What Does MDMA Do to Your Kidneys
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When people talk about MDMA, they usually talk about mood, energy, and the hours of dancing that often go with it. The kidneys are rarely part of that conversation, and that is a gap worth closing. The kidneys are two small organs, each about the size of a fist, sitting on either side of the spine, low in the back. They work all day and all night, cleaning the blood, removing waste, and keeping the body’s water and salts in balance. They do this without any noise or fuss, and most people never think about them until something goes wrong. MDMA can make something go wrong, and it can do so in several ways at once: by raising body temperature, by causing the body to lose too much water, by changing blood flow, and by placing extra waste in the blood for the kidneys to clear. This article explains those effects in plain words, so that the risk is clear before harm happens, not only after it. It is general information, not individual medical advice. If you are worried about your health, a qualified health professional is the right person to talk to.
MDMA is a stimulant drug, and the form sold on the street is often mixed with other substances, so a person taking it cannot be sure what is really in the tablet or powder, or how strong it is. That uncertainty matters for the kidneys, because the kidneys have to filter whatever ends up in the blood. They cannot choose which chemicals to accept. They have to deal with what arrives, and if what arrives is strong, mixed with alcohol or other drugs, or taken in a hot and dehydrated body, the work becomes far harder. The kidneys are tough, but they have limits, and MDMA can push a person towards those limits faster than they expect.
What the Kidneys Do Every Day
Each kidney contains about a million tiny filters, called nephrons, and each nephron is a small, delicate structure that cleans a tiny amount of blood at a time. Blood flows through these filters, waste and extra water pass into the urine, and the cleaned blood flows back into the body. The kidneys also help control blood pressure, help make red blood cells, and help keep bones healthy. They keep the level of salts such as sodium and potassium in the blood within a narrow range, because even a small change in those salts can affect the heart and the brain. In short, the kidneys are not just a waste bin. They are a control centre for the body’s internal balance.
What makes the kidneys vulnerable is that they need a steady, generous flow of blood to do this work. If blood flow falls, because the body has lost too much water, or because blood pressure has dropped, the filters receive less blood and less oxygen, and they begin to suffer. The filters are also sensitive to damage from waste products in the blood, from very high body temperature, and from inflammation. A healthy kidney can cope with a short period of strain and recover. A kidney that is strained again and again, or strained very severely on one occasion, can be injured in a way that takes much longer to heal, or that never fully heals. That is the central story of MDMA and the kidneys: a small, hard-working organ, given too much to do, with too little water and too little blood flow, at the worst possible moment.
Most people have no sense of how much work their kidneys do, because the work is invisible. You do not feel your kidneys filtering blood, and you do not feel them balancing salts. You notice them only when they stop working properly, and by then the problem is often advanced. A person may notice they are passing much less urine than usual, or that their urine looks darker or foamy, or that their ankles and face are swollen. They may feel tired, sick, or short of breath. These are late signs, in the sense that the kidneys have already been struggling for some time. Learning what the kidneys do, and what puts them under strain, is the best way to understand why those signs matter so much.
How MDMA Puts the Kidneys Under Strain
MDMA reaches the kidneys through the blood, and the kidneys then have to clear the drug and the chemicals made when the liver breaks it down. That alone is extra work, but it is not the whole story. MDMA also affects the body in ways that make the kidneys’ job harder. It can raise body temperature, sometimes to a dangerous level, and high temperature damages the tiny filters directly. It can make a person sweat heavily and move for hours without drinking enough, which reduces the amount of water in the blood and therefore the amount of blood reaching the kidneys. It can also change the way the body handles water, so that a person may either lose too much water or, in some cases, hold on to too much, and both extremes are hard on the kidneys.
Blood flow is a key part of this. When a person is dehydrated, the volume of blood falls, and the kidneys receive less blood. When a person is very hot, blood is sent to the skin to cool the body, and less blood is available for the inner organs, including the kidneys. The result is that the kidneys are asked to do more cleaning work with less blood and less oxygen. Their filters can become starved, and some of the delicate cells inside them can be injured or die. In mild cases, the kidneys recover when water and blood flow return to normal. In severe cases, the injury is deeper, and the kidneys may stop filtering properly for days, weeks, or longer. This sudden loss of kidney function is called acute kidney injury, and it is a serious medical problem that needs hospital care.
