A Study Shows that Prostate Drugs Can Be Used to Relieve Kidney Stone Sufferers

A recent study conducted by physicians in Australia found out that drugs used to treat prostate illnesses can also be utilized to relieve the suffering of people afflicted by kidney stones. It's a well-known fact that millions of people from around the world suffer from kidney stones. In the United States alone, one in eleven people is afflicted by the condition. The stones which can be the size of a grain of sand or a large pearl cause a lot of excruciating pain. Trying to pass them through the urinary tract can take days or even weeks. In fact, a lot of sufferers are forced to seek emergency treatment because of the unbearable pain.

But there's hope courtesy of the research done in Australia which found out that prostate drugs can significantly lessen the pain. The study also conducted a clinical trial run in five hospital emergency departments in the country. The research was funded by the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) of Australia.

The prostate drug in question is Tamsulosin. Basically, what the researchers did was they just used dosages of the drug in treating kidney stone sufferers. Over four hundred people agreed to participate in the clinical trial. As it turned out, the drug accomplishes two things. One, it alleviates the pain that kidney stone sufferers go through. And two, the drug also assists kidney stones in passing through the urinary tract.

According to Dr Jeremy Furyk who was among the main researchers, the patients who took the drug passed the kidney stones a lot easier compared to those who didn't. The patients also experienced less pain during the process. Remember that the study was conducted in five major hospitals in Australia so the sample group is quite extensive. All five hospitals showed positive and encouraging results. The researchers are now planning to take the treatment plan nationwide. This is good news considering the fact that nearly 15% of Australia's adult citizens suffer from varying degrees of kidney-related diseases. According to the EMF, around $270,000 was used during for the study.

The researchers also stated that their findings open up new avenues in the search for more efficient kidney stone treatments. Other laboratories and medicine researchers can use these findings to start their own research. There's still a lot to be done before the drug Tamsulosin can be adapted for kidney treatment nationwide or even worldwide. But one thing is clear and that's the fact that the drug is indeed effective in alleviating pain and in helping the sufferers pass kidney stones.