By Becky John
A Registered Dietician, Mr Aloysius Maduforo, on Tuesday said drinking plenty of water will lower risk of kidney stones. He made this known in an interview with the newsmen in Abuja. Maduforo said researchers have found out that drinking eight or more glasses of water daily reduces the risk of kidney stones significantly.
He said: “The analysis shows that drinking water is an effective way to cut one’s risk for developing kidney stones in half.
“Kidney stones cause significant discomfort and cost, along with a potential to contribute to the development of kidney disease.
“So the confirmation of reducing risk or prevention through improved hydration is an important finding,” Maduforo added.
According to him, the current research looked at nine previous studies that included nearly 274,000 people with more than 550 people having a history of kidney stones.
He said: “The review found that people who produced two to 2.5 litres of urine were 50 per cent less likely to form kidney stones than those who produced less urine.
“That amount of urine production is associated with drinking about eight to 10 ounce glasses of water a day, according to the researchers.
“Drinking lots of water keeps urine less concentrated with waste products as kidney stone is a solid piece of material that forms in the kidney from substances in the urine.
“Kidney stones may appear as grains of sand or pearl which may pass out of the body without help from a doctor or get stuck in the urinary tract, block the flow of urine and cause great pain.’’
Maduforo said that “frequent urination means that stone-causing minerals have less opportunity to settle and bond in the kidneys and urinary tract’’.
“Increased fluid intake had long been suggested as a simple strategy for preventing kidney stones.
“This large meta-analysis provides further support for this intervention to reduce the risk of kidney stones,” he said.
