Diabetics often develop co-morbid kidney disease. The kidney converts the pH in the urine from 7.4 to 6.0, a pH in which intestinal pathogens cannot survive. Urinary tract infections are common in diabetes, due to the inability of the kidney to lower the pH of the urine, and gastrointestinal pathogens cross contaminating the urinary tract. Urine infections can ascend upwards to the kidney, and recurrent urine and kidney infections can damage kidney function.