Managing alcohol intake is crucial not only for physical health but also for preserving your mental well-being. Alcohol has been shown to disrupt neurotransmitters, which can elevate the risk of anxiety, depression, impulsivity and psychosis over time, says Diaz. Chronic alcohol consumption can also lead to a deficiency in vitamin B1 (thiamine), potentially resulting in serious neurological disorders like Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, she adds.
- LIST 2 describes some factors which affect the absorption of alcohol.
- Japanese (Yamagata et al. 2007) and Italian (Buja et al. 2011) cohort studies revealed a U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and incidence of proteinuria.
- If you have specific concerns about alcohol and your kidney health, it’s best to get personal medical care.
- This is because food can affect how well buspirone is absorbed into your body.
- Due to this risk, your doctor may recommend not eating grapefruit and grapefruit juice during buspirone treatment.
- According to a study published in The Lancet, it is 100 grams of alcohol per week (30).
Association Between Alcohol Consumption and Chronic Kidney Disease
There may be a small decline in alcohol elimination with aging, perhaps due to decreased liver mass, or body water content. Alcohol elimination was originally believed to be a zero-order process, meaning that alcohol was removed from the body at a constant rate, independent of the concentration of alcohol. Since the Km of most ADH isozymes for ethanol is low (about 1 mM), ADH is saturated at low concentrations of alcohol, hence, the overall elimination process proceeds at maximal velocity and is does alcohol effect your kidneys independent of the alcohol concentration. However, linearity is not observed at low alcohol concentration since ADH is no longer saturated with ethanol. Alcohol elimination now follows Michaelis-Menten kinetics; the rate of change in the concentration of alcohol depends on the concentration of alcohol and the kinetic constants Km and Vmax (23,24). The overall significance of first pass metabolism by the stomach is controversial.
- There is a lower risk of ischemic heart disease for moderate drinkers without heavy drinking occasions and a higher risk for drinkers with the same average amount who engaged in heavy episodic drinking 76.
- These rates of alcohol metabolism correlate with the basal metabolic rate for that species, indicating that the capacity to oxidize ethanol parallels the capacity to oxidize the typical nutrients.
- Ethanol is a nutrient and has caloric value (about 7 kcal per gram; carbohydrates and protein produce 4 kcal per gram, while fat produces 9 kcal).
What is One Drink?
A simple blood test can measure the levels of toxins and waste products in the bloodstream and tell doctors how efficiently the kidneys are working. One reason alcohol may affect the kidneys is through acute kidney injury. This may result from high levels of toxins leading to tissue injury and inflammation. At that stage, the kidneys have moderate damage and are not functioning at full capacity. Additional alcohol use can stress the kidney even further and worsen kidney function.
Association of monthly frequency of alcohol consumption and binge drinking with change in the eGFR over 12 years
Although moderate alcohol consumption contributes to increased insulin sensitivity 95,96 and delays the progression of diabetes 77,97, the prognosis of such patients differs from non-diabetic but moderate drinking patients with CKD. This indicates that moderate drinking may be beneficial for patients with CKD, but it is not enough to offset the adverse effects of metabolic disease on these patients. Long-term, heavy alcohol use can lead to acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, and kidney failure.
Additionally, the kidneys help regulate blood pressure, stimulate red blood cell production, and contribute to bone health. In addition, long-term alcohol consumption can lead to injuries of renal tubules 1,2,30,39,51. Na+-K+-ATPase present on the proximal tubular epithelial membrane is important for tubular reabsorption.
Another theory suggests that both enzymes may undergo the process of uncoupling due to oxidation or lack of critical coenzymes (e.g., tetrahydrobiopterin). Uncoupling eventually leads to generation of damaging ROS like superoxide anion, instead of the vasorelaxant nitric oxide that maintains normal blood flow in the kidney. However, the effect of alcohol on kidney function remains inconclusive. In fact, some studies show drinking alcohol has no association with kidney diseases (9).
Influence of sex, age, primary diseases and other confounding factors
Calabrese and Rizza (1999) found that ethanol induced a significant increase in the levels of fatty acid ethyl esters. They measured the highest levels in the heart, followed by kidney, brain, and liver. Abstinence is one of the characteristics of human drinking habits; many doctors will encourage patients to stop drinking, which may be good for their health 121.
Ensuring no one faces kidney disease alone
In general, the capacity of ALDH to remove acetaldehyde exceeds the capacity of acetaldehyde generation by the various pathways of alcohol oxidation. Chronic alcohol consumption decreases acetaldehyde oxidation, either due to decreased ALDH2 activity or to impaired mitochondrial function. Acetaldehyde generation is increased by chronic alcohol consumption because of metabolic adaptation.
These synthases are present in most tissues, especially the liver and pancreas, organs most susceptible to alcohol toxicity (69). These esters are synthesized in the endoplasmic reticulum, and transported to the plasma membrane and then removed from the cell by binding to lipoproteins and albumin and transported in the circulation. Fatty acid ethyl esters can be toxic, inhibiting DNA and protein synthesis. When oxidative metabolism of ethanol is blocked, there is an increase in ethanol metabolism to the fatty acid ethyl ester.
