Why Kidney Pain After Drinking Alcohol? Preventive Measures

We have many vital organs in the human body, and the kidney is one of the most important ones which has a crucial role in human body functioning. Kidneys are responsible for regulating water intake and output. The pair of kidneys that we have also maintain the mineral levels in the human body and produce a lot of essential hormones. But there are different threats to the functioning of human kidneys, and Alcoholism is a major one. According to the recorded data, many people experience kidney pain after drinking alcohol.  

58% of people in the US suffer from kidney pain due to excessive intake of alcohol every year. 

So, we must identify the reasons for that and understand the impact of alcohol and kidney disease symptoms. In this blog, we will discuss all that. Let’s start… 

How Do You Feel When You Have Alcoholic Kidney Pain? 

When you drink a lot of alcohol, you might feel soreness around the surrounding areas of your kidney. This area can be the back of your abdomen, on the lower side of your ribcage or both the sides of your spinal cord. You can suddenly feel this pain very sharp, just like a stabbing pain or more like a dull ache. This pain can sometimes be mild and sometimes be very severe. 

It can also be felt in the upper or lower back or sometimes between the buttocks and lower ribs for kidney pain. So, if your question has been what does kidney pain feel like, you must have got a basic idea of it. You can feel this pain immediately after you have consumed a lot of alcohol. Sometimes this pain gets very worse at night. 

The associated symptoms are vomiting, nausea, painful urination, blood in the urine, headaches, fatigue, trouble sleeping, etc. Moreover, some people often think that does alcohol raise blood pressure, but there is still no scientific evidence available. 

Now that we understand the major symptoms that people suffer from if they consume excessive alcohol, let’s know about different causes of kidney pain after consuming the alcohol. 

Liver Disease 

Source: bms.com

Liver diseases are dangerous! After you drink a lot of alcohol, your body becomes susceptible to pain and discomfort. This happens more if your liver has been affected up to a great extent due to Alcoholism. With liver disease, blood flow to your kidneys gets affected, and they somewhat lag in filtering the blood. Doctors usually advise people to stop drinking alcohol, lose the extra pounds, and follow a nutrient-rich diet for treating liver diseases.

If you are suffering from some serious case of liver failure, a liver transplant or certain strong medications for this purpose are needed. 

Kidney Stones 

Source: urologyaustin.com

Kidney stones are one of yet another significant reason for alcohol-induced dehydration. If you have kidney stones and continue to consume alcohol, this might increase your kidney pain remarkably. If you have smaller-sized kidney stones, you can increase your water intake, take medications, and take help from home remedies to dissolve them. 

Gastritis 

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If you drink a lot of alcohol, it can lead to having gastritis. In this disease, the lining of your stomach becomes swollen or inflamed. This is not related to the kidneys. You can feel the pain of gastritis in your upper abdomen, which remains often associated with kidney pain. 

If you have gastritis and want to treat it immediately, you must have pain medications and recreational drugs. More specifically, you should take antacids to relieve your symptoms and the associated pain. What’s more, you can even use proton pump inhibitors and H2 antagonists to reduce the production of stomach acid and get rid of gastritis. 

Dehydration 

Source: emedihealth.com

The consumption of excessive alcohol can have a lot of diuretic functions. If you consume excessive alcohol, you will urinate more than usual. This causes you to face dehydration, especially when you have more than the expected amount of alcohol. Because of this kind of dehydration, alcohol affects the functioning of your kidney. It can adversely impact the balance of water and electrolytes in your body. This impairs the overall kidney functioning, causes very bad kidney pain, and can even develop kidney stones. 

If you want to get rid of the dehydration and kidney pain associated with that, you should drink a lot of water, other fluids and electrolytes, etc. The good electrolytes you should consume include different types of health drinks and electrolytes, not sugary beverages. 

Ureteropelvic Junction Obstruction

Source: verywellhealth.com

If you suffer from UPJ obstruction, you may suffer from kidney pain after drinking alcohol. This condition has a worsening effect on your kidney and bladder functioning. The kidney pain associated with UPJ obstruction is usually felt on the sides of your abdomen, lower back, and abdomen. Sometimes your pain might travel up to the groin.

