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Subscribe to RSSKidney stones are nearly twice as common now as they were in the early 1990s, according to a new study.
In 1994, one in 20 people in the U.S. had kidney stones, in the years between 2007 and 2010, the rate was one in 11.
"While we expected the prevalence of kidney stones to increase, the size of the increase was surprising," says study researcher Dr. Charles Scales Jr., a urologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Additionally, the researchers found that people with obesity, diabetes or gout were more likely than healthy people to be diagnosed with kidney stones.
While kidney stones can be treated, they can also be prevented by eating a healthy balanced diet and getting plenty of exercise, researchers said. Doctors should shift their focus to prevention, especially now that more people in the U.S. are facing the condition, researchers said.
"People should consider the increased risk of kidney stones as another reason to maintain a healthy lifestyle and body weight," said researcher Dr. Christopher Saigal, associate professor of urology at the UCLA medical school.
The study used data on 12,000 people collected during the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an ongoing study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Survey participants answer questionnaires, and undergo physical exams.
The study was released online and will appear in the July issue of the journal European Urology.
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I suffered with kidney stones for many years. My doctor suggested taking a calcium suppliment noting that the extra calcium would attract the oxilate that formed my stones, and flush them out of my system. I haven't been bothered in over 4 years now.
Citric-acid is the other prescribed countermeasure, usually for calcium-oxalate stones. Usually you'll get prescribed something like PolyCitra-K.
I will tell you the stack I use specifically to successfully avoid recurrence of calcium oxalate kidney stones - substantially increased water intake, reduced nuts consumption, calcium from calcium citrate 200mg x2 (strictly after meals only), potassium from potassium citrate 99mg x2, magnesium from magnesium citrate 225mg x1, and vitamin B6 as P5P 20mg x2. Do not use calcium carbonate instead of citrate for this purpose. Urine must be clear and frequent. Do not consume sodium in excess. Do not drink (acidic) sodas.
If you're also at increased risk of gout, take 250mg to 1g vitamin C - it'll decrease risk of gout.
Also, feel free to take up to 5000 IU of vitamin D3 if you like - AFAIK, it doesn't prevent or cause kidney stones despite its relation with calcium.
Acidic urine will raise your odds of calcium oxalate kidney stones. It's easy to check it with a ph strip.
A friend of mine suggested Cranberry juice. To my surprise, the condition cleared up in less than 24 hours. I have added Cranberry juice to my diet (replacing OJ once and a while) and the condition has not reoccurred. I like old wives tales when they work and a lot cheaper than vitamins, additives or a trip to the doctor.
i avoid stones by...never having my drinks...served on the rocks...
I heard that eating two Big Macs with a large cola every day, an occasional big bag of Frito-Lay’s, and weekly visits to the Golden Corral all-you-can-eat buffet, along with virtually no exercise (i.e. walk up one flight of stairs to your apartment) does ABSOLUTELY nothing for the prevention of kidney stones!
AB - I actually got kidney stones from taking Vitamin D3 supplements. I was recommended to take them for chronic pain, and it just made it worse! As soon as I stopped taking it, I passed the stones and felt better. From the research I've done, I am far from the only person this has happened to.
My physician advised adequate fluids and citric acid. I'm surprised it's not even mentioned in the article.
... through hundreds of years of personal testing the Germans have found that beer is the cure
Dude... WATER. If you don't drink enough WATER, you get dehydrated. If you get dehydrated you don't have enough liquid to keep a steady flow through your kidneys. Don't drink soda... DRINK WATER. If you're thirsty, you're dehydrated.... WATER HYDRATES YOU.. Soda does the opposite; it DEHYDRATES you. This means you are becoming LESS hydrated.
What is the most popular thing Americans drink? SODA. Who's kidney stone rate just doubled in the last 16 years? AMERICAN'S.
DRINK WATER... You wont get kidney stones. It's common sense.
Ok, I'm done.. lol
I wouldn't be surprised if it is caused by what and how much you drink. I only know one person who has them and she seems to pass them two or three times a year. She only drinks soda, but thinks that since it's a diet soda, it's ok. The only other thing I've ever seen her drink was alcohol and coffee now and then.
kidney stones are in large part genetic
Drinking water and staying hydrated is the best advice
acidifying the urine with citric acid may help prevent some--not sure about that. But definitely water is the best advice, as said above by other posters
B-1768547: You're an idiot if you think you're body only gets water from drinking straight water! The fact is most of our water comes from the food we eat! Everything we eat has some amount of water in it and it all provides to our hydration!
