Tag Archive for: kidney stones

Citric Acid: Stone Killer?

/in /by

Increasing fluid intake can reduce the risk of developing stones of all types: kidney stones, gall stones, bladder stones, or uric acid crystals. But there’s one more thing you could do to reduce the risk—add some citric acid to the fluids you drink. While the research on using a form of pharmaceutical is not clear yet, this is one thing we can do with diet.

We expect electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium in sport drinks, but adding citric acid can help your blood’s pH as well as reduce the formation of stones. The simplest approach would be to drink limeade or lemonade; fresh squeezed or a manufactured drink, citric acid makes the drink tart and sour. The food with the highest amount of citric acid is lime, with lemon a close second. I typically use sugar-free lemonade and add the juice from one lime in a 16-ounce container. It’s very tart but not inedible.

Avoid the mentality of “if some is good, more must be better.” Research hasn’t shown that to be true, so let’s stick to what we know. And while citric acid is a weak acid, it may still give you an upset stomach if you have too much. One lime or lemon per day seems to reduce stone formation.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

Reference: Korean J Urol. 2014 Dec; 55(12): 775–779.

Health Headline: Antibiotics and Kidney Stones

/in /by

For this week’s Memos, I picked three health headlines from the past week and examined the studies behind them to see if they were headline worthy. Let’s begin with the use of antibiotics and the risk of kidney stones.

Researchers in the United Kingdom examined the incidence of kidney stones in over 13 million children and adults between 1994 and 2015. They examined the medical records of over 25,000 subjects with stones and compared them with over 250,000 matched-control subjects. The researchers wanted to compare the use of antibiotics with the onset of kidney stones.

The researchers found that there was a relationship between the use of five different classes of antibiotics and the onset of kidney stones. The relationship appeared to be stronger with younger subjects and the risk lasted longer: up to five years.

Headline worthy? In the abstract, the researchers wrote about the relationship between changes in the microbiome and kidney stones. Antibiotics can cause changes to the microbiome, but they did not test the microbiome of any subjects. Therefore, there’s a statistical relationship but nothing more. On top of that, the risk of getting a kidney stone over 21 years was just 0.19%.

Conclusion: not headline worthy. It’s worth researching further to establish whether there’s a cause and effect relationship along with the role of the microbiome in the process.

What are you prepared to do today?

Dr. Chet

 

Reference: JASN. 2018. doi: 10.1681/ASN.2017111213.