Diabetes Insipidus Causes
Diabetes Insipidus is caused when the kidneys have no ability to save water, which in turn leads to extreme thirst with a craving for ice water and frequent urinations with large volumes of water. It is a condition that is not common and occurs when the kidneys are performing their normal duties of filtrating blood. The retaining of this water in the kidneys is usually able to be controlled by the antidiuretic hormone (ADH) vasopressin. Vasopressin is produced a part of the brain called the hypothalamus which is managed by the pituitary gland which is a very small gland located at the base of the brain.
There are 4 types of Diabetes Insipidus:
- Central Diabetes Insipidus
- Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus
- Gestational Diabetes Insipidus
- Dipsogenic Diabetes Insipidus
Central Diabetes Insipidus develops when damage has occurred to the pituitary gland and/or the hypothalamus because of an infection, surgery, head injury, cancer or infection. Central insipidus is the most common type of Diabetes Insipidus.
Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus develops when the kidneys are not able to react to the ADH vasopressin. This commonly occurs because of a problem caused by something else such as blockage in the urinary tract, use of certain medications most commonly lithium, high levels of calcium or low levels of potassium. When the cause nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus is identified and corrected, the disease usually goes away.
There are times when because of a shortage of the hormone vasopressin Diabetes Insipidus occurs during pregnancy. This is usually caused by the pituitary having minor damage and/or the placenta tearing down the hormone too quickly. This type of vasopressin/hormone shortage is known as gestagenic or gestational Diabetes Insipidus and is treatable.
The 4th form of Diabetes Insipidus occurs when vasopressin is restrained by extreme intake of fluids. This is usually referred to as primary polydipsia and is mostly caused by a problem in that part of the brain which controls thirst. This is known as dipsogenic Diabetes Insipidus. It is often hard to distinguish from pituitary Diabetes Insipidus particularly because the 2 conditions can result from many of the same brain problems.
An interesting fact about dipsogenic Diabetes Insipidus, treatment will remove the intense urination but it does not totally get rid of the increased thirst and fluid intake. Therefore, it also results in water intoxication, which is a condition associated with symptoms such as headache, sluggishness, appetite loss, nausea and signs such as an atypically large reduction in the plasma and sodium concentration (known as hyponatremia). For this reason and the existing fact of having no way to correct the original atypical symptom of thirst, dipsogenic Diabetes Insipidus can not be treated.
As you can see, Diabetes Insipidus has to do with the retention of water in the human body and is extremely rare. But Diabetes Insipidus in most cases is fairly easy to treat.
