Kidney Stones And Alcohol

The reason for this is that alcohol acts as a diuretic.

Kidney stones and alcohol. Alcohol affects the entire body and it can strain the kidneys because they separate damaging substances from the blood. As far as kidney stones are concerned excessive alcohol consumption can cause a lot of discomfort for kidney stone sufferers. The national kidney foundation reports that an occasional drink or two should pose no problem in most circumstances.

This in turn leads to frequent urination and in cases where the individual has urinary obstruction from stones urinating as it is will be a painful process and the need to urinate time and again can be a hell of an experience. Alcohol and kidney stones the most often cited reason that alcohol could cause kidney stones is the fact that alcohol consumption leads to dehydration but empirical data that supports this claim is scarce. Drinking alcohol if you already have kidney stones may cause them to move quickly.

This is actually not true if a person is a moderate drinker although frequent binge drinking could lead to stone formation. That can also result in an increased risk for kidney stones. Alcohol has a diuretic effect whereby it tends to increase the volume of urine produced.

Another link between alcohol and kidney stones is that excess consumption of alcohol can disrupt your body s acid base balance and that in turn increases your risk of developing kidney stones. While excessive consumption of alcohol could put someone at a greater risk for kidney stones moderate consumption has actually been shown to potentially prevent kidney stones. When a person binge drinks the amount of uric acid in his system increases thus making stone formation more likely.

Alcohol abuse over a long period of time can damage the kidneys and put them at risk for kidney disease. The kidneys also make sure a person s water content is balanced correctly. The first reason is that many people believe that drinking alcohol will lead to kidney stones.

Alcohol and kidneys stones excessive alcohol intake does not directly cause kidney stones but it can certainly exacerbate the problem. Research has shown that beer white wine and red wine may all help reduce a person s risk for kidney stones when consumed at a moderate rate. Similarly alcohol induced ph changes could potentially affect kidney stone development but again data is lacking.