So bad you need to read it to believe it. The NKF has this ask the doctor article by
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| Look at all those paper charts! How 2007 of you. |
Dr Spry on the effects of alcohol on the kidney.
His first point is that drinking alcohol suppresses ADH. You know what other beverage suppresses ADH? All of them. Because that’s what drinking does. Alcohol may have some aditional ADH suppressing property but it is not clinically relevent because being drunk doesn’t cause hypernatremia.
Here is what UpToDate has to say about the electrolyte abnormalities of alcohol:
So beyond some increase in thirst from the suppression of ADH, this is a side show.
Then Spry confuses that point by saying that drinking beer to excess can cause hyponatremia as part of beer drinkers potomania (BTW: Best name for a disease ever). To say that beer-drinkers potomania is a consequence of alcohol misses the point, the disease comes from a bizarre diet that is void of protein and salt. These people exist on carbohydrates alone.
Then he mentions that excessive drinking can cause high blood pressure, but fails to mention that not drinking is associated with increased mortality, in fact being a teetotaler has the same relative risk of death as drinking a sixer every night. Seems like an important omission.
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| For some more on this crazy phenomenon see this post or this one |
Regarding his next point, I’m speechless:
- hypokalemia
- hypomagnesemia
- hypophosphatemia
Thank-god his final sentence has some wisdom, god knows the rest of the post is crap.