New guidelines, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, provide recommendations on preventing further kidney stones for individuals that have already had an incidence of kidney stones.  Researchers found evidence that drinking more liquids may help prevent additional episodes of kidney stones.  Dietary changes had inconsistent results, but pharmaceutical therapies were helpful for decreasing the production of some materials commonly associated with kidney stones.

Kidney stones are caused by the accumulation of certain solid materials in the kidney. Although kidney stones can sometimes occur without causing any symptoms, many patients experience severe pain and other problems when the stone is passed in the urine. The problems may include bleeding and damage to the kidney. People who have had a kidney stone are at risk for having another, so effective measures to prevent recurrent kidney stones would be useful.

According to Medical News Today, there is a 35 to 50 chance of having another kidney stone after having one episode.  Recurrence usually happens within five years of the first incident.  Approximately 13 percent of men and seven percent of women will have a kidney stone at some point in their life.  For those patients, the first step is to increase fluid intake.  If that does not work, patients should take a medication containing a thiazide diuretic, citrate, or allopurinol.  These drugs can reduce production of certain compounds or help eliminate more urine from the body.

Dietary changes have mixed results, but there is strong support for reducing intake of foods and beverages that contain oxalate.  Such items include beets, rhubarb, nuts, spinach, strawberries, chocolate, tea, and wheat bran.  There is also some evidence that reduction of cola intake is also helpful.  Patients already receive recommendations to decrease consumption of these.