Thursday, March 4, 2010

How to Spot the Connection Between Kidney Stones and Diet

By Rachelle Gordon

Kidney stones and eating habits are intertwined. In fact, most kidney stones can be prevented should you only follow a proper eating habits regimen. What I discover most frustrating for a nurse like me is that kidney stones could be very easily prevented, but the resources obtainable to spread the information are insufficient.

Kidney stones are formed within the urinary tract when urinary concentrations of substances such as calcium oxalate, calcium phosphate, and uric acid increase. We call this supersaturation and this really is dependent on the amount of substance, ionic strength and pH of the urine.

Urinary stones account for about 328,000 hospital admissions each year. The occurrence of urinary stones occurs predominantly in the third to fifth decades of life and affects men much more than women. About half of patients with a single renal stone have another episode within 5 years.

Via this alarming numbers you see above, it is but natural that we ought to discuss the relationship between kidney stones and diet. With this information on hand, we can follow this eating habits to prevent kidney stones and save us all a lot of trouble.

The best way to avoid kidney stone is to drink lots of water. In fact, this really is the mainstay treatment for kidney stones. Unless contraindicated, any patient with renal stones should drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water daily. This is to keep the urine diluted and avoid supersaturation.

Another mislead information is reducing calcium. My advice is do not restrict dietary calcium unless instructed by your health care provider. Lowering your calcium intake will ultimately lead to more disease conditions such as osteoporosis and it might improve the risk of oxalic acid kidney stones (thus reversing your purpose of decreasing calcium intake!).

Lowering protein intake is recommended to decrease urinary excretion of calcium and uric acid. We want to lower calcium excretion to prevent osteoporosis.. A maximum of 6 oz of protein (on a normal wholesome individual) gives the body enough energy during the day. You need to think about the fact that protein does not only mean meat, you can also get them from vegetables.

A wholesome practice would be to have a "meat break" each week and select a day that you simply would only use beans, peas, and legumes as your protein source. This way, you'll lower down the family's red meat eating habits and improve complex carbohydrates.

Now that you've read this article, you can now see the connection between kidney stones and diet. I hope that you will share this eating habits for kidney stones to others and assist prevent the occurrence of a truly preventable disease.


Low Protein Renal Diet For Chronic Kidney Patients


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