Some would think taking calcium would cause kidney stones but that's not the case.
Your body needs calcium to function as well as to maintain your skeleton. Calcium and vitamin D supplementation helps to prevent the liberation of calcium from your skeleton plus prevent the calcium from being excreted in your kidneys. It is that excess calcium liberation from your bones leads to the kidney stones.
Definitely talk to your doctor about calcium and vitamin D supplementation.
Yes, but leave out the vitamin D and excess calcium, esp. in the form of carbonate, can contribute to stones.
As necessary as vitamin D and calcium are to good health, BobH's note to talk with one's doctor is very important.
I was advised to increase both supplements and as a result of the notes on the product packaging took much more than I needed and suffered an endrocrine imbalance. The endocrinologist my PCP referred me to pointed out that, as a 115 lb. woman, I was consuming enough D & Cal to power Tom Brady, if not Vince Wilfork. Most supplement suggested doses are excessive, especially for thin-ish people. After all, supplement producers are in business to sell lots and lots of their stuff.
Good health to all.
Calcium does help along with a healthy diet and exercise. Losing weight will help too.
One of my in-laws was told to lay off the soda and when he did it made a world of difference -- he lost weight and stopped having a problem with kidney stones...
Well, most Consumers have replaced good old water or mundane milk with 'drinks' full of good old American high-profit high fructose corn syrup.
Correlation and causality?
http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2010-mchi/5914.html
Oh, wait. Our schools need the pop machines in the hallways for the revenue. Silly me.
Yup, and high fructose corn syrup is cheap and widely used thanks to big government corn subsidies.
And lets not forget how food stamps can be used to buy soda, candy, and junk food. Obesity is an epidemic in this country and our tax dollars are paying for it.
Who would ever have thought that a population would eat itself into diabetes and disease and a reduced lifespan?
the phosphate found in carbonated sodas can only be excreted from the body when it is in compound with calcium. the increased amount of sodas people drink does, in fact, correlate directly with the increase in kidney stones as the excess calcium is drawn from the blood into the urine. the increased reliance on sugary drinks also leads to slight body dehydration and thus encourages the excess calcium to be deposited in the kidneys and ureters.
I love how the media and some people just put all US citizens in the same group....obese people. I for one am not overweight and I eat at Mcdonalds when I feel like it. I sometimes eat junk food such as chips or candy bars. I think anyone with common sense knows that eating certain foods requires moderation. I certainly do not need the media or the government telling me what I should eat, how much I eat and where I should eat it. I would not be surprised if liberals and the government start publishing the dangers of second hand fat. After all, if you are eating a fatty dessert sitting at a table next to an obese customer, just looking at your second hand fat will cause the obese person to lose control and order the extra dangerous calories. Of course the obese person will be a victim and cannot be expected to excercise any self control.
why?
And where is the scientific study proving this claim???
Just to clarify, there are multiple kinds of kidney stones and calcium stones are the most common. Hydration and a proper diet make the biggest difference in preventing kidney stones. Added on treatments/preventative measures are tailored to the specific type of stone (as dsnygrl13 mentioned).
BobHolly, increased intake of calcium and vitamin D can actually cause kidney stones (you can find research articles on this). In osteoperosis your body leaches calcium from bone to maintain adequate levels in the blood, the same hormone that does that also increases reabsorption of calcium from the kidneys. Thus, osteoperosis would not necessarily lead to kidney stones.
Thank you, 2014 MD! This is a fact I've known since I was in high school and my father developed that type of kidney stones; he was told to lay off the calcium and never had a recurrence for the remaining twenty years of his life.
Part of the increase in the occurrence in kidney stones may be due to the "health craze" that has been sweeping the nation for the past thirty years. Nearly everybody in the US, except those in Florida, Arizona, or California, or a few other high-sunshine states, probably has Vitamin D deficiency, so they take a vitamin D supplement. Calcium helps vitamin D absorption so they take a calcium supplement, too. Women especially are guilty of this, as they are trying to avoid developing osteoporosis as they age. Well, I'm no doctor, but I've been told that, if your calcium is normal and you eat milk, cheese (the real thing, not "processed cheese product"), and real live BUTTER, you don't need to take a calcium supplement, because your body absorbs calcium from these products better than anything else. (BTW, butter is better for you than any solid spread, because those solid vegetable-based spreads are high in trans-fat, as is anything with "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" vegetable oil in the ingredient list.)