 If you drink more alcohol in this condition, it will negatively intensify your pain. Sometimes the kidney pain associated with excessive consumption of alcohol gets cured on its own. But at some point in time, some very minimalistic invasive procedures are used to treat the kidney pain that we feel with this condition. For most dangerous cases, surgeries might be required to cure this disease. 

Hydronephrosis 

If you drink more alcohol than the amount that your body can resist, you might end up with swollen kidneys due to the accumulation of urine. This kind of blockage prevents urine from effectively draining out from the kidney to your bladder. As a result of this, your renal pelvis becomes inflamed and enlarged. It further causes flank pain in your kidney and difficulty during urination. If you have kidney stones, it will increase your risk of suffering from hydronephrosis. 

If you are suffering from hydronephrosis and associated kidney pain, you should get it treated as soon as possible. See your doctor immediately and get rid of the kidney pain without any hassle. 

We have discussed above some of the most common reasons why kidneys get very badly affected due to the excessive consumption of alcohol, and ultimately it starts paining a lot for people. And due to uncontrolled kidney pain and severe kidney disease, people suffer from different other serious complications like gout, anemia, very high potassium levels, high blood pressure, swelling in the body, various organ failure, heart disease, high phosphorus levels in the human body, and so on. So, you now have an idea of how dangerous the pain in your kidney can be due to excessive consumption of alcohol. The impact is not just limited to the kidneys; it affects other major organs. 

Thus, it is important to prevent pain in your kidney as much as you can from the initial point in time to avoid scary aftermaths. 

What Are the Preventive Measures for Alcohol-Induced Kidney Pain? 

Source: orlandorecovery.com

Some effective preventive measures for kidney pain are

•  Avoid drinking alcohol as much as you can
• Avoid tobacco consumption 
• Drink a lot of water
• Exercise regularly 
• Maintain a proper and healthy body weight
• Treat your other medical conditions like diabetes etc.

Well, it is a fact that all types of kidney diseases are not preventable. But maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle can help you prevent many of them, sometimes even the genetic ones. So, what are you waiting for? If you face any kidney pain symptoms, start following a healthy regimen now! 

Do You Want to Get More Enlightened about the Kidney Pain Caused due to Alcoholism?

We will share some more necessary details with you. Drinking alcohol can affect various other organs of your body except for just the kidneys. But if you drink moderately, like one or a couple of drinks occasionally, there are no severe effects. However, having too much alcohol can worsen your condition. 

What Amount of Alcohol Can Cause Kidney Pain and Damage?

If you think only binge eating can impact your kidneys badly, it is wrong! Rather, if you drink a lot of alcohol regularly, it can lead to several kidney problems, including severe kidney pain. So, it would help if you avoided regular drinking of excessive alcohol. It’s because, with that, you will double up your risk of chronic kidney diseases. Moreover, if you are a heavy drinker and smoke, chances of a very high risk of kidney pain and other associated diseases have been noticed in such people. 

Also Read: Best Healthy Eating Diet Plans for 2022

When Should You See a Doctor and Get Treated Your Kidney Pain?

One of the primary functions of the kidney is to filter various harmful substances from your body. So, if you have problems in your kidney, various other multiple organs in your body will soon get affected. So, you must rush to a doctor soon if:

•  You experience symptoms of UTI
• Fever accompanied with pain in your kidney
•  Lack of urination, even when you are drinking enough water 
• Intense pain in the backside of your kidney
•  High blood pressure and kidney pain 

Depending on the intensity of the complication, these symptoms can be either treated or subsided as per the doctor’s advice.

The Bottom Line 

Kidney pain is surely one of the very serious health concerns. And alcohol is the most important reason behind most people suffering from this. So, keeping the danger of this disease in mind, it’s our responsibility to not indulge in the addiction of consuming excessive alcohol. 

The sooner we understand this, the better it is.

Now, without waiting anymore, let’s start with a holistic and healthy approach towards living our lives and never allow alcohol to impact us so badly. 

We wish you the best of health!

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