Can PKD Patients on Dialysis Drink Beer

A:

First I need to rectify one misunderstanding. Most people believe that excessive intake of beer helps in reducing the chance of forming stones in the kidneys, but actually the effects not come from alcohol in the beer but the fluid intake which can increase urine volume and help discharge the stone outside the body. That is why more water intake is often recommended to kidney stone patients. Instead of reducing kidney stones, excessive intake of beer can promote the formation of kidney stones.

What is more, excessive beer intake is prohibited to ADPKD patients because it has been found that liquor, weather it is beers, spirit or wine can have direct stimulation to the polycystic proteins and promote the secretion of cystic fluid. Besides, alcohol can cause hypermetabolism of creatine in the muscles and further increase serum creatinine level. The metabolic products of alcohol will cause metabolic acidosis and patients will have nausea, loss of appetite, depression and headache, etc.

It can not be denied that moderate intake of alcohol can have some benefits to the body. For those PKD patients that have normal kidney functions and stable illness conditions, some alcohol is okay, but the amount should be limited to one drink for women and older people and two drinks for men. One drink equals 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 1 ounce of whiskey.

But the proper amount for ADPKD patients is very small and if beer intake exceeds the proper amount, it will cause adverse harm and aggravate PKD conditions such as worsening high blood pressure and alcohol might have interactions with prescribed medicines, therefore the best recommendation is to give up drinking alcohol. What is more, beer is high in phosphorus; therefore it should be avoided if blood test shows serum phosphorus is higher than normal value. Besides, other high-phosphorus foods like organ meat, chocolate, cola should also be limited.