The Rare Type of Diabetes Black Folks Need to Know About

You may have heard of type 1 or type 2 diabetes but there’s another form of the condition that Black people should also be paying attention to. It’s called diabetes insipidus and its symptoms are nothing like what you’d expect. Here’s what you need to know.

What’s Diabetes Insipidus?

Diabetes insipidus is a rare condition where your body produces too much urine as it’s incapable of retaining water well. Depending on the cause of the condition, it may or may not be treatable.

In this form of diabetes, your body either doesn’t make enough antidiuretic hormone (ADH) or your kidneys don’t use it properly. As a result of this, people with this condition pass large amounts of urine throughout the way while drinking a lot of water because they always feel thirsty. If you don’t drink a ton of water, you’re likely to end up dehydrated.

There are four different types of diabetes insipidus and they’re categorized based on their cause. Central diabetes insipidus is the most common and occurs when you don’t have enough ADH while the nephrogenic form happens when your pituitary gland produces enough ADH but your kidneys don’t use it well.

With dipsogenic diabetes insipidus, the hypothalamus is affected by a health issue that’s not related to ADH production.

Finally, you can develop gestational diabetes insipidus when you’re pregnant. It happens because the placenta produces too much of the enzyme that breaks down ADH. This type of diabetes is likely to go away after you’ve given birth.

The main symptom of diabetes insipidus is that you’ll pass large quantities of urine throughout the day and night. To put it in perspective, the average person will pass about three quarts of urine per day while someone with diabetes insipidus will pass close to 20. This urine will also be clear in color. Though you might drink a lot of water, you’ll feel thirsty all the time. Other symptoms include dizziness, fatigue, dry mouth, nausea, and fainting.

Why Black Americans Might Have a Higher Risk

You’re most likely to develop diabetes insipidus if someone else in your family has it, if you’ve suffered from a brain injury or damage to your pituitary gland, or if you have an autoimmune condition that affects your ADH production. As you may have noticed being pregnant can also increase your risk of developing diabetes insipidus.

Where Black Americans need to be concerned is with the type of diabetes insipidus that can be caused by kidney disease. Studies show that Black people have a higher probability of developing chronic disease and other conditions like high blood pressure that can lead to kidney disease.

How to Get Diagnosed

The best way to get diagnosed is to document your symptoms and bring the information to your doctor. Even if you don’t have diabetes insipidus, passing large quantities of urine and constantly feeling thirsty are not normal.

While your doctor may order a variety of tests to determine what the problem is, a water deprivation test is a definitive way to tell if you have diabetes insipidus.

In this test, you’ll be deprived of water for a few hours while your doctor takes note of how much urine you pass and what it looks like. If you’re still urinating a lot and the urine has a pale color, then it’s likely that you have diabetes insipidus.

How to Manage the Condition

The treatment for diabetes insipidus will depend on what caused it. For example, if there’s an underlying condition, your doctor will need to treat that first. You may also need to take medication to replace the ADH that you’re missing.

While taking medication, you should talk to your doctor about any lifestyle or diet changes you need to make to alleviate your symptoms. They may suggest that you avoid foods that are high in salt as they encourage your kidneys to produce urine. Reducing your fluid intake may also help with how much you urinate.

Sometimes, treating the health problem that affected your body’s ADH production or how well your kidneys use it can eliminate diabetes insipidus. In other cases, the condition is permanent so you’ll need to take medication for the rest of your life.

It’s estimated that diabetes insipidus only affects 1 in 250,000 people so it’s considered to be rare. However, its symptoms can significantly affect your life if you don’t have the right medical regimen to treat or manage it. As a Black American, you need to be particularly careful as you may have a higher risk of developing the form of diabetes insipidus that’s caused by kidney disease.