Man's kidneys fail after excessive daily iced tea consumption

(NaturalNews) For the remainder of his life, an Arkansas man will likely need help artificially removing waste, extra chemicals and fluid from his body after drinking three to 10 times the amount of iced tea consumed by the average American.

The 56-year old man admitted himself into a hospital last May after complaining of nausea, weakness, fatigue and body aches, reports the Daily Mail. The patient's symptoms, which all pointed to immediate kidney failure, left doctors puzzled until he disclosed some of his daily habits, shedding much-needed light on his current condition.

It turns out the man had some pretty unhealthy, as well as unusual habits, one of them being that he drank an estimated 16 8-ounce cups of iced tea every single day. After ruling out all other causes, medical professionals eventually blamed the man's iced tea consumption for his apparent kidney failure, calling the condition "iced-tea nephropathy."

Iced tea habit resulted in man consuming more than 1,500 milligrams of oxalate per day

"It was the only reasonable explanation," said Dr. Umbar Ghaffar of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who documented the incident in an article for The New England Journal of Medicine.

The mere fact that the man was able to consume 16 cups of anything per day was remarkable, considering that the typical U.S. adult drinks about 10 to 11 cups max of liquids every day. That includes coffee, water, juice and other beverages.

Doctors say the man's kidney stones, and subsequent kidney failure, were caused by a chemical called oxalate, which is known to exist at high levels in black tea. The patient's kidneys were so clogged by oxalate that they had become inflamed.

Recommendations by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics advise drinking no more than 40-50 milligrams of oxalate per day, reports Reuters.

What are oxalates?

Oxalates are naturally occurring substances found in plants, animals and humans. While there is apparently no benefit for oxalates in the body, they are indigestible by humans and usually pass through unabsorbed. A healthy gut will resist absorbing them, and bacteria will normally break them down.

A diet high in oxalates can increase the likelihood of developing calcium oxalate kidney stones, which seems to be the case with the Arkansas man. Foods high in oxalates include spinach, rhubarb, beets, potato chips, french fries and nuts and nut butter, according to information provided by Cleveland Clinic.

Fluoride toxicity and black tea

Ignored by the mainstream media, however, very noteworthy in regard to this case, is the fact that black tea is known to contain very high levels of fluoride. According to the Fluoride Action Network, tea plants readily absorb fluoride from the soil, resulting in about 3 to 4 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride found in brewed black tea. Commercial teas may contain lower levels ranging between 1 and 4 ppm of fluoride.

Remember, the Environmental Protection Agency's "maximum contaminant level goals" for fluoride is 4.0 ppm. With this information, one can understand how an individual might also suffer from fluoride toxicity if they were consuming as much tea as the Arkansas man.

Damaging report strips beverage of its healthy reputation

Last August, Natural News ran a report detailing the results of study done by Greenpeace in which 94 percent of 11 brands of tea tested positive for pesticides, with nearly 60 percent of them containing a cocktail of 10 or more chemicals.

One sample contained 20 different pesticides. Named Trouble Brewing, the study found that nearly 70 percent of tea samples were contaminated with DDT, a carcinogen toxic to animals and people.

The samples collected by Greenpeace were manufactured by the following well known brands:

• Hindustan Unilever Limited
• Tata Global Beverages Limited
• Wagh Bakri Tea
• Goodricke Tea
• Twinings
• Golden Tips
• Kho-Cha
• Girnar

Sources:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk

http://water.epa.gov

http://www.lovingourguts.com

http://my.clevelandclinic.org

http://www.reuters.com

http://fluoridealert.org

http://www.naturalnews.com