Nephrogenic, Central Diabetes Insipidus Causes Frequent Urination, Thirsty Symptoms for Diabetes Insipidus Treatment

Are you caught up in an endless cycle of drink-pee-drink-pee?  And when you try to forgo drinking to combat your frequent urination, you get so darn thirsty that the strategy soon fails?

Well, you might have diabetes insipidus, which has no relationship to the “major high blood sugar health concern” diabetes mellitus.  Both types cause thirst symptoms, but for very different reasons.

If you have diabetes insipidus, then you are thirsty all the time and urinate often.  Urinating multiple times during the night or bed wetting is not unusual.

It’s your kidneys that maintains your body’s water balance.  And with diabetes insipidus, this balancing act is out of whack.

Why your kidneys are not controlling fluid balance usually can be narrowed to two basic causes involving antidiuretic hormone, aka vasopressin.  One is when kidneys are unable to respond to this hormone and the other is not enough of it in circulation.  Vasopressin helps keep water in your urine and blood in healthy proportion.

If your kidneys are to blame, then you have nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.  In the alternative, central diabetes insipidus is used to describe hormone scarcity.  Underlining causes for your frequent urination and thirsty symptoms created by these two types of diabetes insipidus include:

In one quarter of all cases, no cause is found.

An intense, uncontrollable thirst craving for water coupled with excreting large amounts of urine daily via frequent urination are telltale symptoms for diabetes insipidus.

And should you not drink enough, dehydration becomes a symptom as well.  Other symptoms that may result from inadequate fluid intake are:

Treatment starts by determining if an underlining cause can be treated.  Drugs, such as desmopressin or hydrochlorothiazide, may be used to help control your body’s fluid levels.  For mild cases, drinking more water may be the only treatment needed.

There are three other rarer forms of diabetes insipidus:

  • congenital ~ present at birth, usually affects men
  • dipsogenic DI ~ caused by thirst mechanism defect or damage, no effective treatment available
  • gestational ~ occurs during pregnancy when a placentaenzyme destroys vesopressin, often can be treated with desmopressin

There are numerous other causes for frequent urination andthirstiness.  So don’t automatically equate being thirsty and peeing with diabetes insipidus.  Fact is, this form of diabetes is rare.

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