Drinking a can of a sugary drink increases the risk of developing kidney stones while consuming tea, coffee or orange juice lowers the risk. This is the conclusion reached by a study conducted by experts from the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
The study published on Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology states that any excessive consumption of sweetened drinks such as soda ups the risk of kidney stone formation. Renal stone formation already affects about 10 percent of adult females and 20 percent of adult males in the United States.
The paper pointed out that doctors often advise patients to take more fluids to prevent formation of kidney stones but it also shows that there are drinks that may do more harm than good.
"Our study found that the relation between fluid intake and kidney stones may be dependent on the type of beverage consumed," Dr. Gary Curhan, one of the authors of the study explained through a press statement.
"We found that higher consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks was associated with a higher incidence of kidney stones," he added.
The proponents of the study looked into the data of 194,095 patients of the hospital collected over an eight-year period. The participants completed questionnaires every two years during the study and were asked about their medical history, medication, and lifestyle. Questions about the subjects' diet were updated twice in a four-year interval.
The experts found out that individuals who consumed at least a can of cola a day increase their risk of kidney stone formation by as much as 23 percent compared to people who consumed less than a serving of cola per week. The same conclusion is true for those who consumed non-cola drinks that are sugar-sweetened.
Drinks like orange juice, tea, or coffee, on the other hand, can lower the risk of kidney stones.
"Although higher total fluid intake reduces the risk of stone formation, this information about individual beverages may be useful for general practitioners seeking to implement strategies to reduce stone formation in their patients," discussed Dr. Pietro Manuel Ferraro who served as a corresponding author of the study.
