Is There a Link Between Diabetes and Kidney Stones?
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The incidences of diabetes and kidney stones continues to increase worldwide, but is diabetes a predisposition for kidney stones? Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that results in patients passing a larger than normal quantity of urine, which is usually pale in color. The medical term for passing larger than normal quantity of urine is known as polyuria. This may simply be as a result of a large fluid intake or a more serious condition such as diabetes or kidney disease. Most people know about the common forms of diabetes mellitus - type I and type II. Many people, however, are unaware that there are at least five (5) forms of diabetes: diabetes mellitus type I and type II, gestational diabetes, renal diabetes, and diabetes insipidus. Diabetes mellitus and gestational diabetes are the result of a high concentration of glucose in the blood. Renal diabetes does not cause the blood glucose level to be elevated. This condition is a hereditary deficiency of glucose transporters, which causes glucose to remain in the tubular fluid. Diabetes insipidus results from a deficiency of antidiuretic hormone (ADH). Without ADH, the collecting duct does not reabsorb as much water into the body as normal, so more water passes into the urine.
As mentioned above polyuria is passing larger than normal quantity of urine. In most cases, this is caused by a high concentration of glucose in the renal tubule. Glucose reduces the re-absorption of water into the body, so more water is passed into urine. This can cause a person to become severely dehydrated. Dehydration is one of the major risk factors for kidney stones. This is quite possibly one of the links between diabetes and kidney stones. A lack of fluids increases the concentration of minerals in the kidneys. This increases the chances of these minerals crystallizing and clumping together, and eventually forming stones. Dehydration is one of the root causes of kidney stones. In one study, a group of researchers looked at the a number of patients with kidney stones in order to determine whether there was link between kidney stones and diabetes. After studying a randomly selected group of 3,561 patients with kidney stones and taking into account the effects of age, time of year, high blood pressure and obesity, they found that diabetes was significantly associated with diagnosis of kidney stones. The prevalence of diabetes was 40% among individuals with uric acid stones, versus 9% with calcium stones. After taking into account the patients' body mass index (the ratio between height and weight) patients with uric acid stones had five (5) times the risk of diabetes. These statistics are quite interesting. While it is unlikely that diabetes is the only factor driving the increase incidence of kidney stones, it could be a significant risk factor. There are other factors, of course, to be considered such as diet, lifestyle habits, and hereditary factors. It should be noted, however, that the body is a single unit made up of a number of inter-related bio-systems. It is not uncommon for some diseases which affect different parts of the body's anatomy to contribute to other medical conditions as well. Although there is no conclusive evidence of a link between diabetes and kidney stones, it is worth further investigation. Much more extensive research and clinical tests still have to be done in order to conclusively determine whether there is in fact a link between diabetes and kidney stones. The results of preliminary studies, however, seem to suggest that there is a high possibility of such a link.
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