Weekend Wellness: Diet Tips that May Prevent Kidney Stones

How are those New Year’s resolutions going? “Don’t get a kidney stone” is probably not on your list, but that doesn’t mean you can’t resolve to minimize your risk for this potentially painful and increasingly common condition.

According to Dr. David Hoenig, a Northwell Health Medical Group specialist in kidney stone treatment, the number of people in the U.S. getting stones is rising — from about 5 in 100 people in the 1980s, to almost 9 in 100 in 2010. Even if you’re not destined to break the world records for the number of stones you’ll need removed (172,155) or the size of a stone(5.11 inches, or 13 centimeters), chances are you’ll want to take steps to not join the 1 million Americans who will get a kidney stone this year, 300,000 of whom will require a trip to the emergency room.

First, be sure to recognize the symptoms of kidney stones, which include:

• A sharp, cramping pain in the back and side, often moving to the lower abdomen or groin. The pain can start suddenly and come in waves, and come and go as the body tries to get rid of the stone.
• A feeling of intense need to urinate.
• Urinating more often or a burning feeling during urination.
• Urine that is dark or red due to blood. Sometimes urine has only small amounts of red blood cells that can’t be seen with the naked eye.
• Nausea and vomiting.
• For men, pain at the tip of their penis.

If you are experiencing these symptoms, contact your doctor, who can diagnose your condition and determine whether and why you are forming stones.

Starting this weekend, you can begin to make some changes to your diet that will not only reduce your risk for kidney stones — which is increased if you’ve formed one in the past, or if someone in your family has had one — but will also lead to better health overall.

Keep things fluid by drinking water. Almost any fluid will do, but drinks low in calories, sugar and alcohol are ideal. If you’ve had a previous incident of kidney stones, you might not be producing enough urine, so ask your doctor whether this is the case.

“A simple way to know whether you’re drinking enough fluids is making sure your urine is clear most of the time,” Dr. Hoeing says. “If your urine is yellow, that means it’s more concentrated than it should be, if you’re looking to prevent stones from forming.”

Become a less salty character. Do you need another reason to watch your sodium? Add kidney stones to a long list of unsavory health conditions, including high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, whose risks are increased by a high-salt diet. According to theCenters for Disease Control, most people should limit their salt intake to 2,300 milligrams per day.

“Salt also promotes the loss of extra calcium from your kidneys,” Dr. Hoenig adds, “increasing the calcium levels in your urine and potentially increasing your risk of bone disease.”

Don’t spend all your mealtimes with meat, and make friends with fruits and vegetables. A diet high in animal protein, such as beef, fish, chicken and pork, can raise the acid levels in the body and in the urine. High acid levels make it easier for calcium oxalate and uric acid stones to form. The breakdown of meat into uric acid also raises the chance that both calcium and uric acid stones will form. Eating fruits and vegetables is the best way to get potassium, fiber, magnesium, antioxidants, phytate and citrate, all of which may help prevent stones from forming.

“Try to limit your intake of meat and fish to no more than six to eight ounces per day,” Dr. Hoenig says.

Don’t hate on calcium. Calcium stones make up 80 percent of stones people get, but that doesn’t mean reducing calcium in your diet will reduce your risk for stones. Calcium from food does not increase the risk of calcium oxalate stones. Calcium in the digestive tract binds to oxalate (a substance in many foods) and keeps it from entering the blood, and then the urinary tract, where it can form stones.

“If your calcium intake is too low, it can actually increase your risks of developing kidney stones. Plus, the absence of a normal amount of calcium in the diet can cause risks to your bone health.”

If you’ve had a calcium stone in the past, ask your doctor how to better manage your calcium intake.

Keep it simple. In summary, Dr. Hoenig offers advice that he gives to all his patients:

1. To prevent kidney stones, you don’t have to completely cut out any kinds of food — just about everything is allowed, in moderation.
2. Moderation is especially important when it comes to reducing the salt in your diet.
3. Make sure your urine is clear most of the time: it’s easier to keep the materials which make up stones dissolved if the urine is dilute.

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Join us Tuesday, January 12, at 1 p.m., for a free Google Hangout where Dr. Hoenig and Northwell Health Medical Group urologists Dr. Louis R. Kavoussi and Dr. Zeph Okeke will discuss other things you should know about kidney stones, including risk factors and treatment options. Register at https://www.northwell.edu/go/kidney-stones