, what should you do? First, don't act great, but don't ignore it either. take a photo of your shins today and check them again in maybe two weeks. And if the spots are spreading or getting darker, that's definitely a red flag. And here's what most doctors won't tell you. These spots are reversible if you catch them early. But you need to know what is causing the damage in the first place. And that is what we will cover at the end of this video. Now, let's talk about a sign that is even more common, but way more dangerous. Imagine this. You're lying in bed. You are exhausted. You just want to sleep, right? But your skin is on fire. Not painful, just itchy everywhere. You scratch, scratch, scratch, and it feels good for two seconds. Then it's worse. This is uremic itch. It is a sign that toxins are building up in your blood. Let me explain what's really happening. Your kidneys are supposed to filter out waste products, right? Things like ura, creatinine, and other toxins that your body makes every single day. When your kidneys start failing, these toxins obviously stay in your blood. They have nowhere to go. They build up. They start depositing into your skin. Your nerve endings are like going crazy because you have so much nerve endings on your skin. They become hyper sensitive. But here's the worst part. The itch isn't just on the surface. It gets deep. It is in your muscles, your bones. So scratching doesn't always help you because you can't reach it. And it's always worse at night. Why? Because when you lie down, blood flow to your skin increases. And more blood means more toxins reaching your skin. Plus your cortisol levels, that anti-inflammatory cortisol levels are at the lower level. So you feel everything more. More toxins means more itch. Now you're diabetic or pre-diabetic. You're already at higher risk for this for sure. But definitely high blood sugar damages your kidney filters. They start letting toxins slip through or they stop filtering altogether. And here is something most people don't know. This itch can start when your kidney function is only 50% reduced. That's it. That means your blood tests might still look normal to your doctor, but your body is already screaming for help. So what do you do? First, get your kidney function tested. Not just creatinine. Ask for a GFR test. Ask for a urine albumin test. these catch problems a lot earlier, especially urinal women. Second, check your phosphate levels because high phosphate levels make the itch 10 times worse and one of the first things to go wrong in kidney disease. We'll talk about how to fix hyposphate later, but first you need to know about a skin sign that is hiding in plain sight. These are small, maybe the size of a pin head, sometimes bigger. They're yellowish or white. They feel kind of hard under your skin like u little pebbles and they usually show up on your hands, your feet, your elbows or your knees. This is called eruptive zantomattosis. It's a sign that your triglycerides are dangerously high. Now, you might be thinking, what does this have to do with my kidneys? Everything. And here's the connection. When your kidneys are damaged, they cannot regulate fats in your blood properly, right? They cannot help with it. And when you're diabetic and you have inflammation in your system, your triglycerides shoot up sometimes into thousands, especially after a meal. A lot of times doctors will check, you know, lipid panel and a fasting and to see that okay, triglyceride is to be 100 for example, which is very high. But if they checked it after a meal, it could be in thousands. Now, these fats start forming crystals. And those crystals deposit under your skin. They're also depositing in your blood vessels, your heart, your pancreas. Well, this is a medical emergency waiting to happen because high triglycerides can sometimes induce pancreatitis. And that's when your pancreas actually start digesting itself. That's the worst thing for diabetic to hatch because then you you're losing more of the beta cells that is supposed to help you with insulin production and it is one of the most painful conditions that I've ever seen. So if you are diabetic, you are already at high risk for high triglycerides and pancreatitis. So add kidney disease to the mix and your risk skyrockets. So if you see these yellow bumps, don't wait. get your triglycerides checked immediately. And you you don't have to have these yellow bumps. Actually, your triglyceride may still be very high even without those bumps. But here's what you need to know. These bumps can disappear within weeks if you get your triglycerides under control. All you have to do is cut back on saturated fats, cut back on the carbs, and eat healthy fats and eat a lot of vegetables. Now, let's talk about a sign that shows up on your face. It is one that most people mistake for something harmless. You wake up, you look in the mirror, your eyes are puffy, and you think, "Okay, I didn't sleep well, or maybe I ate too much salt last night." It could be, right? But what if it is not going away? And what if it is there every single morning? That's called perorbital edema. It's a sign that protein is leaking out of your kidneys. And let me break this down for you. Now, your kidneys have tiny filters called glomeroli, right? And each kidney has about a couple million of them. These filters are supposed to keep important things in your blood like like protein, right? We don't want to leave protein. But when they get damaged, they start leaking. Protein spills into your urine. And when you lose protein from your blood, fluid starts leaking out of your blood vessels into your tissues. This fluid follows gravity during the day and it pulls, you know, in your legs and feet. But at night, when you're laying flat, it redistributes because the gravity changes, right? It moves to the loose tissue around your eyes. That is why you wake up puffy. Now, here's what makes this dangerous for diabetics. High blood sugar directly damages these kidney filters. It makes them weak. It makes them leaky. And once flutane starts leaking, it is hard to stop because it can lead to something called nefertic syndrome. And if it is not caught early and treated, it leads to kidney failure. So how do you know if your puffy eyes are serious? Do this test. Press your thumb into your shin before, you know, for maybe 5 seconds on the shin on your shin bow, I would say. Does it leave a dent? If yes, you have petting edema. That means fluid is building up all