There is another route of harm that is less well known, and it involves the muscles. Long hours of dancing, especially in a hot place, can strain the muscles severely, and when muscle is badly strained, it can break down and release its contents into the blood. Those contents include substances that the kidneys have to filter, and in large amounts they can clog the tiny filters and injure them. This is not a rare curiosity. It is a recognised cause of kidney injury after heavy physical exertion in the heat, and MDMA, which encourages long, intense movement while dulling the sense of tiredness, can make it more likely. A person may notice very dark urine, muscle pain, and weakness, and those signs should be taken seriously at once.
Heat, Sweating and Losing Too Much Water
Heat is one of the most dangerous parts of MDMA use for the kidneys, and it deserves a section of its own. MDMA interferes with the body’s ability to control its temperature, and it can push the core temperature well above normal. In a cool room, with rest and water, that rise may be limited. In a hot, crowded club or festival, with hours of dancing and little rest, the temperature can climb much higher, and the body struggles to bring it down. Sweating is the body’s main way of cooling itself, but sweating also loses water and salts, and if that water is not replaced, the body becomes dehydrated, and the kidneys are among the first organs to suffer.
Dehydration is not just feeling thirsty. It is a real change in the blood: there is less fluid to carry oxygen and nutrients, the blood becomes thicker, and the kidneys receive less of it. The kidneys respond by trying to hold on to water, which means less urine is made, and waste builds up in the blood. At the same time, the high temperature itself can injure kidney cells directly, in the same way that a very high fever can injure the body. The combination of heat and dehydration is therefore far worse than either one alone. It is a double strain, and it can turn a night that felt manageable into a medical emergency by the morning.
It is worth clearing up a common misunderstanding here. Drinking a lot of water does not make MDMA safe for the kidneys, and drinking too much water can itself be dangerous, because it can dilute the salts in the blood to a harmful level. MDMA can affect the hormone that controls water balance, so the body may hold on to water it should have passed, and drinking large amounts on top of that can make the problem worse. The safe message is not simply to drink more. It is that the whole situation, heat, long dancing, dehydration, and a drug that disturbs temperature and water balance, is hard on the kidneys in a way that no amount of water can fully fix. The only way to remove that strain is to avoid the drug, and if a person has taken it and feels unwell, to seek medical help rather than trying to fix the problem by drinking alone.
When the Kidneys Cannot Filter Properly
When the kidneys are injured, their filters work more slowly, and waste that should have left the body in the urine stays in the blood. The person may feel tired, sick, or confused, and they may notice swelling in the ankles, legs, or face, because the body is holding on to fluid it should have passed. They may pass much less urine than usual, or none at all, and what urine they do pass may look dark, cloudy, or foamy. These changes do not always appear at once. They can build up over hours or days, and the person may at first blame them on tiredness, a lack of sleep, or a hangover. That delay is dangerous, because the longer the kidneys go without proper blood flow, the more likely the injury is to become serious.
Doctors use blood tests to check how well the kidneys are filtering, and one of the main measures is a waste product called creatinine. When the kidneys are working well, creatinine is cleared from the blood at a steady rate. When they are injured, creatinine builds up, and the level in the blood rises. That rise is a sign, not a feeling, and a person cannot sense it happening. This is one reason why kidney harm is so often found late: the internal damage is invisible, and the outward signs appear only when the damage is already significant. A person who feels unwell after taking MDMA, especially if they are passing very little urine, should not wait for the problem to pass on its own. They should seek medical care, and they should be honest about what they have taken, so the right tests can be done quickly.
In the most severe cases, the kidneys may stop working almost completely for a time. This is acute kidney failure, and it needs hospital treatment. The person may need fluids given through a drip, careful monitoring of the salts in their blood, and, in some cases, dialysis, a treatment in which a machine does the filtering work that the kidneys cannot do. Dialysis is not a small inconvenience. It is a demanding treatment that takes hours, several times a week, and it changes a person’s daily life completely. Many people recover kidney function after acute injury, but some do not, and the risk of lasting harm is real. The fact that recovery is possible does not make the injury unimportant. It makes early help even more important, because the sooner the kidneys are supported, the better their chance of healing.
