--- title: Man's Iced Tea Habit Caused Kidney Failure, Doctors Say description: A man in Arkansas has been put in dialysis after drinking a gallon of black tea per day canonical: https://time.com/3768205/iced-tea-habit-kidney-failure/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-01T22:30:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:38:12.674Z article:section: Health og:title: Man's Iced Tea Habit Caused Kidney Failure og:description: Doctors say he drank about 16 8-ounce cups every day. og:url: https://time.com/3768205/iced-tea-habit-kidney-failure/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man's Iced Tea Habit Caused Kidney Failure twitter:description: Doctors say he drank about 16 8-ounce cups every day. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Man's Iced-Tea Habit Caused Kidney Failure > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=d3660222-c1a1-4d17-ac84-8bcffd58a4a1&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1)  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Apr 1, 2015 10:30 PM UTC  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Apr 1, 2015 10:30 PM UTC An Arkansas man’s kidney failure was apparently caused by his iced tea habit, doctors [explain](http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/too-much-iced-tea-caused-arkansas-mans-kidney-problems/2015/04/01/a5064f3a-d8ac-11e4-bf0b-f648b95a6488%5Fstory.html) in a journal article out this week. The 56-year old man went to the hospital last May with symptoms like weakness, fatigue, nausea and body aches, the Associated Press reports. His doctors, writing in Thursday’s _New England Journal of Medicine_, said they had already ruled out several other possible causes when their patient said he drank 16 eight-ounce cups of iced black tea every day. That type of tea includes oxalate, a chemical found in foods like nuts, wheat bran and chocolate, which can result in kidney stones—and in excessive amounts can cause kidney failure. The man has been put on dialysis, perhaps for the remainder of his life, said Dr. Umbar Ghaffar of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. \[[_AP_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/too-much-iced-tea-caused-arkansas-mans-kidney-problems/2015/04/01/a5064f3a-d8ac-11e4-bf0b-f648b95a6488%5Fstory.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3768205/iced-tea-habit-kidney-failure/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3768205/iced-tea-habit-kidney-failure/"},"headline":"Man's Iced-Tea Habit Caused Kidney Failure","datePublished":"2015-04-01T22:30:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:38:12.674Z","description":"Doctors say he drank about 16 8-ounce cups every day","url":"https://time.com/3768205/iced-tea-habit-kidney-failure/","keywords":["food and drink"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/food-and-drink/","name":"food and drink"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3768205/iced-tea-habit-kidney-failure/","name":"Man's Iced-Tea Habit Caused Kidney Failure"}}]}] ```