over your body. You need to see a doctor immediately. Like I said, get a urine test for protein. It is simple. It is super cheap. A lot of doctors even do that in their office now, but it could save your kidneys. Now, let's talk about a sign that is even more subtle, but it tells me everything I need to know about your kidney health. Look at your fingernails right now. Do you see a white band at the bottom and the darker reddish brown band at the top? This is called half and half nails and it's a classic sign of chronic communities. Now, we don't really know exactly why this happens, but we see it all the time in patients with kidney failure. Some researchers think it is related to increased melatonin production and others think it is because of changes in blood flow to the nail band. But here's what matters. If you have these nails, their kidneys are struggling. Now, not everyone with kidney disease gets these nails. But if you do have them, yes, you need to get tested. And there's another nail sign to watch out for. Pale nails. Now, if your nails look washed out or almost white, it could mean you're anemic. And the anemia is extremely common in kidney disease. And here's why. Your kidneys make a hormone called arythropoin. It helps your bone marrow to make red blood cells. Isn't that interesting that your kidneys are helping to make blood with your bone marrow? You know, body works together. Now, when your kidneys fail, they stop making this hormone. It's not their fault. And your red blood cell count drops because of that. and you feel exhausted, weak, short of bread, and your nails turn pale because there's not enough blood flowing through them. Well, the good news, we can treat this with synthetic erotropa injections. Better than nothing, right? But you need to know you have the problem first. So, check your nails and if something looks off, get your kidney function testing. Now, let's talk about the most dangerous skin sign. The one that means you're running out of time. And these show up on your neck, your armpit. Sometimes your knuckles. They look like dirt actually, like you forgot to wash or something. But no matter how hard you scrub, they won't come off. And this is called aontosis nitricans. And it is a sign of severe insulin resistance. Now, here's the connection to your kidneys. You don't have to have diabetes to have kidney failure. Insulin resistance doesn't just cause diabetes. It also damages your kidneys directly because high insulin levels cause inflammation. They make your kidney filters thicker and stiffer. Over time, they stop working. And if you already have diabetes, this process happens even faster. Studies show that people with aontosis narans are five times more likely to develop kidney disease. Five times. So if you have these dark patches intact now get your fasting insulin checked. Get your hemoglobin A1C checked and get your kidney function tested because here's the truth. Insulin resistance is reversible. You can fix this, but you need to know what you're dealing with. And that brings me to the final sign, the one that most people never connect to their kidneys. Let's say you get a cut. That's great. Maybe a blister from new shoes. It should heal in a week, tops, maybe two, but it doesn't. It stays open. It might even get infected. Now, this is a sign that your circulation is compromised. And poor circulation is one of the early signs of kidney disease in diabetics. And here's why. When your kidneys are damaged, they cannot regulate blood pressure properly. Your blood vessels become also stiff and your blood flow decreases. Now add high blood sugar to the mix. Your white blood cells start working properly. They cannot fight infection. So wounds don't heal. they get worse. And if you're not careful, a simple cut can turn into a serious infection. Sometimes can lead to amputations. I've seen patients lose their toes, their feet, even legs. All because they ignored a wound that wouldn't heal. So if you had any wound that is not healing within tops two weeks, see a doctor immediately. If you see signs of infection like redness, hotness, pain, see a doctor immediately. Also get your circulation checked, get your kidney function tested, and get your blood sugar under control because this is preventable, right? But only if you catch it early. So, let's recap. Seven skin signs we talked about today that your kidneys are in trouble. To make it quick, you know, uh although quick is not the best. You don't even get you miss the details, but I'll say brown spots on your shins, unstoppable itching, yellow bumps, puffy nails, nail changes, dark patches on your neck, and wounds that won't heal. If you have even one of these signs, still get tested. Ask for a complete metabolic panel that has a GFR in it and a separate urine albumin test microalin to be more accurate and a li panel because of trial rice store you talked about. These tests are simple they are covered by insurance they could save your life extend your kidney line. Now here's what you need to do next also first check your blood sugar. If you're a pre-diabetic or diabetic you need to get this under control right today. That's why we have the Sugar MD channel. Keep watching. Keep searching Sugar MD and learn more. Knowledge is power. Second, check your blood pressure. High blood pressure is the number one cause of kidney failure in diabetics. And third, reduce your phosphate intake. Now, you got to cut out processed foods, sodas, fast food, and talk to your doctor about medications that will protect your kidneys. things like you know SGLT2 inhibitors, jordians or farcea or glp1 agonists like ozampic with proven benefits. Now these medications don't just lower blood sugar. They actually protect your kidney filters from damage. Now I'm not a medication pusher but when I see a problem that needs fixed and nothing is fixing it, I have to use the medic. I'm a doctor. I cannot just give people natural things when also there are natural proven medications out there that helps a lot when used properly. So I've seen a lot of people reverse early kidney disease. So but we need to start early before the damage becomes really permanent. So don't wait, don't procrastinate. Check your skin, get tested and take action. Your kidneys are count again. I'm Dr. Ahmed Arian, your Sugar MD. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next video. And remember, type Sugar MD words on your search button on your YouTube every day so you can catch up good with it.