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Nutrition & Healing - Kidney Stones
By Dr. Jonathan V. Wright
If you've had kidney stones and want to decrease your chances of having more, fmd out what type of stone you've had. Calcium oxalate is the most common, involved in approximately two-thirds of all stones. Fortunately, more is known about preventing calcium oxalate stones than other types and what you'll read about here is mostly about prevention of this type of stone.
"Mainstream" medical treatment to prevent kidney stones may include dietary calcium restriction, diuretics, and sometimes Allopurinol [al-oh-pure-i-all], a drug which slows uric acid formulation.
Nutritional treatment involves diet changes and supplements. Nutritional treatment usually reduces stone formation considerably or eliminates it and makes drug treatment unnecessary.
Vegetarians form many fewer kidney stones many than meat eaters. One reason for this is more bulk and fiber in the diet which lowers calcium output. Another reason is that vegetable protein has less sulfur-rich amino acids which promote calcium excretion. How far you go towards vegetarianism depends on how bad your kidney stone problem is, but it can only help to increase fiber sources in your diet, such as root vegetables, while decreasing animal protein a bit.
Eliminate sugar and refined carbohydrates and cut back on salt. In people who form kidney stones, both sugar and salt increase the excretion of both calcium and oxalate in the urine.
Restricting calcium in the diet isn't helpful and may even be counterproductive.
Magnesium and vitamin B6 supplementation usually reduces calcium oxalate stone formation dramatically. I usually recommend 300 milligrams of magnesium citrate daily, along with 100 milligrams of vitamin
B6. Kidney stones can form more easily in people with vitamin A deficiency. Use 10,000 units daily of vitamin A, beta-carotene would do the samejob. The vitamin A can easily be part of a good general multiple vitamin and mineral supplement, which is always advisable when individual nutrients such as magnesium and vitamin B6 are used.So far, what you've read about preventing kidney stones has been about the calcium oxalate type. Although unc acid ladney stones are much less frequent, they are at least partially preventable.
Vegetarians have fewer uric acid kidney stones. Cutting back on animal protein while increasing bulk and fiber in the diet can help prevent this type of stone also.
Fructose can increase uric acid excretion in the urine and contribute to stone formation. While eating whole fruit is not usually a problem drinking considerable fruit juice or drinks sweetened with "high fructose corn syrup" definitely can be. Remember that ordinary refined sugar, sucrose, is 50% fructose and should be eliminated also.
I the 1800's, it was observed that the mineral lithium makes uric acid much more soluble in a watery solution and therefore less likely to settle into a stone. I've found lithium to be a useful treatment in the prevention of uric acid kidney stones. Lithium is usually available only by prescription.
Because of differences in age, sex, metabolism, or potential allergy, these diet and supplement therapies may not be suitable for you. Consult a health care professional sldlled in nutritional and natural therapies. To locate one near you., you might call the American College of Advancement in Medicine at 800-532-3688 or the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians at 206-323-7610.
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