Alcohol Misuse and Kidney Injury: Epidemiological Evidence and Potential Mechanisms PMC

Severe or recurring kidney infections may require hospitalization or surgery. Information and shareable resources to help others choose to drink less alcohol and be their best. These effects can also impact the safety and well-being of people around you. Alcoholics Anonymous is available almost everywhere and provides a place to openly and nonjudgmentally discuss alcohol issues with others who have alcohol use disorder. Long-term alcohol use can change your brain’s wiring in much more significant ways. Ways that your standard hangover cures won’t even begin to touch.

Acute kidney injury

Since women have a higher blood concentration of alcohol, they may be more sensitive to alcohol than men 3,50,90. At the same time, the difference in the actual amounts of alcohol consumption 79 between men and women causes this sex difference. Men generally drink more than women, and men have higher rates of alcoholism than women. Furthermore, the cardiovascular-protective effects of estrogen 91,93 should not be overlooked.

• Investigators have speculated that alcohol or an intermediate metabolite directly affects magnesium exchange in the kidney tubules (Epstein 1992).
• Third, in most studies, patients’ alcohol consumption data were obtained by a fixed self-administered questionnaire, and this method lacks quantitative measurement.
• Kidney disease can also be brought about by high blood pressure and liver disease, both of which are possible effects of alcoholism.

Cancer risk

The ability of the kidneys to recover will depend on many factors. How long the person engaged in heavy alcohol use, the presence of other health problems and the types of kidney damage that occurred play an important role in how recovery progresses. However, it is believed that light to moderate drinking is unlikely to cause serious health problems for most people. Some experts would contend that https://ecosoberhouse.com/ any alcohol is too much, but most will just advise against heavy alcohol use. Alcohol use can increase the risk of glomerulonephritis, a condition in which the kidney’s filtering structures become inflamed and damaged.

What does kidney pain from alcohol feel like?

Moreover, many patients were excluded from the long-term observational studies because they did not attend routine annual health checkups. Although the researchers do not analyze the reasons why people are lost to follow-up, we cannot ignore the possibility that some patients were diagnosed with CKD and had begun regular medical treatment in another medical center. We also realize that previous studies did not include an adequate number of heavy drinkers, especially female heavy drinkers.

Understanding excessive drinking

• One of the main negative effects that diabetes can create is impaired kidney function.
• The slope of decline in the eGFR estimated over 12 years was less steep in the higher alcohol intake groups (Fig. 3).
• Drinking alcohol if you already have kidney stones may cause them to move quickly.
• Therefore, the relationship between heavy alcohol consumption and CKD may be affected by this sampling bias 16,79,117.

Alcohol can perturb these controls, however, to a degree that varies with the amount of alcohol consumed and the particular mechanism’s sensitivity. AKF works on behalf of 1 in 7 Americans living with kidney disease, and the millions more at risk, to support people wherever they are in their fight against kidney disease — from prevention through post-transplant living. The right treatment option for kidney pain related to alcohol depends on the cause.

Alcoholism and Kidney Disease

In addition, Das et al. reported that alcohol consumption impairs the ability of CAT to catalyze the decomposition of H2O2 in the kidneys 41. This subsequently promotes the conversion of H2O2 to the more reactive hydroxyl radicals, which cause damage in antioxidant capacities and mitochondria in renal cells 34,42,43. Samadi et al. also suggested how alcohol affects the kidneys that ethanol induces depression of nephrin and podocin in podocytes, which contributes to renal injury and proteinuria and is mediated by oxidative stress 44. As early as thousands of years ago, humans had mastered the primitive aspects of brewing technology.

How Long Do You Have to Drink Alcohol to Damage Your Kidneys?

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. In addition, AUD’s effect on other major organs (liver, heart, intestines, and skeletal muscle) appears to promote unfavorable pathological processes that are harmful to the kidneys.