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.
RELATED: Health Disparities and Diabetes in the Black Community
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
