WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Approximately 11% of men and 6% of women in the United States have suffered from kidney stones at least once. National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Michael Degon of Novant Health spoke to WECT about new research on risk factors associated with kidney stones and how certain medications may help for type 2 diabetes.
“Obviously, hydration is probably the most important thing, and staying well hydrated is important,” Dr. Degon said. “Salt, salt is a big part of it, and the more salt you ingest, the more salt can precipitate as stones. That’s not a good thing.”
For people with type 2 diabetes who are concerned about kidney stones, researchers continue to study how drug therapy can prevent stone formation.
“There is a class of drugs called SGLT2 inhibitors, the drug commonly known as Jardiance is the most common, and any drug ending in ‘flozin’ is a class of drugs used to treat type 2 diabetes. And over the years, we’ve had case reports that say, “If we give this drug to our patients, they seem to have fewer kidney stones,” Dr. Degon explained. “And there was actually a large study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association that looked at over 600,000 pairs of patients and basically controlled for patients taking this type of drug and controlling for Type 2. We looked at patients who were taking another type of medication for diabetes. And we found that the risk associated with kidney stones was significantly reduced, by about 30%.”
Dr. Degon said researchers are working to understand the correlation between medication and reduced kidney stone formation.
The full interview can be found at the beginning of this article.
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