Can You Drink Alcohol With Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis?
Published on September 24, 2026
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Note: While research on alcohol is evolving, the World Health Organization says drinking less or not at all is better for your health.
Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) makes it harder for your kidneys to filter out waste, and if you have this condition, you may wonder if it’s safe to drink alcohol.
Drinking too much alcohol can affect many important organs, including your kidneys. But how much alcohol is too much with FSGS?
No amount of alcohol is considered safe, whether or not you have FSGS. But if you choose to drink, you can lower your risk of negative health effects by following safer drinking practices.
How Alcohol Affects FSGS
Experts don’t have hard evidence that drinking alcohol affects FSGS, says Salem Almaani, MBBS, a nephrologist who specializes in glomerular diseases at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Some research shows a possible connection between heavy drinking and kidney problems, but other studies show no link.
That said, consuming alcohol can cause increased stress that affects your cells, inflammation, and other effects that could lead to kidney damage. Alcohol may also negatively affect your kidneys indirectly, via its effects on other organ systems, but more research is needed in both areas to understand the connections.
“There are some data that binge drinking approximately doubles the risk of worsening kidney failure,” says Michael Klein, MD, a nephrologist and an associate professor of medicine at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. Binge drinking for men means having five or more alcoholic drinks in about two hours or fewer. For women, it means at least four drinks in that time frame.
Other studies suggest (but don’t prove) that high levels of alcohol — over 40 grams (g) per day, or about three standard drinks — can worsen a chronic kidney disease (CKD) like FSGS, says Dr. Klein. “There may also be gender differences in the effects of alcohol on CKD progression, but, again, these are not clear data,” says Klein.
Alcohol and Your Liver
“Patients with FSGS require specific treatments, and some of them may have negative effects on the liver,” says Yongen Chang, MD, a nephrologist with UCI Health in Irvine, California. When your liver doesn’t function well, it can’t filter toxins like alcohol as effectively. Reduced liver function puts extra stress on your kidneys, even without adding alcohol to the mix.
Alcohol and Dehydration
Your kidneys help your body maintain the right balance of water, but alcohol makes it harder to keep that balance. When you drink too much, dehydration can cause kidney injury, especially if you’re taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (Advil) at the same time, as they can also put you at risk of kidney damage, says Klein.
Alcohol and Blood Pressure
If you have more than two alcoholic drinks per day it can increase your risk of high blood pressure, and it can also affect how your blood pressure medicines work. Over time, elevated blood pressure can damage your kidneys.
Alcohol and Proteinuria
Kidney damage from FSGS can cause too much protein to leak into your urine (proteinuria), which may lead to symptoms like swelling and fatigue. And some research suggests that heavy drinking, even without FSGS, can increase your risk of proteinuria.
Is It Safer to Drink During Remission vs. Active Disease?
Remission in FSGS is defined by the amount of protein in your urine. If your treatments are working well and these levels get low enough, you can reach remission. “Typically, when the disease is in remission, it would be safer to consume limited amounts of alcohol,” says Dr. Almaani.
But having active disease makes sticking to your treatment regimen critically important, and alcohol can prevent treatment from working fully, says Klein.
Does Alcohol Interact With FSGS Medications?
Alcohol can make certain medications less effective. “Some medications used for management of FSGS are processed by the liver,” says Almaani. And because your liver also processes alcohol, drinking too much can change the levels of medication in your blood, he says.
You may need to avoid alcohol when you take these FSGS medications, say Almaani, Klein, and Chang.
- Corticosteroids, like prednisone, can increase your risk of stomach ulcers and bleeding.
- ACE inhibitors like lisinopril (Zestril) can cause too-low blood pressure and make you feel dizzy.
- Angiotensin blockers, like losartan (Cozaar), can also cause dizziness from low blood pressure.
- Diuretics like furosemide (Lasix) can cause orthostatic hypotension (low blood pressure, sometimes leading to dizziness, when you stand up) from low blood pressure.
- Calcineurin inhibitors like tacrolimus (Prograf) and cyclosporine (Sandimmune, Neoral) can affect your heart rhythm and have negative effects on your brain.
- Sparsentan (Filspari) can affect how well your liver works.
