The survival curves of patients with alcohol use disorder and control cohort were compared using a log-rank test. The statistical analyses were conducted using SAS System for Windows, Version 9.4. If you have kidney cancer, it’s best to talk with your doctor about moderate drinking. Your doctor can give you advice about whether it is safe to consume alcohol while undergoing cancer treatment.
Alcohol Consumption Can be a “Double-Edged Sword” for Chronic Kidney Disease Patients
- Recent studies estimated that CKD affects about 119.5 million people worldwide [10,11].
- Since women have a higher blood concentration of alcohol, they may be more sensitive to alcohol than men [3,50,90].
- Therefore, staff in emergency departments, where potential abusers encounter a wide range of potential abuse items, should exercise caution.
- Alcohol increases your risk of many types of cancer, including breast, liver, mouth, and colon.
- Studies historically have shown that alcohol consumption markedly increases magnesium excretion in the urine and may affect magnesium levels in other ways as well.
- Therefore, excessive alcohol consumption places a major strain on the normal metabolic processes of the kidneys.
- Moreover, the harmful effect of episodic heavy drinking seems to be more obvious in people with light alcohol consumption, and it may be related to a rise in platelet reactivity and thrombosis after binge drinking [9].
Therefore, excessive alcohol consumption places a major strain on the normal metabolic processes of the kidneys. Regular, heavy alcohol use can also be harmful to your kidneys over time. According to the National Kidney Foundation, regular heavy drinking can double the risk of chronic kidney disease. The Joslin Diabetes Center notes that kidney problems, whether as the result of failure or disease, are serious threats to health and wellbeing. The kidneys have such a vital role in cleaning the body and ensuring that the many other systems within the body function properly, that any impairment to their tasks can be the start of many severe problems, some lifelong and some fatal.
What are the first signs of kidney damage from alcohol?
You may wish to swap out hard liquor for beer or wine, since these have a lower alcohol content. Keep track of your drinks using an app or a diary so you can monitor your progress. Treat gastritis by avoiding alcohol, pain medications, and recreational drugs. Your doctor may prescribe proton pump inhibitors or H2 antagonists to reduce the production of stomach acid. Severe or recurring kidney infections may require hospitalization or surgery.
How Long Do You Have to Drink Alcohol to Damage Your Kidneys?
- The kidneys also maintain the proper balance of fluid and electrolytes in the body.
- Chronic alcohol consumption induces profound injury in several organs that may affect and aggravate the deleterious effect of ethanol on the kidney.
- Questioning the patient’s environment and determining additional laboratory parameters (such as osmolality gap in the case report) can help unmask substance abuse if it is in doubt.
- Acute kidney injury usually goes away in time, but in some cases, it can lead to lasting kidney damage.
- Hypomagnesemia responds readily to magnesium supplementation treatment, however.
For severely alcoholic patients who eat poorly, such a nutritional deficit may be an important contributor to hypophosphatemia. Each of the 2 million functional units (i.e., nephrons) in a pair of normal kidneys forms urine as it filters blood plasma of substances not needed by the body. Within each nephron, blood plasma enters a tiny ball of unusually permeable capillaries (i.e., the glomerulus), filters into a capsule that surrounds the glomerulus, then flows through a long, looping conduit called the nephron tubule. Although there have been many clinical studies on alcohol consumption and CKD, most have some limitations that could cause misinterpretation of the results and conclusions. Genetic and individual differences sometimes need to be taken into account [78]. As known, alcohol tolerance varies greatly from person to person, and some nations consume more alcohol than others.
Alcohol risks: A body out of balance
- This finding suggests that rhabdomyolysis and myoglobin toxicity may trigger oxidative stress in the kidney via mitochondrial injury.
- Kidneys act to filter out harmful substances, including alcohol, from your blood.
- Alcohol may indirectly increase the risk of developing a urinary tract infection (UTI).
- However, we should be aware that alcohol also can contain harmful substances.
