Glomerulonephritis Medications
Do I Need To Make Lifestyle Changes To Manage Kidney Disease?
Fabry disease is a rare but chronic condition that gets passed from parents to children. People with Fabry disease have an enzyme deficiency resulting in an inability to break down fats and lipids. These fats and lipids then pile up in blood vessels and cells throughout the body, affecting many organs, including the kidneys.
Fabry disease will reduce how effective your kidneys are and could eventually lead to kidney failure. Therefore, it is crucial to seek treatment options for Fabry’s disease before this happens. While there is no known cure for this condition, there are several treatment options that can help you break down fatty materials and maintain kidney function.
The main treatment for people with Fabry disease is enzyme replacement therapy. This treatment is necessary to replace the enzymes that you are missing so that you can break down lipids and fats. Enzyme replacement therapy involves a bi-weekly injection of agalsidase beta enzyme, which does the work of your missing enzymes.
It is important to start this treatment as quickly as possible to prevent kidney failure. Additionally, to avoid an allergic reaction, enzyme replacement therapy is often combined with an antihistamine or another allergy medication.
Traditionally, enzyme replacement therapy was the only long-term solution for Fabry disease. Recently, however, a new treatment known as oral chaperone therapy has been developed. Oral chaperone therapy uses a medication known as migalastat that you can take orally rather than through an IV.
Rather than replacing your missing enzymes, migalastat consists of small molecules that help your existing alpha-GAL enzymes work better. It can also repair enzymes that are damaged. Using this repair and enhancement method, migalastat improves your body’s ability to break down lipids and fats effectively.
Migalastat is a very new treatment and may not be available everywhere. Additionally, because it repairs and enhances existing enzymes, you must have at least some alpha-GAL enzyme production for this treatment to be effective. As such, it only works in about half of the people who have Fabry disease.
While ACE inhibitors, such as benazepril and fosinopril, are often associated with helping heart problems, they can also help protect your kidneys. ACE inhibitors are a blood pressure medication that is used to reduce blood pressure. As it is doing this, ACE inhibitors also reduce interglomerular pressure, which reduces the amount of lipids in your body and makes it easier for your kidneys to function.
While ACE inhibitors can help treat and limit kidney symptoms, they are not the best option for treating Fabry disease and are more of an additional option.
While there is no cure for Fabry disease, there are treatments that can prolong your life and help you make the most of it. However, it is essential to start treatment as soon as possible to give yourself the best chance of a long life. With proper treatment, men can live into their late fifties and beyond, and women can live into their seventies.