Cutting the Risk of Kidney Stones

Researchers tracking the diets of more than 80,000 nurses in the United States between 1986 and 1994 found that some fluids may be more likely than others to help a person avoid kidney stones, reports Science News. Of the 17 beverages studied, tea decreased the risk of kidney stones by 8 percent, while regular or decaffeinated coffee cut the risk by about 9 percent. The moderate intake of wine helped lower a person’s risk of kidney stones by 20 percent or more. “Strangely, an 8-ounce glass of grapefruit juice daily boosted the risk of stones by 44 percent,” the study showed. “No other drink had such a negative impact.” Dr. Gary Curhan, a nephrologist and epidemiologist in Boston, was quoted as saying: “Modifying beverage intake might make a difference,” but only as part of a broad treatment strate.Tuberculosis Scourge“A third of the world’s population is infected by TB [tuberculosis],” and the disease is expected to kill 30 million people this decade, reports The Times of London. The World Health Organization stresses that the new plague, as it terms it, will be more widespread and devastating than AIDS, likely infecting 300 million people in the next ten years. The fact that the bacilli are airborne means that TB is therefore much more contagious. TB is already epidemic in parts of Russia. Drug-resistant strains of the bacillus have emerged because many TB patients have not completed their six-month course of antibiotics, reports a British medical relief agency. As a result, bacilli develop immunity and survive.