Close, but not exactly. Vitamin D does increase the ability of the body to absorb Calcium...but the reverse is not true as far as I am aware - I've found nothing that shows it to be true, at any rate - if you have some documentation that shows it to be true, please post it. It is true that people who supplement with D should be careful to monitor their calcium levels and should not be taking calcium supplements unless they KNOW their calcium levels are low (through testing) and have discussed it with their doctor.
It is also not true that increased intake of DIETARY calcium increases the risk of kidney stones - though high dietary intake combined with supplemental intake of calcium does.
"…Calcium itself isn't a problem as far as kidney stones are
concerned. In fact, studies have shown that the more calcium-containing foods
you eat, the lower your risk of kidney stones. This was confirmed during a
12-year study involving 91,731 nurses between the ages of 34 and 59, none of
whom had had kidney stones at the outset. During the 12 years of the study, 864
of the nurses developed kidney stones for the first time (that averages out to
about one of every 1,000 participating). The researchers found that the higher
the intake of dietary calcium, the less chances the nurses had of developing
stones. However, among the nurses who calcium intake was high and who also took
calcium supplements, the risk of developing kidney stones was 20 percent
greater than normal…." (Google "Calcium intake and kidney stones" - since the site won't post the link)
The key factor in kidney stones of all types is adequate hydration - in other words - drink more water! It's likely that high soft drink consumption - particularly caffeinated drinks (which are a diuretic and dehydrate the body, which increases the concentration of the calcium and oxylates in the kidneys) are a strong factor in the increase in kidney stones.
Actually, milk products leech calcium from your bones. Scary, but true. It's best to get your calcium in smaller doses from other foods (plenty have it, including beans, broccoli, and nuts just to name a few). This is one explanation for the reason why people in countries in Scandanavia have higher rates of osteoporosis than people in Japan. People in Scandanavia have one of the highest milk product consumption rates in the world, Japan, one of the lowest.
haha..definitely untrue. Laughable, actually.
Anything carbonated gets my kidney stones jumpin'. Also city or well water...
Probably all the chemicals in the diet soda obese people and diabetics are always drinking!
With the exception of artificial sweeteners, the regular soda's contain the exact same chemicals. Phosphates, citric acid, artificial flavorings and colorings, etc. My former Osteopath told me years ago to avoid drinking any soda, except as an occasional rare treat. I might drink a few a year, if even that. I'm both overweight and diabetic, never suffered from kidney stones, and my last kidney function test came back as normal. My A1C is 6.5 or lower. Diabetics need to keep their blood sugars under control, this lessens the risks of kidney problems. A recent study showed that 90% of diabetics are unable to maintain acceptable blood sugars. I'm in the 10% that do. BTW, I had a heart study done 3 years ago, at 48 yo, I passed. No signs of buildup. I eat high fiber, reduce my fat intake, but use heart healthy oils (Canola and olive), use butter instead of trans-fat laden margarine in cooking and baking, eat red meat once or twice a month, and eat fruits and veggies daily. It isn't just the diet soda that obese and diabetic folks consume; it's the refined grains, junk food, and overall poor diet many eat.
I dunno, I never drink soda and walked 8 miles a day... my downfall is that I delivered mail and did not drink enough water (where to go to bathroom?)
If I had kidney stones, I'd sell them on eBay.
My son gets a lot of kidney stones, the only bad habit he has is coffee he drinks it all day everyday. Our water supply comes from the Floridan aquifer it has a lot of limestone in the water. I believe limestone is made from calcium carbonate. No one else in our family gets them, I believe it has to be the coffee. We have to run vinegar through our coffee pots to get out the calcium build up.
Does vinegar work well? I have the same problem here (houston water supply) and usually use lemon juice, but vinegar is cheaper :)
vinegar is the best. You can also take the bottom plate off & if it has rubber tubes you can sqeeze the tubes with your fingers & break some of it up so it will come out. Some of them have metal tubes though.
That can't be the reason for such a huge difference. They are genetically modifying our crops and and adding so many different drugs into our culture. My parents lived to old age. using Lard not fancy cooking oil. and not worrying about cholesterol. Now they want us to take a drug for everything.