Warning Signs in the Urine and the Body
Urine is one of the clearest windows into kidney health, and changes in urine should never be ignored after MDMA use. Passing much less urine than usual, or not passing urine at all for many hours, is a strong warning sign. Urine that is very dark, the colour of tea or cola, can be a sign that muscle breakdown products are reaching the kidneys, or that the kidneys are badly dehydrated. Urine that is foamy, or that contains visible blood, is also a reason to seek help promptly. These are not changes to be embarrassed about or to wait out. They are the kidneys speaking in the only way they can, and they deserve to be heard.
Swelling is another sign that matters. When the kidneys cannot remove extra water, that water collects in the tissues, most often in the ankles, legs, and face, and sometimes in the lungs, which can make breathing harder. A person may notice that their shoes feel tight, or that their rings no longer fit, or that their face looks puffy in the morning. They may also notice a rapid gain in weight over a day or two, which is not fat, but fluid that the kidneys have failed to clear. Shortness of breath, especially when lying flat, is a particularly worrying sign, because it can mean fluid is building up in the lungs. Any of these changes after MDMA use should lead to medical care, not to waiting.
Tiredness, nausea, and confusion can also be signs of kidney trouble, and they are easy to mistake for the ordinary after-effects of a long night. The difference is in how long they last and how severe they are. A person who is still very tired, sick, or confused a day or two after taking MDMA, who is passing little urine, or who has swelling, is not simply recovering from a party. Their kidneys may be struggling, and they need to be checked. Friends and family can help here, because they may notice swelling, confusion, or a change in urine before the person does. Taking those observations seriously, and getting the person to a doctor, can make a real difference to the outcome.
Why Kidney Harm Can Last
Kidneys are able to recover from many injuries, but they do not always recover fully, and that is a fact worth understanding. The tiny filters inside the kidney are delicate, and when they are badly injured, some of them may be replaced by scar tissue. Scar tissue does not filter blood, so the kidney is left with fewer working filters than before. A person may feel well again, and their blood tests may improve, but their kidney reserve, the extra capacity they once had, may be smaller. That matters later in life, because the kidneys face other challenges as a person ages, from high blood pressure to diabetes to other medicines, and a kidney with less reserve copes less well with those challenges.
Repeated kidney injury is therefore a serious concern. A person who injures their kidneys once and recovers may be tempted to think the problem is over. If they injure them again, the damage can add up, and the second injury may start from a weaker position than the first. Over time, repeated acute injuries can lead to chronic kidney disease, a long-term condition in which the kidneys gradually lose their ability to filter blood. Chronic kidney disease often has no symptoms in its early stages, and it is usually found through blood or urine tests. As it advances, it can cause tiredness, swelling, high blood pressure, and, in its most severe form, kidney failure, which needs dialysis or a transplant. That long road begins with injuries that may have seemed, at the time, like a bad few days after a party.
Other factors can make lasting harm more likely. A person who already has kidney problems, high blood pressure, or diabetes has less reserve to start with, and the same strain that causes a mild injury in a healthy kidney can cause a deeper injury in a kidney that is already weak. Alcohol, taken on the same night, adds to dehydration and places extra work on the kidneys. Other drugs, including some painkillers, can also strain the kidneys, and the combination can be worse than any one substance alone. None of this means that a healthy person is safe. It means that risk is not the same for everyone, and that a person who does not know they have a kidney problem may be at greater risk than they realise.
The Kidneys, the Heart and the Rest of the Body
Kidney harm does not stay in the kidneys. When the kidneys cannot balance salts and water properly, the heart is affected, because the heart depends on the right levels of potassium and other salts to beat in a steady rhythm. Too much potassium in the blood can disturb that rhythm, and too much fluid can make the heart work harder and raise blood pressure. When the kidneys cannot clear waste, that waste builds up in the blood and can affect the brain, causing confusion, drowsiness, or difficulty concentrating. When they cannot help make red blood cells properly, a person can become anaemic, which means the blood carries less oxygen, and the person feels tired and breathless. All of these effects show that the kidneys are not an isolated part of the body. They are connected to the heart, the brain, the blood, and the bones.
