Can you get kidney stones from drinking alcohol

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All users should seek advice from a qualified healthcare professional for a diagnosis and answers to their medical questions. Skip to navigation Skip to main content Site map Accessibility Contact us. Search this site Search all sites Search. Go to whole of WA Government Search. Open search bar Open navigation Submit search. Health conditions. Briefly, from to , , participants aged 30—79 years were recruited from five urban and five rural regions of China.

All participants provided written informed consent and completed a laptop-based questionnaire survey, physical measurement, and blood sample collection.

The final analysis included , participants. At baseline survey, all participants were required to report their frequency of tea consumption during the past 12 months never, only occasionally, only at certain seasons, every month but less than weekly, or at least once a week. Participants who consumed tea at least once a week were further asked to report 1 days consuming in a typical week 1 to 2 days, 3 to 5 days, or almost every day ; 2 type of tea consumed most commonly green tea, oolong tea, black tea, or others ; 3 the number of cups in mL size of tea consumed in a drinking day.

A pictorial guide was provided to illuminate the standard-sized cup. According to reported tea consumption frequency, all participants were divided into three groups: never, less than daily including only occasionally, only during certain seasons, every month but less than weekly, and weekly but less than daily , or daily.

Similar to collecting information about tea consumption, all participants were asked to report their frequency of alcohol consumption during the past 12 months never, only occasionally, only at certain seasons, every month but less than weekly, or at least once a week.

The beer was calculated according to mL per small bottle and mL per large bottle; other types of alcohol were calculated in units of 1 Liang or 50 mL. We consulted the literature to determine the content of pure alcohol of different types of alcohol and calculate the amount of pure alcohol consumed [ 21 ]. All participants were divided into three groups based on the reported alcohol consumption frequency: never, less than daily including only occasionally, only during certain seasons, every month but less than weekly, and weekly but less than daily , or daily.

Habitual fresh fruit consumption was assessed by a validated qualitative food frequency questionnaire [ 22 ]. All participants were required to report how often they had consumed fresh fruits during the past 12 months never, every month but less than weekly, 1—3 days per week, 4—6 days per week, or every day.

Daily level of physical activity was calculated by multiplying the metabolic equivalent tasks METs value for a particular type of physical activity by hours spent on that activity per day and summing the MET hours for all activities.

Body height, weight, and waist and hip circumferences were measured with uniformly calibrated instruments. BMI was calculated by dividing weight by the square of height, and waist-to-hip ratio by the ratio of waist circumferences to hip circumferences. Information about morbidity and mortality of all participants during follow-up was ascertained periodically through linkage, via unique national identification number, to national health insurance HI claim databases, to local death and disease registries, and active follow-up.

In the present study, outcome events included the first documented calculus of kidney and ureter N20 or unspecified renal colic N23 during the follow-up period. Baseline characteristics of participants between different consumption frequency groups of tea, alcohol, or fruits were compared by using either covariance analysis for continuous variables or logistic regression for categorical variables , adjusting for age, sex, and study regions.

Follow-up time person years was calculated from baseline survey to the date of the outcome event, death, loss to follow up, or 31 December , whichever occurred first. The proportional hazard assumption for the Cox regression models was tested using the Schoenfeld residual, and no violation was discovered.

The multivariable models were adjusted for sex; education; occupation; household income; smoking status; physical activity; intake of red meat, dairy products, and fresh vegetables, dietary supplement intake of vitamins, calcium, iron, or zinc; menopausal status only for women ; BMI, waist-to-hip ratio; and prevalent hypertension and diabetes.

The association analysis of tea, alcohol, or fruit consumption with stone risk was further mutually adjusted for the other two variables. Tests for linear trend were conducted in daily tea or alcohol consumers by assigning the median value of tea in cups per day or alcohol in grams or milliliters per day drinking to each of the categories and including in the regression models as continuous variables.

The linear trend test for fruit consumption was conducted in all participants by assigning the midpoint value of fruit consumption frequency to each of the categories.

To test the robustness of our findings, we also conducted the following sensitivity analyses: 1 excluding participants who developed kidney stones during the first two years of follow-up; 2 excluding the cases of unspecified renal colic ICD N23 during the follow-up period; 3 additionally adjusting for marital status, self-reported clinician diagnosis of coronary heart disease, stroke, and gallstones or cholecystitis, and diuretic use.

The results were not substantially changed data not shown. We further examined the association of tea or alcohol consumption with kidney stone risk according to the types of tea or alcohol consumed most commonly.

In addition, we examined the association of tea, fruits, or overall intake with kidney stone risk according to the amount of alcohol consumed. We implemented likelihood ratio tests for the interaction, comparing models with or without interaction terms.

