What effect, if any, would alcohol have on someone that had NDI? * Would the effect differ from that of a person with two normal healthy kidneys?
In a healthy person, alcohol transiently increases urine output primarily by inhibiting secretion of the antidiuretic hormone. As far as I know, alcohol should have little or no effect in a patient with NDI because the antidiuretic hormone is unable to affect urine concentration or flow. Therefore, urine output is already high and cannot be increased further by inhibiting hormone secretion. The alcohol may cause what we call a solute diuresis that could add to the water diuresis but the resultant increase in urine output would be so small that it probably would not be noticed.
