Exercising can damage the kidney: the unknown risk

With the month of February just around the corner you probably already have passed by the gym -or by the park near your home- to fulfill your New Year's purpose of get in shape Y burn the kilos What did you take at Christmas? Right now, surely, you can find yourself in two completely opposite situations: you have abandoned all hope of losing weight or are still killing yourself to exercise and are achieving your goals.

But what many people don't know is that the demanding muscle training, especially after a period of inactivity, you can cause mechanical and chemical disruptions in cell membranes muscle that cause the explosion of muscle cells. This is explained by the exercise physiologist and sports medicine specialist, Tamara Hew-Butler, in 'The Conversation'. "I am seeing many incidents of skeletal muscle ruptures that are causing damage to other parts of the body," explains the exercise and sports science professor at Wayne State University. Mind you, clarify that your words they are not to scare people and to return to the couch.

The key to avoiding problems is remind athletes, trainers and simple mortals who want to put in shape that the desired physiological response to a training stimulus requires a gradual work period and another recovery between training sessions.

Myoglobin, a protein described as "large and red," can block the renal filtration system or renal tubules.

The medical term for rupture of skeletal muscle cells it is "rhabdomyolysis", also called "rabdo", for short. When muscle cells break or explode, intracellular contents are released into the bloodstream. These cellular contents include enzymes (such as creatine kinase), electrolytes (such as potassium) and proteins (such as myoglobin).

The university professor explains that the myoglobinin particular, it is a "large and red" protein that can block the renal filtration system or renal tubules. It can also dissociate into toxic by-products that damage the kidneys. In more strange cases, too much myoglobin in the bloodstream can stop kidney function completely, as happened to a 27-year-old marathon runner who died from kidney failure.

In a study conducted in university swimmers To those who underwent a high performance exercise, several cases of rhabdomyolysis were observed. Six of 34 swimmers were hospitalized after participating in a competition to see how many push-ups, rows and bench presses they could do in 20 minutes. In this sense, Hew points out that cases of "symptomatic rabdo" appear to be increasing within university sports teams at an alarming rate.

To date, there have been 17 cases of equipment in which some member has suffered this condition to do "too much exercise, too soon or too fast"in a wide variety of sports such as soccer, swimming, lacrosse, soccer, athletics, basketball, softball, volleyball and golf.

It can happen to you too

But if this happens to athletes, how the most mundane human beings will react, since any physical activity that is new or excessive can cause symptoms. The teacher explains that gardening for many hours, lifting weights, performing CrossFit and even a routine physical fitness test in the army have triggered the symptomatic rabdo with kidney injury. Therefore, the breakdown of muscle cells can occur within any exercise that goes from five minutes to 36 hours of physical activity.

But if it occurs a combination of gradual training and proper recovery, are produced beneficial adaptations of muscle composition, cardiovascular and body, such as muscle building, increased fitness and loss of body fat. The teacher's research confirms that a gradual introduction of two weeks of training is required after a while without doing anything for the muscle cell membranes to fully adapt to the training stress.

There are risk factors such as exercising in hot weather, being dehydrated and excessive alcohol or coffee.

Muscle degradation without acute kidney injury or debilitating symptoms is common and represents the typical response to training that does not require medical treatment. However, intense exercise, especially after a while doing nothing, with the following symptoms require proper medical examination:

-Unbearable muscle pain that does not resolve over time.

-Muscle swelling with movement limitations.

-Nausea, vomiting, or both.

– Very dark urine (similar to a cola) or scarce.

There is risk factor's which increase the likelihood of developing rabdo after a workout. These include exercising in hot weather, you are dehydratedoverhydrated the excessive consumption of alcohol or coffee, extreme diets (vegetarian high in protein) and possess the sickle cell trait. Both men and women they can develop symptomatic rabdo, although more cases are observed in men.