Do kidney stones mean poor diet?

While most kidney stones are caused by eating rich food and not drinking enough hydrating fluid, Annie, 31, didn’t fit this picture – and that’s why she came to see me.

As you’d expect, the story begins in the kidneys, whose job it is to dispose of the body’s waste products. Sometimes, tiny particles don’t dissolve into the urine and instead clump together to form hard, solid lumps made up of a substance called calcium oxalate.

As a result, Annie was told to cut down on her calcium-rich foods (dairy, green leafy veggies and soft-boned fish), but this actually made things worse.

You see, this caused her body to produce more calcitriol, a steroid hormone which increases the amount of calcium the body hangs on to. This hormone also leads to a higher excretion of calcium in the urine – exactly the opposite of what she wanted.

A wiser strategy would have been to reduce oxalates, a metabolic end-product found in beetroot, chocolate, rhubarb, spinach, tea and nuts, especially peanuts. Another thing Annie was asked to do was to reduce her overall intake of animal protein (red/white

meat, fish, eggs). Animal protein makes the urine more acidic, thus increasing the risk of the calcium oxalate crystallising. Lentils, beans and peas are an excellent alternative. Potassium-rich foods, like bananas and tomatoes can also reduce the likelihood of

calcium crystallisation as they help to flush out excess salt and water.

And of course, Annie was told to drinks plenty of water – a good 2.5 litres – since a dehydrated body is far more likely to start forming stones. Remember to stagger water consumption throughout the day to allow your kidneys to hold onto it better.

Annie did all these things and still kept getting kidney stones, which resulted in a number of surgeries. It was only after 10 years that doctors realised that something else was wrong: The high levels of calcium in Annie’s urine were to do with a problem with her parathyroid glands (responsible for calcium balance in the body), and once this issue was resolved, so were Annie’s kidney stones. Getting to the root of a problem is always far superior than dealing with the symptoms.

So why had Annie come to see me? All that messing around with her kidneys had left her with high blood pressure – something she didn’t wish to temper with medication. Correcting her body’s mineral balance helped to deal with it. We boosted her potassium and magnesium intake (eating more seeds, nuts, beans, bananas and green vegetables), reduced sodium (less salt) and calcium in the diet (limit dairy).