Alcohol’s Impact on Kidney Function

Cell s Function depends not only on receiving a continuous supply of nutrients and elimi-nating metabolic waste products butalso on the existence of stable physi-cal and chemical conditions in theextracellular fluid1bathing it. Amongthe most important substances con-tributing to these conditions are water,sodium, potassium, calcium, andphosphate. Loss or retention of anyone of these substances can influencethe body s handling of the others. Inaddition, hydrogen ion concentration( , acid-base balance) influencescell structure and permeability as wellas the rate of metabolic reactions. Theamounts of these substances must beheld within very narrow limits, re-gardless of the large variations possi-ble in their intake or loss. The kidneysare the organs primarily responsiblefor regulating the amounts and con-centrations of these substances in theextracellular addition to their role in regulat-ing the body s fluid composition, thekidneys produce hormones that influ-ence a host of physiological processes,including blood pressure regulation,red blood cell production, and calciummetabolism.

alcohol consumption. Even at high blood alcohol levels, only minor fluc-tuations were found in the rates of plasma flow and filtration through the kidneys (Rubini et al. 1955). Additional studies are needed to con-firm these observations, however. Results of subsequent studies in

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