People who get painful kidney stones again and again are usually told to drink more water to stop them from forming. To test if this really helps, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic conducted a large study.
"Kidney stone disease is a chronic condition, punctuated by unpredictable, sometimes excruciatingly painful episodes that can disrupt work, sleep, productivity and life in general," explained first author Alana Desai.
The study, led by the Urinary Stone Disease Research Network and co-ordinated by the Duke Clinical Research Institute, followed 1,658 teens and adults from six major U.S. hospitals for two years.
Participants were split into two groups. One got standard care, while the other joined a program to help them drink more fluids. This program used smart water bottles to track drinking, set personal water goals, send reminder texts, offer small rewards, and provide health coaching.
Each person's water goal was based on how much urine they usually produced compared to a target of at least 2.5 liters per day.People in the program did drink more water, and their urine levels increased. However, this was not enough to clearly reduce how often kidney stones came back.
The results showed that it's hard for people to consistently drink a lot of water every day, even with reminders and support. They also suggested that one fixed water goal may not suit everyone, since needs differ based on age, body size, lifestyle, and health.
"What this trial shows is that even with advanced tools, coaching, and incentivizing patients, sustaining the level of hydration needed to meaningfully impact stone formation is much harder than we thought," study author Sri Sivalingam said.
"It underscores the complexity of urinary stone disease and that prevention strategies need to be even more personalized, taking into account each patient's underlying risk factors, lifestyle and barriers to adherence, if we want to truly reduce recurrence."
Researchers stated that better prevention methods are needed, which might include more personalized water goals, ways to fit better habits into daily life, and treatments that help prevent minerals from forming stones.
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