Health Highlights: Nov. 4, 2014

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Drink More Water to Reduce Kidney Stone Risk: New Guidelines

Drinking more water and cutting back on soft drinks are among the recommendations in new guidelines to help reduce the risk of kidney stones in people who are prone to developing them.

The guidelines from the American College of Physicians advise kidney stone patients to drink at least two liters of water or other fluids a day. It’s been shown that drinking more fluids can reduce the risk of recurrent kidney stones by half.

“The reason that water is supposedly helpful is that it’s a mechanical flushing process so that stone fragments can pass but also so the urine doesn’t sediment in the kidney and collect,” Dr. Elizabeth Kavaler, a urologist at Lenox Hill Hospital, told CBS News.

However, kidney stone patients should try to avoid soft drinks, which have ingredients that can be major factors in the formation of kidney stones.

The guidelines also recommended changes in eating habits, including less red meat and foods high in dietary oxalate, such as chocolate, nuts, beets and leafy greens, CBS News reported.

About 20 percent of Americans will develop a kidney stone at some time in their life. People who have had a kidney stone are much more likely to have another.

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Stryker Reaches Deal on All-Metal Hip Implant Lawsuits

A deal to settle thousands of patient lawsuits involving recalled all-metal hip implants has been reached, Michigan-based Stryker announced Monday.

The company said it had put aside $1.45 billion to settle the claims from patients who said they were injured by the implants, but expected the final cost to be higher, The New York Times reported.

The settlement covers patients who received the Rejuvenate Modular-Neck or the ABG II Modular-Neck and who had surgery to have the implants replaced. Stryker recalled both models in 2012.

Late last year, the DePuy division of Johnson & Johnson announced it would pay about $2.5 billion to settle lawsuits from 8,000 patients who said they were injured by an all-metal implant the company once sold, The Times reported.

All-metal implants once accounted for one-third of all hip replacements but have largely been abandoned because it was found that they can release metal debris that can cause serious damage to tissue and muscle.

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