Hi all,
I was recently diagnosed with autoimmune glomerulonephritis from
mesangial deposits of IgA (not particularly evil form). How cool.

The nephrologist told me a few things which seemed strange to me, and I
would appreciate a second opinion.

He told me I should not do agonistic activity (sorry I am not sure of
the translation from Italian, I intend to mean that performing sports
lightly is ok but serious activity in a serious team is not). Why? I
would appreciate an explanation of what happens in the blood during
sports. I thought sports would raise the endorphins and I thought this
was good for autoimmune diseases.

Also, martial arts are not ok if there are hits, *even if* the hits
would be on parts of the body other than the kidneys! (yes he really
said so!). Why??

He said to moderate aspirins to max 1g/day, and no NSAIDs, and this I
understand, but he also said to also moderate acetaminophen to max
1g/day !!? I *never* read anywhere that acetaminophen could be
neprhotoxic! (for aspirin and NSAIDs, I think I did) And this worries me
alot because now I am without options for anti inflammatories, and I
occasionally need them in significant doses for some tendonitis which I
occasionally have. Please comment on acetaminophen.

One time in the past I had to stay 2 days in bed because of flank pain
(I did not know the cause at the time). If this would happen again, he
said my only option is to rest in bed as I did. No meds. I understand
the thing, since my condition is not so serious. Just a question of
principle: would a steroidal antiinflammatory in theory help? (I think
it is an inflammation after all, and an autoimmune one, so...)

I forgot to ask if I can drink alcohol or not. That time that I had to
stay 2 days in bed, after a few days when I had recovered I drank some
alcohol (a very small amount). The flank pain came back for half a day.
Any comment? Is alcohol nephrotoxic?

Last question: for any dangerous thing I mentioned (heavy sports,
aspirin, alcohol...), is it a too dangerous approach to do the following:
1- perform the dangerous thing increasingly
2- monitor the urine, if I see blood I know that "I have gone too far,
next time do much less"

You know... if I could do this it would be great... otherwise I have to
live like an handicapped because I don't know where my limit is...
however if you tell me that there can be damages even if I don't see any
blood or that the amount of blood I see is not proportional to the
damages, I won't do that.

Thanks a lot
Spike