Foamy urine and diabetes are interrelated. And this article explains to you how, with the help of some basic facts about diabetes and its complications.
If you have the habit of missing your ‘nature’s call’, meaning delaying the urge to urinate, then foamy urine may be something that is common to you. This is due to the reason, after holding on for a long time when you finally go to the washroom, your urine may hit the toilet pot with such a force, that the formation of bubbles in the urine must not come as a surprise to you. And if this is the only cause of you having bubbly urine then you need not worry. Again, foamy urine is normal if you do not have the habit of drinking plenty of water. Dehydration makes the urine more concentrated and darker. And so when it is expelled, it produces froth.
Some Random Facts
Diabetes, or diabetes mellitus refers to a group of medical conditions that interfere with the usage of glucose (blood sugar) in the body. Mainly there are two forms of diabetes that are incurable – type 1 and type 2. The carbohydrates received from food are broken down into sugar molecules, glucose being one of them, and one of the main sources of energy for the body’s daily function. Now this glucose gets absorbed into the bloodstream directly. And when its level becomes high, the pancreas excrete the hormone insulin, which signals the cells to open up and absorb the glucose for energy. But in diabetes, things are different. Here, the body becomes resistant to insulin or it does nor produce enough of the same. So this causes the blood sugar level to rise to danger levels, which if not attended to, can give rise to life-threatening complications.
How is Foamy Urine Related to Diabetes?
One complication that diabetes may give rise to is known as glomerulonephritis. It refers to the inflammation of the tiny filters that the kidneys make use of for filtering the blood and get rid of waste substances through the urine. Under normal circumstances, the kidney retains essential substances such as proteins for the body, and filter out only the waste products. Although, at times, minute amount of protein may leak into the urine, but that does not cause any concern.
However, diseases such as glomerulonephritis damages the filtering system, allowing substances such as proteins to leak into the urinary bladder and eventually get expelled into the urine. So the presence of these very proteins in the urine causes the formation of bubbles and make it look foamy or frothy. Presence of protein in the urine is known as proteinuria.
What is important to know is, diseases such as diabetes do not damage the kidneys at one go. It develops gradually and starts affecting the organs. So if the foamy urine and diabetes are related in someone’s case, then it may be assumed that his/her diabetes has reached a severe stage; a stage wherein, the kidneys are in a threat to get irreversibly damaged.
To conclude, if you realize that your urine becomes foamy or bubbly every time you urinate, then this warrants a medical check up. Foamy urine is not always indicative of diabetes, but it is better to err on the side of caution, and rule out all possibilities.
