Kidney stones are from through accumulation of salts in the urinary system. Having a kidney stone can be extremely painful but new research now suggests that a healthy diet can help avoid developing one.
The dietary approaches to hypertension (DASH) diet has previously been investigated for preventing high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease but not, till now, for kidney stones. However, a team at Maine Medical Center has looked at the impact of DASH on kidney stones, using data from three well known clinical studies. The Health Professionals Follow-up Study, the Nurses’ Health Study I and the Nurses’ Health Study II have run for many years and look at the impact of factors such as diet on chronic health conditions.
Kidney stones have previously been linked to higher rates of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes and other heart disease risk factors. So there was already speculation that the DASH diet could, perhaps, also prevent kidney stones. In the study, participants were given a score linked to the main components of the DASH diet: fruit, vegetables, nuts and legumes, low fat dairy, whole grains, and lower intakes of salt, sweetened drinks, red meat and processed meat, like bacon and sausages. The study participants were followed up for several years, during which time there were 5,646 cases of kidney stones.
Those with the highest DASH scores were around 40% less likely to develop a kidney stone compared to those with the lowest scores. Kidney stones can be extremely painful and the medications used to treat them are far from ideal. This study suggests an alternative approach – prevention with a healthy DASH style diet. And there are other good reasons for adopting a diet based on fresh produce, low fat dairy and whole grains – namely, prevention of heart disease. The study is interesting also because it highlights the link between kidney stones and other health conditions – with the DASH diet, you may be able to reduce your risk of any of these, is the take home message.
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