A new study suggests that people drinking a can of carbonated drink a day can be 25 percent more vulnerable than those who don't.
According to a study conducted by a team from Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, while carbonated drinks can develop painful kidney stones, other beverages such as coffee, tea, and orange juice reduce it.
Dr. Gary Curham, lead author of the study, said "Our study found that the relation between fluid intake and kidney stones may be dependent on the type of beverage consumed. We found that higher consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks was associated with a higher incidence of kidney stones".
Around 3 out of 20 men and 1 in every 20 women suffer from the painful kidney stones and doctors would often advise them to increase their fluid intake to keep them from growing. However, this new study implies that patients should be mindful of what they drink because it may defeat the purpose especially if they are drinking carbonated drinks.
The conclusion was derived from the observation that they did on 194,095 patients for 8 years.
The researchers discovered that patients who drink at least one carbonated drinks a day had increased their risk to kidney stones by 23 percent as opposed to those who drink less than one serving in a week. Examples of carbonated drinks are carbonated water, cola, diet sodas, fruit sodas, ginger ale, punch and root beers.
During their analysis, they also found out that other beverages such as coffee, tea and orange juice are helpful in lowering the chance of developing kidney stones.
Dr Pietro Manuel Ferraro, co-author of the study from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, said: 'Our prospective study confirms that some beverages are associated with a lower risk of kidney stone formation, whereas others are associated with a higher risk. 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".
The study was published in an online journal of Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology last May 15.
