Can drinking water help prevent kidney stones?

Kidney stones are formed when your urine contains more crystal-forming substances that prevent the fluid in your urine from getting diluted.

If you do not drink enough water, your urine output decreases and your urine is more concentrated and less likely to dissolve the urinary salts, creating an ideal environment for kidney stones to form. So, the best way to prevent kidney stones is to drink plenty of water.

Can drinking water help prevent kidney stones?

Does Drinking Plenty of Water Help Prevent Kidney Stones?

Drinking plenty of water helps the kidneys to keep fluids functioning properly and prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs) and kidney damage.

If you drink enough water, your urine output increases, and your urine is more likely to dissolve the urinary salts and the salts and minerals in the urine do not accumulate.

Why Drinking Enough Water is Necessary

The body and water are in a constant state of loss and compensation, meaning that the body at all times loses varying amounts of fluid, either through the breathing air that exits from the lung during the exhalation process, or through urine that is formed in the kidneys as a result of the purification of blood from toxins and other harmful substances, or by excreting sweat excreted by the sweat glands scattered on the surface of the skin as a way to cool the body and keep its temperature within healthy levels, and by excreting fecal waste.

This continuous loss requires continuous compensation to the body for the amounts lost all the time.

The main sources of compensation are drinking pure water or eating liquid materials and foods containing water, such as fruit juice, cold and warm drinks, and eating vegetables and fruits, among others.

Water intake and Kidney Stones

Kidney stones and their relationship to water are based on the fact that these stones are formed in the urethra, the main component of which is water.

Kidney stones are solid clumps of deposits of minerals and acidic salts that form inside the urethra of the kidney and urinary tract out of the body, i.e., the ureters and the bladder.

In the beginnings, the kidney stone is often small in size, and over time and the conditions that led to its origin continue, this stone is vulnerable to an increase in size.

Although there are several reasons for the emergence of kidney stones, the most common of them is when the concentration of minerals and salts in the urine liquid rises, which gives an opportunity for crystals to form from those minerals usually found dissolved in the urine liquid, and adhere to each other, thus starting the formation of the stone nucleus, which gradually growing in size due to the continuous adhesion process of mineral crystals.

Drinking plenty of water helps provide kidney fluids to work properly and prevent kidney damage.

Can dehydration cause kidney stones?

Dehydration is the condition in which the body does not have sufficient quantities of fluids to facilitate the body, its organs, and its various organs carrying out the tasks that it needs to perform.
Dehydration can contribute to urinary tract infections and the formation of kidney stones, both of which can cause kidney damage if not treated quickly.

Can dehydration cause kidney stones?

Why does dehydration cause kidney stones?

Water is necessary for kidney work. If the kidneys do not work properly, waste products and extra fluids can be formed inside the body.

In many cases, dehydration can lead to kidney damage or kidney failure, which can be life-threatening.

Possible complications of chronic kidney failure such as anemia, loss of the central nervous system, and a compromised immune system and either dialysis or kidney transplantation are required.

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common infections in the body. If the infection in the upper urinary tract including kidneys spreads, then there may be the result of permanent damage.

Kidney stones interfere in how kidneys work. When present, UTIs can be complicated. These complex UTIs require long-term antibiotics to cure. The main cause of kidney stones is the water shortage.

People who report they do not often drink the recommended daily amount of water. Risk of chronic kidney disease can also increase in kidney stones.

So drinking lots of water is an easy way to reduce the risk of developing urinary tract infections and help prevent kidney stones.  

How much water should you drink a day to prevent kidney stones?

There is no easy answer to this question. For clarity, there is no disagreement that it is necessary to provide the body with an adequate and necessary amount of fluids on a daily basis, but medical studies and the results of research and medical observations indicate that there are different recommendations and the reason is that human needs differ from one person to another due to several factors among people.

Also, for the same person, the quantity he needs on one day differs from the amount his body needs on another day, depending on the quality and amount of physical activity he performs on the day and the different climatic conditions in which he lives and the different level of his health.

Therefore, the researchers say that there is not a single formula that works for all people regarding the amount of water that they have to drink during the day, and the needs of the body differ from time to time in this matter.

Drink enough water, especially for people with a high risk of illness, as you should drink at least two liters of water per day.

Doctors recommend that the amount of urine be equivalent to 2.5 liters, which makes the urine light and decentralized.

In some cases, your doctor may ask you to measure the amount of urine, but in general if your urine is light-colored (not cloudy) then this means that you drink an appropriate amount of water.

People who already have kidney stones should drink between two and three liters daily.