There are often no notable symptoms in the early stages of alcohol-related liver disease. If you do have symptoms, they may include pain or discomfort in the upper right side of your abdomen, fatigue, or unexplained weight loss. Moderate drinking can be a part of a healthy lifestyle, but it’s important to understand the effects that chronic drinking (frequently drinking over the recommended daily consumption) can have on the body. Consuming alcohol dehydrates your body, which can have negative effects on the function of your kidneys and other vital organs. In addition to the short-term effects on the body, there are many long-term consequences of chronic alcohol use on the body, particularly for the brain, kidneys and liver. A team of healthcare providers, which may include psychologists or addiction specialists, can help if you find it challenging to stop drinking.
Health Categories to Explore
If you have CKD, you may eventually require dialysis or a kidney transplant. Of course, we all want a simple, achievable number for how long we should abstain from alcohol in order for our bodies to fully heal from its effects. There are also certain foods like tea, fish and nuts that can benefit the liver’s function in many ways. Think of it as giving your liver a little boost in the right direction. “Nutrition therapy is very important in terms of feeding the liver and giving it the building blocks it needs to restore itself,” says Dr. Lindenmeyer. Another thing that will help your liver’s journey in recovery is good nutrition.
Alcohol’s Impact on Kidney Function
Here, results of studies assessing the impact of wine, beer, and spirits on the development of ALD as well as possible underlying mechanisms are summarized and discussed. There’s a risk of liver disease, but not kidney damage if you drink moderate amounts of alcohol, says Goldfarb. For instance, a 2014 paper that reviewed several studies found no conclusive evidence of either harmful or beneficial effects of moderate alcohol consumption on kidney function.
Alcoholic hepatitis
One of the reasons for this sex difference might be the different pharmacokinetics of ethyl alcohol between men and women. Since women, with a lower proportion of body water, have a smaller distribution volume for alcohol, they are more likely to have a higher concentration of alcohol in the blood than men. Moreover, women with a lower activity of gastric alcohol dehydrogenase have lower gastric first-pass metabolism how does alcohol affect the kidneys of alcohol, which also leads to a higher concentration of alcohol than in men [92]. 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, ~5.1% of the global burden of disease and injury is attributable to alcohol consumption [1–3].
- Similarly, clinicians long have noted significant kidney enlargement (i.e., nephromegaly) in direct proportion to liver enlargement among chronic alcoholic2 patients afflicted with liver cirrhosis.
- Eventually, you can develop permanent and irreversible scarring in your liver, which is called cirrhosis.
The kidneys continuously perform their tasks of purifying and balancing the constituents of the body’s fluids. Although resilient, the kidneys can deteriorate as a result of malnutrition, alcohol abuse or dependence, or liver and other diseases. Healthy kidneys are vital to the function of all the body’s organs and systems. A cell’s function depends not only on receiving a continuous supply of nutrients and eliminating metabolic waste products but also on the existence of stable physical and chemical conditions in the extracellular fluid1 bathing it.
Both acute and chronic alcohol consumption can compromise kidney function, particularly in conjunction with established liver disease. Investigators have observed alcohol-related changes in the structure and function of the kidneys and impairment in their ability to regulate the volume and composition of fluid and electrolytes in the body. Chronic alcoholic patients may experience low blood concentrations of key electrolytes as well as potentially severe alterations in the body’s acid-base balance. In addition, alcohol can disrupt the hormonal control mechanisms that govern kidney function.
Study participants and data collection
- Regardless of the precipitating factor, patients who develop kidney failure in the course of alcoholic cirrhosis have a grave prognosis.
- Consuming alcohol dehydrates your body, which can have negative effects on the function of your kidneys and other vital organs.
- Though it’s reversible with treatment, it can increase the risk of developing chronic kidney disease.
- So, your system prioritizes getting rid of alcohol before it can turn its attention to its other work.
Several mechanisms may contribute to abnormally low phosphate levels (i.e., hypophosphatemia) (see box). Simply lacking an adequate amount of phosphate in the diet is one possible reason for phosphate deficiency. For severely alcoholic patients who eat poorly, such a nutritional deficit may be an important contributor to hypophosphatemia.
- Sex, age, primary diseases, initial GFR, individual differences, and dietary structure can all influence the results of a study.
- According to the American Kidney Fund (AKF), there are five stages of chronic kidney disease (CKD), with stage 1 representing the earliest and mildest stage and stage 5 representing the most advanced and severe.
- Alcohol causes changes in the function of the kidneys and makes them less able to filter the blood.
- If you’ve already been diagnosed with cancer, drinking alcohol could also affect your risk of developing a new cancer.
- With complete alcohol avoidance and time to recover, the liver can often heal some of its damage from alcohol, allowing you to return to a normal life.
- Among their many tasks, kidneys release hormones that help regulate blood pressure.
- Hence, we sought to examine the association of alcohol consumption with the change and rapid decline in kidney function over 12 years in a South Korean population-based cohort study.