I have a problem with recurring kidney stones. My first attack was about 6 years ago, and I’ve had one very bad one since then, and a couple of smaller incidents, the last of which was last week.
Frankly, I’m sick of them. I know I need to drink more, to prevent them, but I also want to know what, if anything, I need to change in my diet to reduce my chances of creating more stones. But the thing is, I don’t know what kind of stones I’m getting. Phosphate? Oxalate? Who knows. The hospital took my very first stone away for “testing” and I never got news back.
Are there any tests I can have done that don’t require a new stone for analysis? I was thinking maybe 24-hr urine collections for oxalates and phosphates, to see which one I’ve got lots of?
I’ll be asking my doctor about all this next time I’m in the office for something, but for now I was just hoping for some generic info and advice from the SDMB medical community.
Thank you! I searched, but I guess I’m not very good at it.
I did try contacting the hospital about my first stone, but they had no idea what I was talking about. So I’m guessing nothing was ever analyzed at all. Which sucks. Because I’m not going to grow a nice big one just to bring it to the lab, thanks!
So is it silly to start testing urine for metabolites without knowing what my stone itself was made of in the first place? Sort of a waste of time since we don’t know where to start?
Analysis of the stone is really the cornerstone (heh, I crack myself up sometimes) of management. I wouldn’t recommend much (if any) urine testing without knowing that.
But here’s some generic things one can do if one doesn’t know the stone type:
Maintain fluid intake >2.5 Liters per day
Ingest 8 to 12 ounces fluid at bedtime
Recommended fluids:Water, Citrus juice
Maintain Urine volume > 2 Liters per day
Periodically measure urine output in a 2 liter bottle
Dietary restrictions:
Limit animal protein to 8 ounces per day (or <1 gram/kg/day)
Limit sodium intake to 2-4 grams per day
Limit Oxalate Containing Foods
Limit high sugar or fat content (Obesity predisposes to stone formation)
Avoid excessive Vitamin C
Dietary increases or no restriction
Increase vegetable Dietary Fiber
Maintain calcium intake at at least 1000 mg/day
These seem slightly contradictory. I’m assuming you mean avoid megadosing with vitamin C pills and the like?
ETA: My urologist recommended getting in the habit of spiking my beverages ( water in particular ) with small amounts of lemon and lime juice. He also felt that hydration was nine tenths of the battle and diet seemed to play a small role if any for most.
Small, regular amounts of citrate-containing beverages will acidify the urine, reducing the risk of mixed calcium stones. But large amounts of Vitamin C tablets raise the risk of putting too much oxalate in the urine, raising the risk of forming more oxalate and mixed calcium stones. IF one is forming stones due to excess oxalate in the urine.
Again, knowing stone composition goes a long way towards determining the correct treatment plan. But if that info is not available, acidifying the urine while avoiding excessive vitamin C won’t hurt and could help.
And I agree with your urologist, and have said it multiple times in these threads: Drink More Water!
Do we know why some people have this problem and not others? Is it possible to have one stone and never have the problem again? Is this more common in men than women? I’m not aware of anyone in my familiy having a kidney stone so I haven’t really thought about it. Is there a genetic tendency towards getting kidney stones?
