A man from Arkansas may have to undergo dialysis for the rest of his life after suffering from kidney failure. The reason? Drinking too much iced tea.
A recent entry in the New England Journal of Medicine highlighted the case of a 56-year-old unnamed man who was brought to the hospital after he developed persistent body aches, malaise, and nausea. He underwent different types of exams, including a creatinine test that revealed his was 4.5 mg per deciliter, a far cry from the less than 3 mg during the previous two years. Although that pinpointed there's something wrong with his kidneys, his urine sample didn't contain any hematuria (blood presence) or proteinuria (protein leakage).
He is suffering from a kidney failure due to the presence of excessive oxalate crystals.
Oxalate is a natural substance found in many various types of food such as chocolates, brans, and spinaches. However, the man wasn't eating too much of these. He has diabetes, which may lead to kidney nephropathy as blood pressure rises, but it wasn't the cause either. He didn't have any previous medical record or family history.
However, he was an excessive iced tea drinker--black tea, to be more specific. In fact, he consumed as many as 16 cups of it on a daily basis. An average person consumes around 11 glasses of liquids, which already include water, coffee, and sodas.
Doctors of University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences including Dr. Umbar Ghaffar therefore concluded that his condition was simply a consequence of overconsumption of iced tea, which also contains oxalate. He was actually taking more than 3 times the normal oxalate level.
While the man's case is scary--they have now called it iced tea nephropathy--that doesn't mean a person should stop drinking iced tea altogether. According to Dr. Randy Luciano of Yale School of Medicine, it was excessive consumption that led to the problem.
