How Does Smoking Harm Your Kidneys?

Your kidneys, along with your lungs and heart, suffer collateral damage from years of continuous smoking. These organs, which are crucial for filtering blood, removing toxins, and maintaining fluid balance, can affect your health and quality of life when compromised.

Even a single cigarette introduces harmful chemicals that can impair kidney function, making you vulnerable to otherwise preventable health issues.

In this brief guide, you’ll find out how regular smoking can damage your kidneys and why quitting is a must for your health.

Reduced Blood Flow

Constantly consuming nicotine over a long period can restrict blood flow in your vessels, slowing down the delivery of essential nutrients to your organs. This strain on your kidneys can eventually lead to malfunction. 

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Scientifically, this condition is known as ischemic nephropathy, where your kidneys don’t receive enough oxygen and nutrients. You want to avoid reaching this stage, as it can result in severe damage to your kidney tissues. 

Reduced blood flow can also raise your blood pressure, forcing your kidneys to work harder and leading to further damage.

Impaired Filtration Function

Wondering how your kidneys work effectively to filter toxins in your blood? It’s because of nephrons, which are tiny small filters that clean your blood and ensure all waste materials are removed through urine.

Think of nephrons like a tea filter – only that because of smoking, its composition gets impaired and lets more tea leaves into your drink. In the case of your kidneys, it’s a buildup of waste products and toxins that can cause a whole heap of problems to them and the entire body. 

However, if you are a smoker, the chemicals in cigarette smoke can damage your nephrons.

When they stop working as well, your kidneys have a hard time getting rid of waste and toxins. This can lead to a buildup that creates all sorts of issues for both your kidneys and the rest of your body.

Planning to quit smoking or already in the process? Remember, you are making a great choice for both your kidneys and your overall health.

Chemicals from cigarette smoke, unfortunately, damage these filters and reduce their efficacy. 

Smoking doesn’t stop there; it messes with the hormones that keep your kidneys in check, throwing off your fluid and electrolyte balance.

Increased Risk of Kidney Disease

Chemicals in cigarette smoke raise your odds of getting various kidney conditions like glomerulonephritis, diabetic nephropathy, and hypertensive nephrosclerosis. 

Simply put, if you’re always smoking, you can expect your kidneys to suffer frequent bouts of inflammation, scarring, and hardening. Over time, these conditions can lead to kidney failure as the organs fail to work properly. 

Worsening of Existing Kidney Conditions

It makes sense to stop smoking if you already have existing kidney conditions like CKD or kidney stones. You’re adding fuel to the fire if you don’t. And if you’re on meds for your kidneys, smoking can throw a wrench in the works, making them less effective.

As mentioned, the dangerous chemicals in tobacco smoke cause damage to the kidneys, which significantly reduces their performance and functionality. 

If your blood isn’t filtered regularly (or not at all in severe cases), you will face frequent infections and other problems, such as anaemia and bone disease. 

Association with Kidney Cancer

Now, let’s talk cancer. Chemicals in cigarette smoke do not play nice with your DNA, increasing your risk of kidney cancer. 

The chemicals in cigarettes, like nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, severely damage your kidney cells and increase the risk of cancer. 

A study that still holds true in 2024 has shown that about 15 to 20% of kidney cancer patients have been regular and still-active smokers upon diagnosis.

Impact on Proteinuria

Proteinuria is when you’ve got too much protein in your urine, a sign that your kidneys are already taking a beating from various other causes. Smoking makes this condition worse, cranking up the protein levels and increasing the risk of developing kidney stones. 

Kidney stones also put you at a higher risk of life-threatening danger. While it might not cause death on its own, the associated conditions – especially if you have comorbidities – are proven to be lethal if left untreated.

People with kidney stones also experience excruciating pain, swelling and fatigue. They also have foamy urine, a visual symptom of the condition.

Influence on Treatment Efficacy

If you’re in the trenches fighting kidney issues with treatments like dialysis and transplants, smoking is something you should have stopped long ago. 

As mentioned, smoking slows down the flow of blood to your organs, including your dialysis or transplant site. The slowdown increases the risk of infection, clotting, and bleeding. 

Smoking even messes with the drugs meant to help – affecting their absorption, metabolism, and elimination, making them less effective and harming you and your kidneys in the process.

Summary

Given the facts we’ve listed above, it’s clear to see that smoking has a significantly problematic effect on your kidneys. If you stop now, you can still free yourself of the burden of preventable diseases that cigarettes can cause. 

However, we understand that stopping smoking can be extremely difficult. But, we can help.

Smokefree Clinic gives you access to many medically reviewed and trustworthy resources that can inform and aid you in your path to wellness, so have a look around! 

If you’re ready to get started, Smokefree can connect you to Australian healthcare professionals who excel in helping patients quit smoking for good.

Link Reference

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2671650/
• https://www.davita.com/education/ckd-life/lifestyle-changes/smoking-and-chronic-kidney-disease
• https://journals.lww.com/jasn/Fulltext/2002/06000/Smoking_and_the_Kidney.28.aspx
• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcdhc.2022.826383/
• https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/244342-overview
• https://www.healthline.com/health/anemia/smoking-and-anemia
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6546629/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK53010/
• https://ascopubs.org/doi/full/10.1200/JCO.22.02472
• https://www.pristyncare.com/blog/can-kidney-stone-kill-you-pc0441/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7241571/
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3247014/
• https://journals.lww.com/jasn/fulltext/2000/04000/cigarette_smoking_in_renal_transplant_recipients.18.aspx