Are Some Alcoholic Drinks Safer for FSGS Than Others?
No amount of alcohol is completely safe, says Dr. Chang. But some drinks have more alcohol than others. For example, 12 ounces (oz) of beer with 5 percent alcohol gives you the same amount of alcohol as a single 1.5-oz shot of 80-proof tequila, which has 40 percent alcohol.
Alcohol content can vary by brand, but in general, one standard drink equals:
- 12 oz of beer
- 5 oz of wine
- 1.5 oz of distilled spirits
Some alcoholic drinks have alcohol removed. Many “alcohol-free” drinks have less than 0.05 percent alcohol. You can find low-alcohol versions of beer, wine, champagne, and cocktails in many stores and restaurants.
Safer Drinking Practices for People With FSGS
When you drink alcohol, it’s best to use moderation. If you’re not sure how much you can drink safely with FSGS, you can ask your provider for personalized advice.
The safest amount of alcohol is none, but if you drink, you can decrease the risks with these tips.
- Avoid binge drinking.
- Limit your drinks to one per day for women or two per day for men.
- Drink plenty of water or unsweetened sports drinks before and after drinking alcohol.
“Since there is no absolute contraindication to alcohol use [in FSGS], moderate use, such as in social drinking on occasion, is probably not an issue,” says Klein.
Be sure to follow-up closely with a nephrologist who provides treatment and can monitor your liver function regularly while you’re on certain medications, says Chang.
Resources We Trust
- Mayo Clinic: Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS): Diagnosis & Treatment
- Cleveland Clinic: Does Alcohol Affect Your Kidneys?
- American Kidney Fund: Alcohol and Kidney Disease
- National Kidney Foundation: Drinking Alcohol Affects Your Kidneys
- World Cancer Research Fund: Are Alcohol-Free Drinks Any Better for Us?
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
- Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). Cleveland Clinic. August 6, 2026.
- Alcohol and Your Kidneys. National Kidney Foundation.
- Litten R et al. The Basics: Defining How Much Alcohol is Too Much. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. May 8, 2025.
- Yokus B et al. The Link between Alcohol Consumption and Kidney Injury. The American Journal of Pathology. June 11, 2025.
- Joo YS et al. Alcohol Consumption and Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease: Results From the Korean Cohort Study for Outcome in Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease. Mayo Clinic Proceedings. February 2020.
- Alkhatib L et al. Lifestyle Modifications and Nutritional and Therapeutic Interventions in Delaying the Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease: A Review. Cureus. February 2, 2023.
- Understanding Binge Drinking. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. February 2025.
- Sato Y et al. Effects of Daily Alcohol Intake on Glomerular Filtration Rate Over Three Years. Fukushima Journal of Medical Science. January 6, 2021.
- What Is a Standard Drink? National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. December 2025.
- High Blood Pressure & Kidney Disease. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. March 2020.
- Protein in Urine (Proteinuria). Cleveland Clinic. August 2, 2022.
- Yamamoto R et al. A Dose-Dependent Association between Alcohol Consumption and Incidence of Proteinuria and Low Glomerular Filtration Rate: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cohort Studies. Nutrients. March 24, 2023.
- Rout P et al. Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis. StatPearls. December 11, 2024.
- Managing Kidney Disease Through Lifestyle Behaviors. American Kidney Fund. March 4, 2026.
- Malik TF et al. Peptic Ulcer Disease. StatPearls. June 5, 2023.
- ACE Inhibitors. The Texas Heart Institute.
- Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs). Cleveland Clinic. June 2, 2025.
- Khan TM et al. Furosemide. StatPearls. May 8, 2023.
- Tacrolimus Capsule, Extended Release. National Library of Medicine. October 20, 2025.
- First FDA-Approved Treatment for Patients With Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis — a Rare Kidney Condition. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. April 16, 2026.
- About Standard Drink Sizes. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. December 12, 2024.
- Are Alcohol-Free Drinks Any Better for Us? World Cancer Research Fund. December 15, 2023.
- Does Alcohol Affect Your Kidneys? Cleveland Clinic. March 2, 2026.
- Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS). University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. April 24, 2025.
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