Blood pressure is a particularly important link. The kidneys help control blood pressure, and high blood pressure, in turn, damages the kidneys. It is a circle that can turn in the wrong direction: kidney injury raises blood pressure, and raised blood pressure injures the kidneys further. MDMA itself can raise blood pressure and heart rate for hours, which adds another strain to that circle. A person who already has high blood pressure, even if they do not know it, is therefore in a more difficult position. This is another reason why a general health check, and honesty with a doctor about drug use, matters. A doctor who knows the full picture can check blood pressure, kidney function, and other risks together, rather than treating each one in isolation.
The bones are affected too, over a longer period, because the kidneys help keep calcium and other minerals in balance. When the kidneys are badly damaged for a long time, the bones can become weaker, and the person may be more likely to fracture them. This is a slow effect, and it is not the first thing a person thinks about after taking MDMA, but it is part of the wider picture of what chronic kidney disease can do. Thinking of the kidneys as only a filter for urine misses all of these connections. They are a central part of the body’s balance, and when they fail, the whole balance is disturbed.
What Helps the Kidneys Recover
If the kidneys have been injured by MDMA, the most important step is to stop taking the drug and to seek medical care. A doctor can check kidney function with blood and urine tests, monitor blood pressure and salts, and decide whether hospital care is needed. In hospital, the person may be given fluids to restore blood flow to the kidneys, and their medicines and diet may be adjusted to reduce the work the kidneys have to do. The aim is to give the kidneys the best conditions to heal, and to catch any complications early, before they become serious. This is not a process that can be safely managed at home by drinking water alone, especially if the person is passing very little urine or is confused or breathless.
Recovery takes time, and it is not always complete. In many cases of acute kidney injury, the kidneys recover most of their function over days or weeks, once the cause is removed and blood flow is restored. In other cases, especially where the injury was severe or repeated, recovery is slower and less complete, and the person may be left with lasting kidney damage. Follow-up blood tests are therefore important, even after a person feels well again, because they show whether the kidneys have truly recovered or whether they are still struggling. A person who has had a kidney injury should tell any future doctor about it, because it changes how medicines are chosen and how kidney function is monitored in the future.
There are also things that support recovery in daily life, once medical care has been given. Rest, regular meals, and avoiding alcohol all help, because they reduce the work the kidneys have to do and give the body time to repair. Some medicines, including certain painkillers, can strain the kidneys, so a doctor should be asked before taking them after a kidney injury. Smoking, which damages blood vessels throughout the body, also makes recovery harder. None of these steps is a cure on its own. They are the background that allows medical treatment and time to work, and they are worth following carefully, especially in the weeks after an injury.
My Take:
What strikes me first about MDMA and the kidneys is how much work those two small organs do without ever being noticed. They filter the blood, they balance water and salts, they help control blood pressure, and they do it all day, every day, without a sound. Then a drug comes along, the body gets hot, water is lost, blood flow falls, and those quiet organs are suddenly asked to do their hardest job with the least support. I find that unfairness hard to ignore. The kidneys do not complain early, they do not send a sharp pain, and they keep trying long after they should have been given help. By the time they do complain, through dark urine, swelling, or passing very little urine, they have already been struggling for some time.
I do not think people who take MDMA are thinking about their kidneys at all, and I understand why. At a party, or at a festival, the kidneys are the last thing on anyone’s mind. The music, the friends, the feeling of energy, and the desire to keep dancing are all in front, and the internal organs are invisible. That invisibility is the problem. If the kidneys were on the outside, and you could see them struggling, you would stop at once. Because they are hidden, it is easy to carry on, to dance for another hour, to drink too little water, or to drink too much, and to assume that the body will sort itself out. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it does not, and the price is paid in the days that follow.
The heat is the part I keep returning to, because it is so central and so often underestimated. A hot, crowded room, hours of movement, and a drug that pushes body temperature up and disturbs the sense of tiredness is a difficult combination for the kidneys. Sweat loses water, blood volume falls, and the kidneys receive less blood at the very moment they need more. I think people deserve to know that this is not a minor detail. It is one of the main reasons MDMA can injure the kidneys, and it is also one of the reasons why the same drug can affect two people very differently on two different nights. The setting, the temperature, the amount of rest, and the amount of water all change the risk, and none of them can be controlled perfectly in a crowded, noisy place.