Good reply Jake! In test on laboratory animals fed diets of genetically modified foods kidney problems were one of the problems, along with reproductive problems, which included lower birth weight in their offspring.
Stay away from all forms of soy, corn and canola oil. These are the main genetically modified crops. Read labels on everything, you will be surprised how much of these 3 ingredients are in everything on the grocery store shelves.
NutraSweet is also genetically modified.
High fructose corn syrup - yep, you guessed it, genetically modified.
This is why they call it a doctor's practice....I had kidney stones for the first time about 20 years ago. I woke up on a Saturday morning with pain like I had never had before and thank God have not had since. I began to apply a natural remedy I learned from my sister....I went on a fast drinking only a 50/50 combination of unsweetened apple juice and distilled water...nothing else...made it through the weekend and the last pain I felt went away on Monday as I passed them...haven't had an attack since....every time I feel the pressure in my back...I recognize the onslaught of pain I go back on the fast....I have recommended it to friends who have had attacks and if they were willing to fast like this it worked for them too. The rest have had more attacks and had various treatments from surgery to anything else suggested by their doctor....Good Luck
except that going on this kind of fast can throw the pH of your blood so far into the acidic that it could become life threatening if your body- specifically your kidneys- is unable to buffer against all that acid. you can take a tablespoon or two of cider vinegar, or a couple of cranberry fruit capsules, and prevent the stone formation in the first place rather than risking your life using a 'faddish' cure. women go on this diet to try to lose weight in a hurry and end up in acidemia. or even dead sometimes
hahah...death by apple juice? Hahaha...its a little harder than that to throw off your body's pH. Come on....
Most of the people that I know that have suffered through kidney stones are fit, not overweight. Each one of them are casual alcohol drinkers, smokers, and have drank black coffee for most of their adult lives. As proven by the 'experts', they have conflicting ideas that are less than helpful. The best solution is to drink filtered water, to help keep the works flushed out. I am not sure why they don't advocate that instead of jumping onto the 'fatty' bandwagon, but anyone can get kidney stones, it isn't selective to your BMI.
This perfectly describes my brother. He's thin as a rake, drinks a lot of coffee, and has been trying his hardest to quit smoking while occasionally indulging in alcohol here and there. He just had his first kidney stone and scared the heck out of my sister-in-law. It's not obesity that's his problem, and his diet's pretty solid. There's more to it than they're stating here.
I was told many years ago, by my urologist, that I needed to cut out the caffeine in my diet, as it dehydrates you, thus it does not flush out your kidneys and the by-products in your kidneys well. He also told me to decrease the amount of protein in my diet. I wasn't a believer in this non-sense at first, so it took a major illness to convince me to cut out the protein ( I am a red meat lover! ), and to stop drinking so much Dr. Pepper. I now drink nothing but herbal iced tea, and eat red meat once weekly. I haven't had any kidney stones in 5 years!!
By the way I never changed my diet and I have gout.
kidney stones are a side effect of gout, although they are different than the oxalate stones most people get
I'm wondering if it's all the crap that we pour into our water supply as when I rushed my boyfriend to the hospital with kidney stones I was surprised he had them with all the water he drinks. Also, two other people at the ER the one time had them, including a ten year old girl, and her mom said she never drinks anything with caffeine. With my boyfriend he seemed to have a problem because he's an ex alcoholic and has to take anxiety medication for Aspberger's syndrome. A friend of mine take anti-anxiety medication herself and developed kidney stones due to her medication.
Anyway, a long time ago I've read that plain water itself is a toxin to the body particular the lungs and brain. When the doctors were having him drink water for his stone, and pushing fluids through his veins, his lungs swelled with fluids and he was gasping for air. it was scary seeing his nostril flair and he sat up huffing and puffing. Only when I started clapping his back and chest he spit up all of this watery fluids ( also oxygen was piped into the room as his O2 fell to 87%), and his fluids had to be restricted as he could have got worse. He was lucky as I read about such complications as usually one winds up on life support as they literally are drowning in their own lung fluids. That's why I only drink four cups of water a day, and drink tea for the rest of my fluids as a doctor of mine ( he was Korean and he said they drink tons of tea) recommended a few years ago.
