The two kidneys in human being are important organs which has various functions to perform. It is a part of excretory system of the body. Both kidneys are responsible for processing the metabolic waste products and excess of water in the form of urine. The blood is continuously cycled through the kidney to remove nitrogenous waste and other chemicals.
All these waste products get dissolved in urine and are passed out through urine. When urine is saturated with excess amount of waste material, there is a risk for formation of kidney stones.
These stones give rise to pain in kidney and other urinary organs when they pass through it.
Causes Of Kidney Pain After Eating Protein
Now the question arises why eating protein causes kidney pain. To answer this, we must know certain basic human physiology. When we eat food that contains protein, it gets digested and metabolized and leaves behind its metabolic waste. Protein contains a substance called purines. When we eat protein containing food, it breaks down the purines into uric acid; it is a metabolic nitrogenous waste of protein. It gets dissolved in the blood and passes through the kidney.
Kidney filters uric acid from the blood and eliminates it through urine.
Now if your diet contains very high amount of protein, or you are taking very high dose of protein supplement your body may not be able to eliminate all the uric acid. This extra amount of uric acid circulating in blood may form into uric acid crystals and get deposited at various sites such as in joints and in the kidneys. In kidneys they form uric acid stones.
Generally, a small kidney stone may not give rise to kidney pain until it starts to move into the ureter. Ureter is a tube which connects kidney to urinary bladder. The urine passes from kidney to bladder through this tube. Together with pain, there may be other symptoms such as blood in urine, fever, vomiting, nausea etc.
Pain In Kidneys After Eating Sugar
Now you are familiar with the function of kidney; its importance in filtering the waste formed from the food that you eat. Most of the time the cause for malfunctioning kidney is due to heredity, food and diet source or due to infection of kidney. One of the prominent symptoms is kidney pain. The pain of kidney is sudden and it is sometimes triggered by eating certain foods such as sweets or drinking too much of coffee and tea.
Most kidney pains are due to kidney infection or due to kidney stones. Formation of kidney stone is more related to the food that you eat. Researchers are still not able to find a particular food and diet that causes stones, but they have concluded that food that are rich in protein, sugar, and sodium are responsible to trigger the formation of kidney stone in people who are susceptible.
Eating excess of sugar containing food increases calcium and magnesium excretion. When the concentration of calcium and magnesium increases when it passes through the urine, it can form calcium crystals in the kidney and over a period of time calcium stones
How Do You Know If You Have Kidney Pain?
Kidney pain can be due to infection in the kidney or an injury or due to stone. Kidney pain is generally dull and aching or it can be excruciating. The pain is located in upper back. It is one sided in most cases. If there is infection, there may be associated symptoms such as vomiting, fever etc.
If the cause is due to stone, symptoms other than pain include frequent urination, red urine, pain traveling to lower abdomen and radiating to the testis. Pain due to kidney stone is generally felt when the stone starts moving in the kidney or passes in the Ureter.