These disturbances increase the kidneys’ workload in restoring acid-base balance through formation of an acidic or basic (i.e., alkaline) urine. For instance, the opposite of respiratory alkalosis can occur when a person becomes extremely intoxicated. Because alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, it may slow the rate of breathing as well as reduce the brain’s respiratory center’s sensitivity to carbon dioxide levels. As a result, excess carbon dioxide accumulates, and the body’s acid level subsequently increases.
For example, polyphenol contents in wine and beer had strong antioxidant properties and carry protective effects against vascular aging [39]. Previous randomized cross-over trial had shown moderate consumption of red wine, but not gin, provided additional antioxidant effects on cells [40]. In diabetic mice, polyphenols protect kidney damage through suppressing nuclear factor-kappa B [41]. Future human studies are needed to determine the impact of different alcoholic beverages on kidney function. Chronic alcohol consumption is a well-known risk factor for tissue injury.
Alcohol causes changes in the function of the kidneys and makes them less able to filter the blood. Alcohol also affects the ability to regulate fluid and electrolytes in the body. When alcohol dehydrates (dries out) the body, the drying effect can affect the normal function of cells and organs, including the kidneys. Acute kidney failure is characterized by a sudden drop in kidney function, which usually goes away over time, but can sometimes does alcohol affect your kidneys lead to permanent kidney damage. While drinking alcohol in moderation (one or two drinks every once in a while), probably won’t harm your body, excessive alcohol consumption can have negative effects on your physical and mental health. Several epidemiological studies have shown that mild alcohol consumption benefits cardiovascular health (Coate 1993; Kannel and Ellison 1996) by reducing the risk of coronary heart disease (Mukamal et al. 2006).
Further changes included enlarged and altered cells in the kidney tubules. In another study, Van Thiel and colleagues (1977) compared kidney structure and function in alcohol-fed and control rats. Due to the metabolism of ethanol, significant amounts of acetate are produced and subsequently incorporated into acetyl-coenzyme-A, a molecule that participates in metabolism of proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. Protein acetylation—adding an acetyl group to a protein—is integral to regulating processes controlled by mitochondria, including fatty acid metabolism and antioxidant defense (Choudhary et al. 2014). This could also be a significant factor contributing to ethanol-induced mitochondrial dysfunction in the kidneys (Harris et al. 2015). Studies suggest that ethanol consumption may increase renal expression of other potential sources of free radicals involving a family of enzymes called nitric oxide synthases (Tirapelli et al. 2012).
Can drinking alcohol cause kidney failure?
- Due to the development of alcoholic cardiomyopathy, chronic renal hypoxia develops, activating the renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system (RAAS), which in turn leads to further free radical production and to the propagation of fibrotic pathways.
- However, more research is needed into the link between alcohol use and kidney injury.
- For example, when rats are given alcohol, they also require significant magnesium in their diets, suggesting that alcohol disrupts absorption of this nutrient from the gut.
The amount of time that it takes for kidneys to become damaged depends on genetics, the amount of alcohol consumed, and many other factors. According to the National Kidney Foundation, consuming more than two alcoholic drinks per day increases your risk of high blood pressure, and high blood pressure is a common cause of chronic kidney disease. Chronic kidney disease, or CKD, is a condition where your kidneys are damaged so that they cannot filter blood properly. In fact, IgA glomerulonephritis—acute inflammation of the kidney caused by an IgA immune response—is one of the most common types of primary glomerulonephritis worldwide (D’Amico 1987).
The link between alcohol use disorder (AUD) and kidney injury is intriguing but controversial, and the molecular mechanisms by which alcohol may damage the kidneys are poorly understood. Epidemiological studies attempting to link AUD and kidney disease are, to date, inconclusive, and there is little experimental evidence directly linking alcohol consumption to kidney injury. However, studies conducted primarily in other organs and tissues suggest several possible mechanisms by which alcohol may promote kidney dysfunction. One possible mechanism is oxidative stress resulting from increased production of reactive oxygen species, which leads to an excessive amount of free radicals, which in turn trigger tissue injury and increase inflammation.
