Water-Drinking Program Didn’t Lower Stone Risk
- Dr. Gerda Maissel
- May 12
- 1 min read
Kidney and bladder stones cause pain and plague many people. Common, seemingly sensible advice is to drink more fluids to prevent them. But doctors worry that many people don’t follow through on that advice.
To test whether a program to encourage drinking would help, a new March 2026 study by Desai, published in The Lancet, tested a program designed to increase fluid intake and compared its results with those of a control group receiving usual care. They found no difference in symptomatic stone recurrence, new stone formation, or stone growth.
The conclusion is that a behavioral intervention program doesn’t help people with urinary stones. We don’t know whether that’s because extra fluids really don’t matter that much or because a program to encourage people to drink more isn’t needed.
Comments