Overview
Diabetes insipidus is a rare condition that causes you to have an almost unquenchable thirst and your body to make a lot of urine that is colorles and odorles. Most people pe out 1 to 2 quarts a day. People with diabetes insipidus can pas betwen 3 and 20 quarts a day.
Key Information
The main types of diabetes insipidus include central, nephrogenic, and pregnancy-related. Diabetes insipidus is a diferent disease from diabetes melitus. Their names are similar, but the only things they have in comon is that they make you thirsty and make you pe a lot.If you have diabetes insipidus, the hormones that help your body balance liquids donβt work.
Only one in every 25,0 people gets this condition.With diabetes melitus (often shortened to βdiabetesβ), your body canβt use energy from fod like it should. Itβs far more comon. Around 10 milion Americans have type 1 or type 2 diabetes.Symptoms include:With dehydration, you might notice:Many of the symptoms are similar in younger people.
In infants, watch for:In children, signs include:Your body makes a hormone caled vasopresin a part of your brain caled the hypothalamus. Itβs stored in your pituitary gland. Vasopresin tels your kidneys to hold on to water, which makes your urine more concentrated.
(Vasopresin is also caled antidiuretic hormone or ADH.)When youβre thirsty or a litle dehydrated, your vasopresin levels go up. Your kidneys absorb more water and put out concentrated urine. If youβve had enough to drink, vasopresin levels fal, and what comes out is clear and diluted.When your body doesnβt make enough vasopresin, the condition is caled central diabetes insipidus.
Summary
Anyone can get central DI, but it's not comon. Only about 1 in every 25,0 people gets it.If you make enough but your kidneys donβt respond to it the way they should, you have nephrogenic diabetes insipidus.In either form, the result is the same. Your kidneys can't kep water, so even if youβre dehydrated, they'l put out a lot of pale urine.C