The pain of kidney stones may seem to come on suddenly, but new research suggests that the body's microbial community may help form this harmful particle.
In the Canadian study, people with kidney stones appeared to show certain changes in their gut, urinary tract and saliva** microbiota** that were not found in the stone-free population.
We found that not only did people with kidney stones have an unhealthy microbiome, including the gut microbiome, who were more likely to excrete toxins into the kidneys, but they were also resistant to antibiotics," said study lead author Dr Jeremy Burton, a scientist at the Rosen Institute for Health Research in the City of London and chair of the Probiotics and Human Microbiome Research at St Joseph's Health Care Centre in the City of London. He made the remarks from London, Ontario.
Burton's team recently published their findings in the journal Microbiome.
His research team studied the gut, urine, and saliva microbiomes of 83 people who had had kidney stones and 30 people who had never had kidney stones.
Study lead author Dr. Kate Ahr said the cutting-edge analytical tools "allow us to discover which bacteria are present in the gut and what the genetic capabilities of those bacteria are, or how they function." We also performed simpler sequencing tests on oral and urine samples."
Al is a postdoctoral fellow at the Schullick School of Medicine and Dentistry at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.
Most kidney stones are formed from calcium oxalate, a waste product of the body. Some microbial communities naturally contain a bacterium called oxalobacter formigenes, which breaks down oxalic acid. But the new study suggests that there are other factors in the microbial community.
It's a much more complicated story," Al said at Lawson's press conference. Microbes form a stable and beneficial network in healthy people, but in patients with kidney stones, this network is disrupted. They are unable to produce the same vitamins and useful intermediates not only in the intestines, but also in the urinary tract and mouth.
Overuse of antibiotics may also play a role in the risk of kidney stones.
The research team says that eating a healthy diet and avoiding antibiotics as much as possible (whenever you can) may work together to enhance the health of your microbiome and prevent kidney stones.
More information. Visit the Mayo Clinic to learn more about kidney stones.
*: Lawson Health Institute, press release, December 20, 2023.
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