‘COVID-19 Weight loss plan’ Lowers Salt, a Boon to Kidney Stone Sufferers

Could 2, 2023 – Your kidneys could also be hailing the “COVID-19 weight-reduction plan.”

Some sufferers liable to kidney stones lowered the quantity of sodium and calcium they consumed in 2020 as they switched to house cooking through the pandemic lockdowns, and the reductions have endured whilst eating places have reopened. 

Researchers from the Division of Urology at Stony Brook College Hospital in Stony Brook, NY, reported the findings lately on the 2023 assembly of the American Urology Affiliation.

“Subjectively, we seen our pals, households and our sufferers reporting that they beginning cooking extra at house and began consuming much less out at eating places; one affected person known as it the ‘COVID-19 weight-reduction plan,’ ” mentioned David Schulsinger, MD, an affiliate professor of urology at Stony Brook and the senior creator of the research.

Eating places had been closed in New York state beginning in March 2020. 

Schulsinger mentioned decreasing the consumption of sodium can decrease the chance for hypernatriuria or hypercalciuria (an excessive amount of sodium or calcium within the urine, respectively), thus decreasing the chance for kidney stones, as a result of house cooking permits sufferers larger management over how they season their meals.

Within the research, 93 kidney stone sufferers (54 males and 39 girls; common age 60.1) had 24-hour urine research at three time limits: earlier than March 16, 2020; over the next 10-month interval; and a “post-COVID-19” stage between Jan. 1, 2021, and Oct. 31, 2022.

Ranges of urinary sodium decreased by about 10% through the pandemic and settled into about 17% decrease through the post-COVID time interval. Urinary calcium additionally fell by about 10% through the pandemic, and ranges remained improved, about 13% decrease, within the post-COVID interval, in response to the researchers.