In addition, many studies have suggested that alcohol consumption can also affect the prognosis of patients with CKD. For example, the prognosis of light-to-moderate drinkers differs from that of heavy drinkers. Patients who are drinking more red wine may also benefit from its cardiovascular protective effects. When you drink heavily, your kidneys have to work harder to filter out the alcohol. And in rare cases, binge drinking — five or more drinks at a time — can cause a sudden drop in kidney function called acute kidney injury.

Special Benefits and Confounding Factors of Alcohol Consumption

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 what is benzo belly 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.

A relatively low incidence of cardiovascular disease was found in middle-aged French men, despite a relatively high dietary intake of saturated fats. Subsequent research suggests that it is potentially attributable to the consumption of red wine, which contains various polyphenols and has various protective effects 42,120, and we believe the same protective effects can be seen in patients with CKD. The impact of alcohol on kidney function has not been well investigated. There are several possible protective mechanisms of alcohol on kidney function. Ethanol and polyphenol both have anti-oxidative effects and ethanol improves polyphenol absorption, thereby contributing to bioavailability 4,5,6. Furthermore, alcohol has an anti-inflammatory effect, with increased serum interleukin-10 levels and decreased serum interleukin-16 levels 20.

1. The association of the secondary exposures—frequency of alcohol consumption and binge drinking—with the change in the eGFR were also assessed.
2. A concerning portion—about 1 in 4 drinkers—binge drink at least once per year, consuming five or more drinks within a short time frame.
3. However, other studies found that long-term alcohol consumption aggravates renal fibrosis, which may be related to epithelial mesenchymal transdifferentiation and fibrosis induced by ethanol 33,47,56.
4. A blockage or obstruction prevents urine from properly draining from the kidney to the bladder.
5. Participants’ baseline characteristics, including weight, height, education, marriage status, household income, smoking, drinking, diet, and exercise habits, were self-reported, and recall bias should be concerned.

Therefore, the effect of ethanol on the kidney is beyond our original understanding. Alcohol can not only directly damage the kidney, but also causes renal dysfunction by damaging other organs. In addition, some studies proved that alcohol consumption aggravates kidney injury in diabetic nephropathy rats 64. Hepatorenal syndrome, which is secondary to alcoholic hepatitis 65, and acute kidney injury, secondary to rhabdomyolysis, also cannot be ignored 46.

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However, we should be aware that alcohol also can contain harmful substances. Sanoff et al. found that consumption of a homemade alcohol, prepared by an unregulated process in Nicaragua, may be related to kidney injury among the local residents, which may related to pesticides or heavy metals contamination 114. Ethyl alcohol and water are the main ingredients of alcohol beverages, but we cannot ignore other bioactivators in liquors, such as polyphenols. When your kidneys don’t function the way they should, prescription and over-the-counter medications can build up in your blood and may cause additional damage to your kidneys or other parts of your body… According to a 2022 review, symptoms do not usually manifest until stage 4 or 5 of the disease.

Moreover, other bioactivators in red wine, excluding resveratrol, and those in white wine, also have the function of ROS scavenging and renal protection 7,84,113. 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 of alcohol, which also leads to a higher concentration of alcohol than in men 92.

Glyxambi and health-related interactions

Although there has long been controversy about the renal-protective effect of alcohol consumption on kidney injury, the renal-protective effects of polyphenols and other bioactivators from wine has been demonstrated in many studies 15,95,97,101–103. These include anthocyanins, which are the main polyphenols in red grapes, and resveratrol, which is the most famous polyphenolic compound found in red wine 104. They have been demonstrated to have ROS scavenging, antiplatelet, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antibacterial, antiaging, and cardiovascular and renal-protective effects 105–112.

A few studies have linked rhabdomyolysis and myoglobin toxicity with acute kidney injury, supporting a possible association among alcohol use, alcohol-related acute myopathy, and kidney damage. For example, Belliere and colleagues (2015) showed a link between rhabdomyolysis and excessive macrophage infiltration in the kidney, which in turn led to pro-inflammatory marker expression and consequent tissue injury (Belliere et al. 2015). Another study by Plotnikov and colleagues (2009) showed that mitochondria isolated from rat kidneys were damaged by oxidative stress when incubated with myoglobin. This finding suggests that rhabdomyolysis and myoglobin toxicity may trigger oxidative stress in the kidney via mitochondrial injury. 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.

Sex, age, primary diseases, initial GFR, individual differences, and dietary structure can all influence the results of a study. NO is a free gaseous signal molecule produced by the NOS family, including neuronal NO synthase (nNOS), inducible NO synthase (iNOS), and endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), and it plays an important role in hemodynamics regulation. In general, NO is generated by mesangial cells and renal tubular epithelial cells, and it plays an important role in the regulation of glomerular and medullar hemodynamics and renin release. Although different studies have shown opposite results for the effects of NO and NOS activity with alcohol consumption 19,39,46,47, they came to a similar conclusion that NO and NOS play important roles in glomerular endothelial cell injury. In addition, long-term alcohol consumption decreases prostaglandin E2 in the kidney, which can release anti-inflammatory cytokines and dilate the afferent arteriole to increase glomerular blood flow, which causes kidney dysfunction and glomerular destruction 24. Unlike previous reports, some researchers indicated that ethyl alcohol pretreatment can improve renal antioxidant activities and capacity.

Chronic dehydration puts you at greater risk for these adverse effects. Chronic drinking can also lead to liver disease, adding strain on your kidneys. Liver disease can alter the blood flow to the kidneys, lowering their filtering ability. Evidence also exists that alcohol-related damage to the liver, in particular advanced liver cirrhosis, leads to hepatorenal syndrome (HRS)—a deterioration in renal function related to impaired circulation. The underlying mechanisms involved in the development and progression of HRS are incompletely understood, although it is plausible that the altered balance between vasoconstrictor and vasodilator factors plays a significant role (Lenz 2005). Kaartinen et al. found that an abnormal immunoreaction may be related to acetaldehyde, the first metabolite of ethanol, which can form covalent adducts with different proteins to activate the immune response49.