Medical Report: Too much Ice Tea led to Kidney Failure - Lifetime Dialysis

A 56-year old  man in Arkansas with no family or personal history of kidney disease suffered unusual kidney failure, various reports said.

Upon examination, the doctors traced the man's kidney failure cause -his habit of drinking a gallon of ice tea on a daily basis.

According to NBC News report, the unidentified man went to the hospital last May 2014 with nausea, weakness, fatigue and body aches. Doctors determined his kidneys were "badly clogged and inflamed" by the food chemical called oxalate.

The man is on dialysis, perhaps for the rest of his life,said Dr. Umbar Ghaffar of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

According to doctors, the Black tea has a chemical known to cause kidney stones or even kidney failure in excessive amounts.Besides black tea, oxalate is found in spinach, rhubarb, nuts, wheat bran ,chocolate and many foods (see the image below).

A list of Super High Oxalate Foods - Poynorhealthandmedia

Although, the said patient had diabetes the doctors claimed that it was not the cause of his kidney damage but from too much too much oxalate.

However, the doctors don't want to tell people to stop drinking a regular amount of tea but to caution people drinking too much.

Image Credit: WashingtonPost