We used Stata, version Of all the participants included, the mean age was The preferred types of tea and alcohol were green tea and strong spirits, accounting for The daily tea and alcohol consumers were more likely to be male, while the daily fruit consumers were more likely to be female. The habits of tea and alcohol drinking tended to cluster; that is, daily tea consumers were more inclined to drink alcohol every day.

Daily fruits consumers were more likely to drink tea, but less likely to drink alcohol. Baseline characteristics of study participants according to the frequencies of tea, alcohol, or fruit consumption. Abbreviations: MET, metabolic equivalent of task. All variables were adjusted for age, sex, and study regions, as appropriate. The negative association between tea consumption and risk of kidney stones was found in both green tea and other types of tea consumers Table 3. Subgroup analyses of association between tea consumption and risk of kidney stones according to types of tea consumed most commonly.

Adjusted covariates in the models were consistent with the model 3 in Table 2. Subgroup analyses of the association between alcohol consumption and risk of kidney stones according to types of alcohol consumed most commonly. Adjusted covariates in the models were consistent with model 3 in Table 2. Abbreviations: HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval. Adjusted covariates were the same as those in model 3 of Table 2 , as appropriate.

Increasing tea and fruit consumption could independently decrease the risk of kidney stones, even for those who did not drink alcohol excessively. Unlike the studies above, the association between tea consumption and kidney stone risk was not observed in another prospective study of 27, Finnish male smokers, in which the proportion of tea consumers was relatively low [ 17 ]. The reduced risk was consistently seen in people who drank green tea and other teas. The caffeine in tea has a diuretic effect and could also promote sodium, chloride, calcium, phosphate, magnesium, and citrate excretion [ 23 , 24 ].

However, some studies have found that decaffeinated coffee might also reduce the stone risk, suggesting that the protective effect may not only come from caffeine but also from other chemicals or fluid itself [ 16 , 25 ]. Moreover, tea is rich in polyphenols and other various phytochemicals, which may provide protective effects against oxalate-induced toxicity [ 26 , 27 , 28 ]. Our study revealed that alcohol consumption, as high as Given a large number of strong spirits consumers in our study population, we provide powerful evidence that strong spirits consumption could also reduce kidney stone risk.

Alcohol is thought to have a diuretic effect by inhibiting vasopressin secretion and may further prevent the formation of stones [ 29 ]. However, there are also concerns that alcohol might increase stone risk by promoting the formation of uric acid metabolites [ 30 , 31 ] and lead to lithogenesis by causing oxidative stress damage to kidney tissue [ 32 ].

Nevertheless, the results of the current study did not support the latter hypothesis. Previous studies in Western populations have shown that kidney stone risk decreased with increasing daily fruit intake, but no further risk reduction was found for much higher intake [ 12 , 14 , 15 ].

In our study, the percentage of daily fruit consumers was relatively low [ 33 ]. We found that the risk of kidney stones also decreased with increased days per week of fruit consumption. Fruits are not only high in water but also rich in vitamins, inorganic salts, and fiber, which could increase urinary potassium, magnesium, citrate, and other stone inhibitors, thereby reducing the risk of kidney stones [ 12 , 34 ]. Given the other negative health effects of alcohol consumption, it is not advisable to reduce the risk of kidney stones by increasing the amount of alcohol consumed [ 35 ].

Our further analysis found that tea and fruit consumption could independently reduce the kidney stone risk, even for participants who did not drink alcohol excessively. As far as we know, the present study is so far the largest study to explore the associations between tea, alcohol, and fruit consumption and the risk of kidney stones among Chinese adults. The strengths of our study included its prospective study design and the inclusion of geographically diverse participants.

Due to the large sample size and long follow-up time, we accumulated enough cases to observe the trend of kidney stone risk with different levels of beverage or fruit consumption. We specifically obtained robust results for green tea and other teas and for strong spirits and other alcoholic beverages. Inevitably, our study also has some limitations. Kidney stones are another possible cause of pain.

A person may feel intense back pain or pain in their genitals or stomach as the body attempts to pass the stone. Some people also develop a fever. If the body does not pass the stone, a person can develop a severe infection or blockage.

Sustaining a physical injury to the kidneys, such as by falling from a height, may also cause kidney pain. It is important to see a doctor for any and all kidney pain, whether it is related to alcohol consumption or not.

A person is at risk of different complications depending on the underlying cause of the kidney pain. For example, a person with a UTI that spreads to the kidneys can develop sepsis , a dangerous infection of the blood.

Avoid binge drinking, and drink plenty of water if drinking alcohol. People with chronic kidney disease should not drink alcohol at all, and they can speak to a doctor for help with quitting if they are finding it challenging. Not all forms of kidney disease are preventable, but adopting a healthful lifestyle may reduce the risk of complications, even in people with genetic kidney disorders.

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