Exercising properly helps strengthen muscles, improve cardiovascular health, and effectively control weight. However, in recent years, doctors have recorded many young, healthy people hospitalized with acute kidney injury after a gym session.
Many of the cases mentioned above have a common cause: rhabdomyolysis. For gym goers, rhabdomyolysis occurs after a very high-intensity, prolonged workout, especially after a long period of inactivity, according to the health website Medical News Today (UK).
Severe muscle pain is a common sign of rhabdomyolysis. PHOTO: AI
When you train hard, your muscles will always develop microscopic tears. These injuries are part of the muscle growth process and are completely normal. But when you train beyond the muscle’s tolerance, a large portion of the muscle fibers are destroyed, leading to rhabdomyolysis.
At this time, substances inside the muscle cells spill into the blood, especially myoglobin and creatine kinase. Myoglobin is a protein that transports oxygen in the muscles. At high concentrations, myoglobin can deposit, causing renal tubular obstruction, renal vasoconstriction, and renal tubular cell toxicity.
Meanwhile, creatine kinase is an enzyme. High levels of this enzyme in the blood are a hallmark of rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdomyolysis can lead to acute kidney injury, even severe kidney failure requiring dialysis if not treated promptly.
For people who have been training for a long time and are used to the intensity of exercise, a well-planned, intense workout is unlikely to lead to rhabdomyolysis. On the contrary, the risk increases with factors such as increasing the intensity of exercise too quickly, pushing past physical limits, dehydration, and a number of other factors.
Signs of rhabdomyolysis are severe pain.
One of the most obvious signs of rhabdomyolysis is muscle soreness. Usually, muscle soreness after a workout is normal and can even indicate a good workout. However, rhabdomyolysis causes severe pain that goes beyond the usual soreness.
Not only that, the pain is widespread, out of proportion to the workout. The injured muscle is also swollen, tense and very painful to the touch. In particular, little urine and dark urine like the color of dark tea or cola. This is a sign of myoglobin being excreted in the urine, which is a red flag of kidney damage.
People with rhabdomyolysis also feel tired, nauseous, vomit, dizzy, and even confused. When seeing these signs, the patient must go to the emergency room immediately. Early intervention will significantly reduce the risk of needing dialysis or leaving behind sequelae, according to Medical News Today.