HDCN Article Review/Hyperlink

Muldowney WP, Mazbar SA

Rolaids-yogurt syndrome: A 1990s version of milk-alkali syndrome

Am J Kidney Dis (Feb) 27:270-272 1996

Milk-alkali syndrome is characterized by hypercalcemia, alkalosis, and renal failure and is classically due to consumption of large amounts of calcium carbonate and dairy products. A 35-year-old bulimic woman was hospitalized for fatigue, nausea, constipation, and confusion. She had been taking 4 Rolaids tablets daily (each tablet containing 500 mg calcium carbonate) plus two 8-oz cups of yogurt daily to prevent osteoporosis. Daily dietary calcium intake was estimated to be 1.7 grams. The serum calcium and creatinine levels were 16 and 3.6 mg/dl, respectively, and the serum bicarbonate was 43 meq/l.

She was treated with physiologic saline and cessation of Rolaids and yogurt consumption, after which the serum calcium and creatinine levels improved to 10 and 1.8, respectively, and the alkalosis resolved within 1 week. Since milk-alkali syndrome does not occur in the absence of some degree of underlying renal failure, it is postulated that this patient had chronic prerenal failure due to vomiting prior to the ingestion of antacids. (David J Leehey, M.D., Loyola University School of Medicine)



I just was reading on my low-fat milk product that it contained alkali. Is this harmful to the human body? If so, then how is it legal to put into anything that is of human consumtion?
Mary Norton (vze2zrjt@verizon.net)
Rockland, Maine - Saturday, May 11, 2002 at 13:52:41 (PDT)