{"id":232936,"date":"2025-10-22T22:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/232936\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T22:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T22:23:12","slug":"crystals-peed-by-snakes-could-help-treat-kidney-stones-and-gout-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/232936\/","title":{"rendered":"Crystals \u2018peed\u2019 by snakes could help treat kidney stones and gout | Health"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Crystals<\/p>\n

Reptiles don’t urinate like humans do; instead, they pass these solid urates (left). (Journal of the American Chemical Society via SWNS)<\/p>\n

By Talker<\/p>\n

By Stephen Beech<\/p>\n

Crystals “peed” by snakes could hold the key to treating kidney stones and gout in humans, say scientists.<\/p>\n

Researchers investigated the solid urine of more than 20 reptile species and found spheres of uric acid in all of them.<\/p>\n

The study was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/a>. reveals how snakes and other reptiles uniquely package and eliminate crystalline waste.<\/p>\n

Scientists say their findings could lead to better treatments for human conditions that also involve uric acid crystals, such as kidney stones and gout.<\/p>\n

The research team explained that, in humans, excess nitrogen in the form of urea, uric acid and ammonia are flushed out in the urine.<\/p>\n

\"beckie-thurmond-Bjq_DNVCabk-unsplash\"<\/p>\n

Beckie Thurmond<\/p>\n

But many reptiles and birds package up some of the same nitrogen-containing chemicals into solids – or \u201curates\u201d – that they excrete.<\/p>\n

Scientists believe that the process may have evolved as a way to conserve water.<\/p>\n

While forming crystals in pee is a potential evolutionary advantage for reptiles, researchers say it is a serious issue for humans.<\/p>\n

When too much uric acid is present in the human body, it can solidify into painful shards in the joints, causing gout, or in the urinary tract as kidney stones.<\/p>\n

Professor Jennifer Swift and her colleagues at Georgetown University<\/a> in Washington, DC, investigated how reptiles excrete crystalline waste safely, studying urates from more than 20 reptile species.<\/p>\n

\"pexels-soubhagya23-4063745\"<\/p>\n

(Photo by Soubhagya Maharana via Pexels)<\/p>\n

By Talker<\/p>\n

Swift said: \u201cThis research was really inspired by a desire to understand the ways reptiles are able to excrete this material safely, in the hopes it might inspire new approaches to disease prevention and treatment.”<\/p>\n

Microscope images revealed that three species – ball pythons, Angolan pythons and Madagascan tree boas – produced urates consisting of tiny textured microspheres varying from one to 10 micrometres wide.<\/p>\n

Swift said: “X-ray studies showed that the spheres consist of even smaller nanocrystals of uric acid and water.”<\/p>\n

The research team also discovered that uric acid plays an “important” role in converting ammonia into a less toxic, solid form.<\/p>\n

They believe that uric acid may actually play a similar protective role in humans.<\/p>\n

Swift added: “Though further studies are needed, this work\u2019s insights into snake pee could one day have important implications for human health.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reptiles don’t urinate like humans do; instead, they pass these solid urates (left). (Journal of the American Chemical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,11620,110450,14426,64587,66,23441,86472,86029],"class_list":["post-232936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-gout","tag-kidney-stone-disease","tag-medical-specialties","tag-reptile","tag-science","tag-stephen-beech","tag-uric-acid","tag-urine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}