Do Lifestyle Factors Including Smoking, Alcohol, and Exercise Impact Your Risk of Developing Kidney Stone Disease? Outcomes of a Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: With a rise in the incidence of stone disease, more research is needed to understand the lifestyle factors associated with it. We evaluate available evidence for association of smoking, alcohol, and exercise with kidney stone disease (KSD). Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in CINAHL, EMBASE, Ovid Medline, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Clinicaltrials.gov, and Google Scholar. Different keywords were "smoking," "cigarette," "alcohol," "spirits," "exercise," "physical activity," "training," "kidney stone," "stone disease," "nephrolithiasis," "urolithiasis," "renal stone," and "urinary stone." The main outcome of interest was the role of smoking, alcohol, and exercise in the development of KSD. Results: A total of 4921 articles were found on searching the databases, of which 14 met the criteria for inclusion in the final review. Studies assessed the following risk factors, physical activity (n = 6), alcohol (n = 6), and smoking (n = 9), and included 17,511 patients. The relationship of physical activity with KSD appears to be equivocal. In addition, only one study demonstrated a decreased risk of nephrolithiasis with alcohol consumption. On the contrary, four studies found a significant association between smoking and renal stone formation. Conclusions: While smoking is one behavioral factor that seems to have some association with KSD, no clear effect of alcohol and physical activity has been demonstrated. To avoid KSD, awareness of the possible detrimental role of smoking should be considered and patients should remain vigilant about the importance of hydration with physical activity. While this represents the most appropriate guidance from the evidence available, at present there remain insufficient data to truly reveal the relationship between these three factors and KSD.

Keywords: alcohol; exercise; kidney stones; lifestyle; nephrolithiasis; prevention; renal stones; smoking.