Exercise is beneficial for health, but the wrong methods can harm the body! A doctor warns that 5 common bad exercise habits can potentially damage kidney health. Among them, incorrect hydration during exercise can, in severe cases, trigger acute kidney failure.
Nephrologist Dr. Hong Wing-xiang shared on his personal Facebook page that with the recent popularity of exercise, correct exercise undoubtedly helps maintain health and protect kidneys. However, wrong methods can lead to serious consequences, even requiring dialysis. He notes that clinically, many seemingly healthy young people are sent to the emergency room with sudden acute kidney failure, often due to the following 5 fatal exercise habits:
1. Drinking Sugary Drinks While Exercising
According to research in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, when the body is in a dehydrated state from heavy sweating, renal blood flow is already significantly reduced. If you then chug high-sugar drinks, the fructose is rapidly metabolized, causing intracellular dehydration and acute inflammation, thus worsening renal ischemia and triggering acute kidney injury.
2. Forcing Weight Training After Staying Up Late or Being Sick
Clinical literature from The New England Journal of Medicine indicates that when the body is overly fatigued or in an inflamed state, muscle tolerance is significantly reduced. If you still force high-intensity training under these conditions, it can cause massive muscle cell necrosis, releasing high concentrations of myoglobin that directly block the renal tubules, inducing fatal rhabdomyolysis and causing acute kidney injury.
3. Exercising After Taking Painkillers
Many people habitually take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to continue exercising despite muscle soreness. However, medical research has confirmed that these drugs cause strong constriction of kidney blood vessels, reducing renal blood flow. Combined with dehydration during exercise, this undoubtedly delivers a double fatal blow to the kidneys.
4. Exercising in Hot, Humid, Poorly Ventilated Environments
According to a study on global heat stress and health published in The Lancet, exercising in hot, humid, poorly ventilated environments causes the body's core temperature to rise rapidly, triggering heat stress. At this time, a large amount of blood flows to the skin's surface to dissipate heat, causing blood flow to internal organs and the kidneys to be severely reduced. Even without reaching the level of severe heatstroke, kidney cells can necrose due to microcirculatory failure.
5. Exercising Outdoors When Air Quality is Poor and PM2.5 Exceeds Limits
According to a large-scale follow-up study in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology(JASN), fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air not only harms the lungs but also severely damages kidneys. Breathing volume during exercise is several times higher than at rest. If you inhale large amounts of PM2.5 during exercise, particles directly enter the bloodstream through the alveoli, causing systemic vascular inflammation and oxidative stress, directly damaging the glomerular filtration barrier and accelerating kidney function decline.
Early Symptoms of Kidney Disease / Kidney Failure: Pay Attention to Urine Changes
According to the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, the main functions of the kidneys include excreting metabolic waste, coordinating fluid and electrolyte balance, pH balance, blood pressure regulation, producing erythropoietin (to stimulate red blood cell production), and helping activate Vitamin D. When kidney function is severely damaged over a long period due to various causes, waste accumulates in the body, leading to multiple functional problems and potentially progressing to chronic kidney failure.
However, early-stage kidney disease and chronic kidney failure often have subtle symptoms. More common symptoms include:
- Blood in urine / tea-colored urine (hematuria)
- Foamy urine (proteinuria)
- Cloudy urine (urinary tract infection)
- Burning pain during urination, frequent urination
- Difficulty urinating, poor stream
- Passing small stones in urine
- Increased urination, decreased urine output, nighttime urination (nocturia)
- Lower back or abdominal pain
- Swelling of ankles or eyelids
- High blood pressure
4 High-Risk Groups for Kidney Failure: Severe Cases May Require Dialysis
According to the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, when kidney function is severely damaged over a long period due to various causes, the kidneys' ability to excrete metabolic waste is impaired. Waste accumulates in the body, causing various functional problems and leading to chronic kidney failure.
When reaching the stage of end-stage renal failure, patients require dialysis (or kidney transplantation) to sustain life. Patients with the following conditions are at higher risk for chronic kidney failure:
- Diabetes
- Glomerulonephritis (including lupus nephritis)
- Hypertension
- Congenital kidney disease and family history of kidney disease
Source: Nephrologist Dr. Hong Wing-xiang, Hospital Authority (Hong Kong)