Dehydration is another idea that sounds simple but is actually complicated, and I think that complication matters. People are often told to drink water, as if that alone will protect them, but the truth is more difficult. Too little water harms the kidneys, and too much water, especially when the body is holding on to water it should have passed, can disturb the salts in the blood and harm the brain. MDMA disturbs the body’s water balance in a way that makes both extremes possible, and that is why a simple rule about drinking does not work. I do not say this to confuse people. I say it because a false sense of safety is dangerous. A person who thinks they are safe because they drank a lot of water may ignore the warning signs that should have sent them to a doctor.
What worries me most is the lasting harm. A bad night can be followed by a few bad days, and then a person feels better, and they assume the story is over. With the kidneys, the story may not be over. Some of the tiny filters may have been lost, and the kidney may have less reserve than before, even if blood tests improve. That loss is invisible, and it matters most in the future, when the kidneys face other challenges, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or another medicine. I think that is the hardest truth in this article, because it goes against the way we usually think about getting better. Feeling better is not the same as being fully better, and the kidneys do not always tell us the difference.
I also think about dialysis, because it is a word people have heard but rarely picture clearly. Dialysis is not a tablet or a short treatment. It is hours attached to a machine, several times a week, with strict limits on food and drink, and a life organised around hospital visits. It is what happens when the kidneys can no longer do their work, and it is a real possibility after severe kidney injury, even if it is not the most common outcome. I do not mention it to frighten. I mention it because it makes the risk concrete. The kidneys are not an abstract idea. They are the organs that keep you off that machine, and they deserve to be protected.
Honesty with a doctor is something I feel strongly about here, as I do with the liver. A person who has taken MDMA and then feels unwell may be nervous about saying so, and I understand that. They may worry about being judged, or about what will happen next. But a doctor cannot check kidney function properly, or decide how urgently to act, without knowing what has strained the kidneys. The information about MDMA, about alcohol, about how much water was drunk, and about how long the person danced, all help the doctor work out what is wrong and how to treat it. Holding that information back can mean slower tests, a slower diagnosis, and a worse outcome. I would urge anyone in that position to be honest, even if it feels difficult.
Friends have a part to play as well, and it is a simple one: notice, and act. If a friend who has taken MDMA is passing very little urine, or their urine is very dark, or their ankles are swollen, or they are confused or very drowsy, do not wait for them to feel better on their own. Get them medical help. You do not need to be a doctor to notice these changes, and you do not need to know everything about the kidneys to help. You need to take the change seriously, and to act quickly. That simple act can be the difference between a kidney that recovers and a kidney that does not, and it is a responsibility worth taking seriously when you are with someone who has taken a drug.
I think about young people a lot in this subject, because they are the ones most likely to be offered MDMA, and the ones with the least information about what it does inside the body. A young person at a festival does not carry a medical textbook. They carry the advice of friends, the atmosphere of the night, and a wish to belong. Telling them simply not to take drugs has never been enough. Telling them, in plain words, what the drug does to the kidneys, how heat and dehydration make it worse, and what the warning signs look like, gives them something real to remember when they are offered a tablet. The kidneys are not a slogan. They are two small organs that have to last a lifetime, and that fact is worth carrying into a party.
There is a wider point about how we talk about drugs, and it applies here as much as it does to the liver. We talk about the high, about addiction, and about the law, and we talk much less about the organs that have to deal with the chemicals. The kidneys do the quiet work of cleaning the blood, and they pay a quiet price when they are strained. I think honest, detailed information about that price is one of the most useful things a health article can offer. It does not need to be frightening to be serious. It needs to be clear, and it needs to respect the reader enough to tell them the truth, without hiding the difficult parts. That is what I have tried to do here.
I also think about the cost that is rarely counted when kidney harm becomes serious. It is not only the hospital visits and the blood tests, although those are real enough. It is the time off work, the study that is missed, the money that is spent, and the worry that follows a person and their family for weeks. A parent who has to care for a son or daughter whose kidneys have been injured, a partner who has to watch someone they love become swollen and tired, a student who falls behind because their body needs weeks to recover, all of these are part of the price. When I think about MDMA and the kidneys, I think about those wider costs too, because they make the harm feel real in everyday life, not just as a list of medical terms.
The idea of recovery deserves a clear word as well, because I do not want this article to leave a reader feeling that nothing can be done once harm has happened. The kidneys can recover a great deal when they are given a real chance, and that chance starts with stopping the drug, getting medical care, and following the advice that follows, including follow-up tests even after feeling better. Recovery is not instant, and it is not always complete, but it is real, and it is worth working towards. I think people who are worried should hear that, because fear on its own does not help. Fear plus a clear path forward is much more useful, and the path starts with honesty and with help, not with waiting to see if things get worse on their own.
