THURSDAY, Sept. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Eating a diet designed to combat high blood pressure may also help prevent kidney stones, researchers report.

They examined the effects of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which is high in fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes, dairy products, and whole grains, and low in sweetened beverages and red and processed meats.

For the study, the researchers analyzed urine samples over a 24-hour period of 3,426 people with and without a history of kidney stones. Despite similar fluid intake, people who followed a DASH-style diet excreted more urine than those who didn't follow the diet. The higher urinary output may be partly due to the higher food water content in a DASH-style diet.

The study also found that the urine of those on a DASH-style diet contained higher concentrations of citrate, an important inhibitor of calcium kidney stones.

Two components of the DASH diet -- low-fat dairy products and/or plants --appeared to have potent kidney stone-fighting properties, the study found.

The findings suggest that a DASH-style diet could help prevent kidney stones in people who have a history of developing them, the researchers said.

The study, whose authors reported no financial disclosures, appears in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

"We believe our results provide a strong rationale for a randomized trial examining the effect of a DASH-style diet on kidney stone recurrence," Dr. Eric Taylor, of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Maine Medical Center, said in a news release fro the journal.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about kidney stones.

FRIDAY, Sept. 10 (HealthDay News) --Some dieters may be more likely than others to regain any excess pounds they've lost, depending on their particular hormonal makeup, new Spanish research cautions.

A certain combination of appetite hormones leptin and ghrelin appears to predispose some people to weight gain following a diet, the researchers found.

Study author Ana Crujeiras, of Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago in Spain, and her team report the finding in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

The connection between appetite hormones such as ghrelin and leptin and long-range weight-loss complications stems from work with 104 obese and overweight men and women, all of whom embarked on an eight-week, low-calorie diet.

Before dieting, during the diet, and about four months post-diet, Crujeiras and her colleagues measured each participant's body weight and fasting plasma levels of ghrelin, leptin and insulin.

The bottom-line: Those with higher leptin and lower ghrelin levels before dieting were more likely to reacquire the lost weight after the diet ended.

"We believe this research may indicate that the outcome of weight therapy may be pre-conditioned," Crujeiras said in a news release from the Endocrine Society.

"Our findings may provide endocrinology and nutrition professionals a tool to identify individuals in need of specialized weight-loss programs that first target appetite hormone levels before beginning conventional dietary treatment," she added.

And while noting that "the long-term success of maintaining the weight lost is usually poor," Crujeiras suggested that the current observations "could be used as a tool to personalize weight-loss programs that could guarantee success in keeping off the weight."

More information

For more on appetite and digestion, visit the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

MONDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- A low-carbohydrate diet that derives fats and proteins from vegetable sources rather than meats is probably healthier, new research finds.

Comparing the two types of diets over two decades, researchers found that the low-carb, vegetable-based plan resulted in reduced rates of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer, and a lower rate of all-cause death overall.

"You can have the initial Atkins-type of low-carb diet, which is loaded with sausages, bacon, steaks, and you can have healthy versions of the low-carb diet with more vegetable- or plant-based protein and fat," said Dr. Frank B. Hu, senior author of a study in the Sept. 7 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"We looked at these two versions of low-carb diets and found that the impact of the two are drastically different," Hu said.

"Those who follow the animal-based low-carb diet have an increased risk of total mortality and cancer mortality in particular," said Hu, a professor of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

"It's the ratio that's important," said Karen Congro, director of the Wellness for Life Program at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York City. "This tells you that meat is the issue. Red meat is out."

Although several smaller, short-term studies have shown that the Atkins-type low-carb diets lead to weight loss, "there has been a lot of concern that a low-carb diet, which typically [incorporates] animal fat and animal protein, may increase the risk of chronic diseases," Hu said. These include type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.

Two studies are reported here, one that followed more than 85,000 women from 1980 through 2006 and one that followed over 44,500 men from 1986 through 2006.

Men and women on the animal-based low-carb diet had a 23 percent increased risk of death, a 14 percent increased risk of dying from heart disease and a 28 percent increased risk of dying from cancer, the study authors found.

Those on an "Eco-Atkins" diet, the ones that incorporated vegetable-derived fats and proteins, had a 20 percent lower death rate and a 23 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease, the findings indicated.

For their part, Atkins Nutritionals, Inc., issued a statement Tuesday saying that "the so-called 'low-carb' diet referenced in [this] research is not representative of Atkins."

The company pointed to a journal editorial comment on the study, written by experts at Duke University Medical Center. In their editorial, the researchers noted that "the participants in the highest decile [tenth] of low-carbohydrate diet score (that is, those eating the least amount of carbohydrate) actually had a moderately high carbohydrate intake."

According to Hu, plant-based low-carb diets get their fats mostly from vegetable oils, nuts and peanut butter, and proteins can come from legumes, nuts and whole grains instead of bacon and sausage.

Avocados are also a healthy source of fat, and soy and tofu are good sources for protein, Congro said.

Overall, the participants in the studies had a relatively low-carb intake compared to the carb-crazy U.S. population as a whole.

"People are just over-carbing," she added. "Cereal bowls look like bowls for a casserole. People eat granola bars all day. They get into carbs without even realizing it. Because heart disease is so prevalent, anything we can do to lower the risk, the mortality" is important.

"This study is one of the first to actually differentiate types of low-carb diets in relation to long-term health impact," Congro added.

An accompanying editorial pointed out that the design of the study may not have taken into account other variables, such as smoking and education levels, indicating the need for a large-scale clinical trial.

More information

Visit the Nutrition Center   at the American Heart Association for more on a heart-healthy diet and lifestyle.

SATURDAY, Sept. 4 (HealthDay News) -- A new study confirms what seems obvious: people who live in communities where walking and cycling are common are less likely to be overweight or obese.

The researchers analyzed statistics about walking and cycling in 14 countries, and also studied data about walking and cycling to work in all 50 states and in 47 of the largest U.S. cities.

They found that the highest levels of walking and cycling among the countries studied were in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Spain, while the lowest levels were in the United States, Australia and Canada. Among U.S. cities, the highest rates of walking and cycling to work were in Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Minneapolis and Seattle.

The researchers also found a connection between more walking and cycling and lower levels of obesity and diabetes, according to the report released online Aug. 19 in advance of publication in the October print issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

"It's really important to promote walking and cycling as safe, convenient and feasible modes of getting around on an everyday basis," lead author John Pucher, a professor who studies transportation at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said in a Center for Advancing Health news release.

He acknowledged that the link between higher levels of exercise and healthier weight may seem obvious, but said there is a need for scientific evidence to prove it.

"As obvious as it is, it's shocking that Americans don't want to do anything about it. It's amazing how unconcerned most Americans are about this," Pucher said.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute offers a guide to physical activity.