Right here’s how lemon juice might fend off kidney stones

A shock ingredient might clarify how lemon juice places the squeeze on kidney stones.

Lemons include nanoparticles that, when fed to rats, block stone formation, scientists report within the Feb. 22 Nano Letters. If the tiny sacs do the identical for people, the nanoparticles may at some point provide a option to stop kidney stones in individuals, says pharmaceutical scientist Hongzhi Qiao of Nanjing College of Chinese language Medication.

Lemon juice is a well known residence treatment for kidney stones, which type when minerals crystalize and clump up contained in the kidney (SN: 9/21/18). These rocky lumps can knock round within the urinary tract, slicing and dicing tissues as they ultimately go out of the physique (SN: 10/31/16). “It’s so, so, so painful,” says Jingyin Yan, a nephrologist at Baylor Faculty of Medication in Houston who was not a part of the brand new research. Sufferers might really feel sharp ache of their again, aspect or decrease stomach after they go a stone, she says. “Folks describe it as worse than delivering a child.”

Although some medicines may help deal with kidney stones, many individuals find yourself needing surgical procedure to take away them, says Thomas Chi, a urologist on the College of California, San Francisco, additionally not a part of the research. Folks typically think about kidney stones as tiny pebbles, however typically they bulk up like boulders, he provides. “I’ve taken out stones the dimensions of your fist.”

That’s why prevention is essential. Scientists already knew that citric acid, which provides lemons their bitter energy, might do the trick by binding to the minerals that make up stones. However consuming mouth-puckering lemon juice will not be so snug for sufferers, Qiao says.

A 2022 scientific trial discovered that kidney stone sufferers had hassle downing 120 milliliters — a few half cup — of lemon juice per day. Swilling a great deal of lemonade could cause dental issues, too. Chi has had sufferers drink a lot that the acidic liquid ate away at their enamel.

So Qiao and colleagues appeared for different, extra palatable lemon-derived substances which may assist stop kidney stones. Inside edible and medicinal crops like ginseng, grapefruit and dandelion, his crew has discovered extracellular vesicle-like nanoparticles, tiny sacs full of molecules together with fats, protein and DNA.

These nanoparticles exist in lemon juice, too­­ — and the crew fed them to rats that had additionally ingested a substance that promotes kidney stone development. The zesty particles slowed stone formation, Qiao and colleagues discovered. The discovering suggests these particles curb growth of calcium oxalate crystals, the commonest wrongdoer of kidney stones. The particles may soften the stones and make them much less sticky, the crew confirmed. 

The brand new work challenges the traditional knowledge on how lemon juice works to fight kidney stones, Chi says. Utilizing lemon nanoparticles to deal with individuals remains to be a good distance off, however the crew’s outcomes maintain promise, he says. “The quicker you possibly can convey a discovering like this in the direction of a human scientific trial, the higher.”