BTW, My friends with kidney stones are all normal weight, and one of them is thin as a rake. One has a genetic disorder where she has to filter her water as she can't digest certain minerals in large quantities. The other friend didn't get them until she had to take anti-anxiety drugs, and strangely didn't get them until she lost 150 pounds. That's why she discovered it was the drugs she was taking and not her weight as they didn't come on until she lost all her fat. However, she was told by her dietician to drink a lot of tea ( no sugar like I like mine) with lemon to flush them out.
I wished this article talked about the composite of stones and their percentages. I was told by my Urologist that 90% are calcium and the rest are mostly uric acid. I avoid spinach and grapefruit. It's important to drink lots of water especially during hot weather. I've had them twice and the first time I had lithotripsy (sound waves) to break them up and urinate them out. I wasn't drinking enough water. Just my experiences here and not up for arguments.
I always balance out my water intake ( more I sweat, more I drink plain water), so I don't swell my brain or other organs up. It is scary seeing a loved one gasping for air from taking in something that seems so healthy, so I am careful with my water intake, and I have never had a kidney stone problem. I was surprised the doctor told my boyfriend to drink Gatorade along with his water intake when he was released as he was told he needed to keep his electrolyte balance up so his lungs wouldn't swell like that again.
and drinking bottled water as a craze began when? I not talking about the water, think about the plastic container.. yeah, I'm paranoid..
Dave
I don't think that you are paranoid at all. My wife had a double masectomy 3 years ago and her surgeon suspects that plastics have alot to do with cancer. This is a women that has done many cancer surgeries and has done many researches with her fellow doctors. We don't drink anything out of containers unless they are BPA free. I'm no doctor so I don't know the answer, but that's what my wife's surgeon mentioned.
There is an herb that grows in the Amazon rainforest called chanca piedra. In English it means "stone breaker" or "shatter stone" because it helps the body to dissolve kidney stones. http://bit.ly/wxf6f9 It is also great for liver and kidney health.
Plenty of exercise and water is the prevention
I have been a sufferer of kidney stones for a long time. I have been on a low oxalate diet. It is sad because the foods that are high in oxalate are the healthy carbs and darker vegetables. While kidneys stones are a problem for many men (and some woman) more commonly is calcification of the prostate (yes eww). The get loosened by a b.m. and they have to pass through the same way through the bladder and out the urethra. For me and many others it is a problem with having a narrowing in the urethra. They call it a stricture. He recommended to avoid caffeine and push fluids. When I told him that I wanted to try an herbal he said that some have benefited from Quercetin. It is not that expensive and you can get it at GNC (on line or in the actual store but not Rite Aid drugstore).
Calcium is stored in the skeletal system like grain in a silo. The muscles need calcium and potassium to expand and contract. The human body is so beautiful in how the systems interact it's amazing that anyone would conceive that we were not designed by a source of infinate intelligence. Yes. I'm a Christian and even though I am not physically perfect I do not think that God is to blame for it. A stork did not bring me from heaven. I had generations of human beings come together since Adam and Eve.
This increase in people developing kidney stones is just nature's way of saying to all of them, "So, think it's been funny gorging yourselves like a bunch of dogs all your lives, have you? Well then, think about this when you start passing a few of these razor edged stones down your urinary tract. That excruciating burning you'll feel will convert all of you to health nuts...and rapido!!"
I'm not sure I buy the explanation that 'more exercise' is needed. One of my acquaintances who's suffered attack after attack is an Iron Man triathlete.
Renatele, Exercise alone is not enough. I ran triathlons for years and probably ate like your friend did. When the doctor told me that my triglicerides were high and my LDL readings were off the charts, I got on a sane diet and almost immediately all those health problems vanished. All these health problems can be traced back to the American diet of rich, fattening, salty foods!
Cut out the daily doses of deep fat fried foods and the liter bottles of soda and each day, exercise for exercise's sake, and this condition will never bother you. This is a curse caused by people abusing their bodies! And never forget this adage: Unhealthy people live to eat; healthy people eat to live!
Like I said most of my friends with kidney stones are normal weight or thinner, or have lost tons of weight. I think my boyfriend's problem is the region of the US he lives in as when I went to visit him a while ago ( he is out of state looking after a ill parent) there seemed to be factories everywhere. Also being an ex alcoholic and taking certain medications does not help in his case. I think here is chemicals being dumped and we are being distracted with all the "boogie monsters" of obesity news ( remember when it was AIDS that everyone was scared of getting?) to not realize the impact that we are having on the environment. On top of that the world has had so much radiation from nuclear weapons and reactor accidents to cause mutations.