Prevention is better than cure. This age-old adage carries with it a meaning that we rarely value until it’s too late. We may watch our diet to stay slim, but we don’t often diet to avoid potential health conditions such as kidney stones.

Kidney stones are more common than most people know – over a million cases are reported in the United States every year. Despite this staggeringly high number, few people (including scientists) have focused on preventing kidney stones instead of devising a cure for the painful condition once it occurs.

Thankfully, researchers Eric Taylor, Teresa Fung, and Gary Curhan from Harvard University (Medical School and School of Public Health) have studied the effects of the so-called ‘DASH’ diet on kidney stones. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension.

The development of the DASH diet is a result of extensive research by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (part of the NIH- National Institutes of Health) over the past ten years. This diet promotes a low consumption of sodium, red meat, processed foods, sweetened beverages and sugar as well as increased intake of nuts, whole grains, fruits and vegetables.

In the study, about 240,000 men and women were placed on the DASH diet and tracked for 14-18 years. Their diets included a high proportion of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes and a low proportion of sodium, red and processed meats, sweetened beverages, and fat dairy products.

Results show that the subjects had much lower sodium levels, and higher levels of potassium, calcium, magnesium, oxalate, and vitamin C than those not on the diet. Only about 5,000 cases of kidney stones were noted, which suggested that the DASH diet reduced the risk of kidney stones by more than 50%.

Careful monitoring of food intake has already been recommended by several national health institutions for lowering blood pressure, decreasing the risk of heart disease and in treatment of other conditions, such as diabetes. The effect of diet on the production of kidney stones and their association with hypertension needs to be studied further. However, this research is crucial for realizing the potency of a healthy diet, because prevention truly is better than a cure.

Discussion Question: Which other health conditions could also be avoided with the DASH diet? Can you think of any popular and common foods that should be eliminated from our diets?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090813170845.htm
Paper Abstract: http://jasn.asnjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/ASN.2009030276v1
DASH diet: http://dashdiet.org/default.asp