REMEDIES: Lemonade Offers Sweet Relief From Kidney Stones (HEALTH, RECIPES)

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Lemonade Offers Sweet Relief From Kidney Stones

By Amy Sutton, HealthDay Reporter

Wed May 24, 11:53 PM ET

 

Drinking lemonade could help prevent painful kidney stones, new research

shows.

 

Regular consumption of the refreshing drink -- or even lemon juice mixed

with water -- may increase the production of urinary citrate, a chemical

in the urine that prevents the formation of crystals that may build up

into kidney stones.

 

So conclude two studies presented Tuesday at the American Urological

Association annual meeting in Atlanta.

 

Kidney stones develop when minerals from urine crystallize and build up

on the inside of the kidney. In most people, urine contains a chemical

that prevents crystal buildup, but that chemical does not work in people

prone to kidney stones. When the body tries to remove the crystallized

deposits through the narrow tubes of the urinary tract, a person may

feel pain and burning.

 

In the study led by Kristina Penniston, an assistant scientist in the

Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine

and Public Health, researchers retrospectively examined the medical

records of 100 patients who had been prescribed lemonade therapy after

seeking treatment for calcium oxalate kidney stones. Calcium oxalate

stones are the most common type of kidney stones.

 

" We'd been recommending lemonade therapy for about 10 years, but within

the last five or six years, we really noticed that people on lemonade

therapy have extremely high urinary citrate concentrations, " Penniston

said. " We knew people were seeing results in urine biochemistries, and

[lemonade therapy] was fairly well-tolerated. "

 

About two thirds of the patients drank about 4 ounces of pure lemon

juice that they poured into 2.5 liters of beverages throughout the day

or 32 ounces of low-sugar or low-calorie prepared lemonade, Penniston

said. The remaining patients in the study were treated with a

combination of lemonade therapy and potassium citrate, a medication that

maintains the antacid level in urine.

 

After an average treatment time of about 40 months, " in both groups,

urinary citrate increased and so did urine volume. But the increase in

volume was only significant in groups with lemonade therapy, " Penniston

said. For patients prone to kidney stones, drinking lots of fluids and

increasing urinary volume may help prevent future stone formation.

 

In another study presented at the conference, conducted by researchers

at Duke University, 12 patients with mild-to-moderate hypocitrauria -- a

condition that causes a person to produce low levels of urinary citrate

-- drank 120 milliliters of lemon juice mixed with two liters of water

throughout the day.

 

After the researchers compared the people treated with lemonade therapy

to patients taking potassium citrate, results showed that 11 of the 12

patients had increased urinary citrate levels during lemonade therapy.

 

The kidney stones of the people taking lemonade therapy also decreased

in size and number during the course of the treatment, which lasted an

average of 41 months.

 

Although the results of these two studies indicate that lemonade therapy

may offer a simple alternative treatment to people with kidney stones

who can't tolerate taking potassium citrate, much more research needs to

be conducted, both study authors concluded.

 

" Both of these studies are addressing a very specific individual --

individuals with low urinary citrate. They're not suggesting that

everyone with a stone problem try this, " said Dr. Eric N. Taylor, of

Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, both in Boston.

 

Taylor also noted that the type of lemonade used in therapy may easily

add extra sugar or calories to a person's diet. " The problem is, if

someone would just drink 2 liters of lemonade, it could represent a

significant amount of calories and sugar, " he said. " When people think

lemonade, they don't necessarily think of lemon juice. The key is you

need real fruit, " he said.

 

http://news./s/hsn/20060525/hl_hsn/lemonadeofferssweetrelieffromkidneys\

tones

 

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