FRIDAY, July 25 (HealthDay News) -- Men over 40 may want to avoid iced tea and start hitting the lemonade if they wish to lower their risk of kidney stones, according to experts.

Kidney stones, crystals that develop in the kidneys or the tubes that carry urine from the kidney to the bladder, affect 10 percent of the U.S. population, and men run a four times greater risk than women of developing them. The chance of forming kidney stones rises steeply after the age of 40.

Oxalate, a key chemical in the formation of kidney stones, comes in high concentrations in iced tea.

CLEVELAND - Brad Kaster donated a kidney to his father this week, and he barely has a scar to show for it. The kidney was removed through a single incision in his bellybutton, a surgical procedure Cleveland Clinic doctors say will reduce recovery time and leave almost no scarring.

"The actual incision point on me is so tiny I'm not getting any pain from it," Kaster, 29, said Wednesday. "I can't even see it."

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MONDAY, July 14 (HealthDay News) -- Maintaining proper blood sugar levels after heart surgery is essential, whether one is or isn't a diabetic, a new study shows.

The British report, published in Circulation, shows that poor blood sugar control in post-heart surgery patients is linked to a fourfold increase in death and major complications, such as heart attack, neurological, kidney, lung and gastrointestinal injury.

By Ed Edelson
EmpowHer's HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) -- A combination of two drugs used to combat some of the damaging effects of type 2 diabetes may also reduce the risk of diabetic kidney failure, a new Danish study has found.

But the researchers warn that testing the combination of losartan (Cozaar) and aliskiren (Tekturna) to block the activity of a molecule that damages renal arteries is still in the early stages.

THURSDAY, May 29 (HealthDay News) -- Treatment with the anti-rejection drug sirolimus may lead to increased risk of diabetes in kidney transplant patients, say researchers who analyzed data on about 20,000 Medicare patients who had kidney transplants between 1995 and 2003.

None of the patients had diabetes before their kidney transplant. Compared to other anti-rejection drugs, sirolimus was associated with a 36 percent to 66 percent increased risk of diabetes after transplant.

FRIDAY, May 16 (HealthDay News) -- Taking activated vitamin D may cut the risk of death for people with moderate to severe chronic kidney disease by about one quarter, a new study suggests.

During a two-year study of more than 1,400 patients, those being treated with calcitriol, an oral form of activated vitamin D, had their overall risk of death lowered by 26 percent when compared with those not on the drug. Those taking calcitriol were also less likely to develop end-stage renal disease, which requires dialysis to replace lost kidney function.

TUESDAY, May 6 (HealthDay News) -- Few patients who have short-term kidney dysfunction while awaiting a liver transplant develop severe kidney problems once they have their transplant, says a U.S. study.

Cutting Phosphate May Protect Kidney Patients From Heart Trouble WEDNESDAY, April 23 (HealthDay News) -- Readily available phosphate-binding drugs could help prevent heart disease in people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), a new study finds. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis noted that patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are at high risk of death from cardiovascular disease, and that recent studies have shown that a high level of phosphate in the blood is a major source of cardiovascular death risk in these patients.

TUESDAY, March 25 (HealthDay News) -- One of the most common bowel-cleansing preparations used by people who are about to have a colonoscopy can trigger both acute kidney failure and long-term renal damage in otherwise healthy patients.

New research suggests the risks of oral sodium phosphate solution and tablets are rare but real, particularly for elderly patients.

WEDNESDAY, March 12 (HealthDay News) -- A new, simple lab test can identify patients at risk of developing acute kidney injury (AKI) after surgery up to three days sooner than the problem would otherwise be detected, a pilot study shows.