One more thought stays with me, and it is about how little we are taught about our own bodies. Most people leave school knowing very little about what their kidneys do, how much water they need, or what happens when they are strained. That lack of teaching is not the fault of the person who takes a drug. It is a gap in what we are told, and it leaves people making choices without the facts they need. I think articles like this one have a job to do in filling that gap, in plain words, without judgement and without hiding the difficult parts. If a reader finishes this article knowing what their kidneys do, why heat and dehydration hurt them, and what warning signs to watch for, then they are in a far better position to protect themselves than they were before, and that is worth a great deal.
Finally, I want to say this plainly to anyone who has taken MDMA and is worried about their kidneys. Do not wait for a dramatic sign, and do not try to judge the problem on your own by how you feel. The kidneys are quiet organs, and they can be in trouble while a person still feels able to carry on with their day. That quietness is exactly why a check matters more than a guess. A simple blood test and a urine test can show what feeling alone cannot, and they can give a doctor the information needed to act early, when treatment works best. The early signs are quiet: less urine, darker urine, swelling, tiredness that does not lift, nausea that does not settle. If you notice any of them, talk to a health professional, be honest about what you have taken, and let them check. If you have not taken MDMA, and you are thinking about it, weigh this information alongside everything else you have heard. Your kidneys work for you every day, without thanks and without complaint. They deserve to be protected, and the best way to protect them is not to give them a drug that strains them in the heat, with too little water and too little blood flow. That is not a moral judgement. It is a practical one, based on how the body works, and I think it is worth taking seriously.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does MDMA strain the kidneys?
MDMA strains the kidneys in several ways at once. It raises body temperature, causes heavy sweating and fluid loss, changes blood flow so the kidneys receive less blood, and adds extra waste for the kidneys to filter. Long hours of dancing in the heat can also strain the muscles, and the products of muscle breakdown can clog the kidney filters. Together, these effects can injure the delicate filters inside the kidneys, especially when the drug is taken repeatedly or with alcohol.
Does dehydration make MDMA kidney harm worse?
Yes, dehydration makes the harm worse, and it is one of the main reasons MDMA can injure the kidneys. When the body loses too much water through sweating, blood volume falls and less blood reaches the kidneys, so their filters receive less oxygen and less fluid to work with. At the same time, heat can injure kidney cells directly. Drinking too much water can also be dangerous, because MDMA can disturb water balance and dilute the salts in the blood, so the answer is not simply to drink more, but to avoid the strain in the first place and seek help if warning signs appear.
Can kidney damage from MDMA heal?
Mild kidney injury can often heal if the drug is stopped, blood flow is restored, and the kidneys are given time and medical support, because kidney tissue can recover from a short period of strain. More severe or repeated injury heals more slowly and may leave lasting damage, with fewer working filters than before. Follow-up blood tests are important even after a person feels well again, to check whether the kidneys have truly recovered.
Can MDMA damage your kidneys?
Yes, MDMA can damage the kidneys. The damage can range from a short period of reduced filtering that recovers with medical care, to serious acute kidney injury that needs hospital treatment and, in some cases, dialysis. Heat, dehydration, long hours of dancing, muscle strain, and alcohol taken at the same time all add to the risk, so the harm is real even when the person feels well most of the time.
Does MDMA cause kidney failure?
MDMA can cause kidney failure, although it does not happen to most people who take it. Severe overheating, serious dehydration, muscle breakdown, and a sharp fall in blood flow to the kidneys can lead to acute kidney failure, in which the kidneys stop filtering properly. This is a medical emergency that needs hospital care, and in some cases dialysis. Anyone who is passing very little urine, has dark urine, swelling, or confusion after taking MDMA should seek urgent help.
What signs show MDMA is slowing kidney filtration over time?
When MDMA use slows kidney filtration over time, the signs can build up gradually rather than appearing all at once. They can include passing less urine, foamy or unusually dark urine, swelling in the ankles, legs or face, unusual tiredness, and a feeling that the body is holding on to fluid. Repeated use and dehydration can make this strain worse, so these changes should be taken seriously.
