Iced Tea Caused Kidney Failure in Arkansas Man: Report

Doctors in the United States have found that an unusual drink to kidney failure in an Arkansas man, according to reports.

The unidentified 56-year-year-old man was admitted to John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock last May with weakness, fatigue, body aches and an elevated serum creatinine level, which meant his kidneys weren't functioning properly, according to the doctors' letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine Thursday.

"The case presented here was almost certainly due to excessive consumption of iced tea," said University of Arkansas doctor Umbar Ghaffar. "Owing to the rapidly progressive nature of the patient's renal failure yet normal kidney size on ultrasonography, a renal biopsy was performed."

The man went to the doctors in May with nausea, weakness, fatigue and body aches. The patient has to remain on dialysis for rest of his life or go for a kidney transplant.

"In this case there were oxalate crystals inside the kidney, and that generates an inflammatory reaction. If that's not resolved it will cause scarring and loss of the kidney tissue. So that's what probably was happening in this patient", said Ghaffar.

Black tea is rich in the food compound oxalate, which had likely clogged the man's kidneys and inflamed them, leading to renal failure and the need for dialysis.

"In this case there were oxalate crystals inside the kidney, and that generates an inflammatory reaction," Umbar Ghaffar of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences told Reuters. "If that's not resolved it will cause scarring and loss of the kidney tissue. So that's what probably was happening in this patient."