“I thought I was just sore, so I took painkillers and went to work”... Monday morning, the ‘cola-colored urine’ that melts the kidneys of breadwinners in their 40s and 50s [Off the Record: The Body]

[Financial News]   Monday morning, November 9. For a breadwinner in his 40s or 50s who, driven by his wife’s reproach that he has spent the entire weekend lying on the sofa—or determined to prove he is still in shape, pushed himself through a Sunday game of early-morning soccer or a rugged hike—the morning is painful. He tries to get up to the sound of the alarm, but his thighs and calves hurt as if they are tearing, weighing him down as though he were carrying a ton.
Staggering toward the bathroom to urinate, he looks into the toilet and recoils in surprise. Instead of its usual color, dark brown, cloudy urine—like cola or soy sauce—pours out. Yet most men in their 40s and 50s make the stupidest and most fatal self-diagnosis of their lives at this point.
“I worked out way too hard yesterday, so my muscles are really sore. My urine is dark, so I must be tired and dehydrated.” He takes two common anti-inflammatory painkillers from a drawer and tosses them into his mouth, then stops at a café on his way to work and gulps down an iced Americano (coffee) to shake off his fatigue. At that moment, he does not realize that this familiar, predictable Monday morning routine is a cruel act of self-harm that will destroy his kidneys beyond repair.
This is not ordinary muscle pain or accumulated fatigue. The disease behind this terrifying symptom is “rhabdomyolysis.”
When the muscles of a man in his 40s or 50s who does not usually exercise suddenly face an overload they cannot withstand, the walls of the muscle cells give way and rupture. The problem is that a massive protein called “myoglobin,” released from the destroyed muscle cells, travels through the bloodstream and clogs the tiny pores in the kidneys (the glomeruli)—which act as the body’s water-purifier filters—as tightly as bright red mud. Cola-colored urine is not blood in the urine; it is the body’s clearest distress signal that debris from your muscles melting away is being expelled.
The real tragedy is compounded by the ignorant response of breadwinners in their 40s and 50s. The “anti-inflammatory painkillers” they swallow to endure the muscle pain sharply reduce blood flow to the kidneys, drying them out. Add “coffee (caffeine),” which triggers diuresis, and the body’s fluids rapidly drain away. The muscle debris eventually hardens like cement inside the parched kidney filters, sending them straight into “acute kidney failure,” in which kidney function comes to a complete stop.
The only treatment for rhabdomyolysis is to rush to the emergency room as soon as symptoms appear and force at least 10 liters of IV fluids into the bloodstream, physically washing away the muscle debris before the kidneys harden.
Middle-aged men in South Korea mistakenly believe their physical fitness is still that of their 20s, and cannot let go of the foolish vanity that makes them think sweating it all out in one weekend workout will make them healthy.
But if you see cola-colored urine and still try to get through Monday with painkillers and coffee, by Tuesday you may be lying in an emergency room bed with a dialysis needle inserted into a large blood vessel in your neck or arm. Once damaged, the kidneys never recover on their own.
Rather than drag your aching legs around looking for painkillers, your only lifeline to stop the filth flooding your body is to head straight to the hospital and get IV fluids.
[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter