Water
Dr. Kyle Wood
Video Transcript
Hey, this is Kyle Wood
with the Kidney Stone Collaborative.
I’m an associate professor at the University of Alabama
and specialize in kidney stones.
There was a question brought up about whether
what else can be done outside of drinking more fluids
for kidney stone prevention.
So I’m just gonna take a few minutes to discuss that.
Whenever you have a kidney stone,
we do focus on fluid intake and we do recommend 96 ounces.
That really comes from a study that showed that
you could reduce your stone risk as much as 60%.
When you looked at stone formers
and you followed ’em for roughly five years,
and when we looked at the amount
of fluids they were taking in,
they were taking in about 96 ounces to have, uh,
urine output, about 2.5 liters.
And so we really do focus on fluids
and patients always ask me,
what fluids should I be focused on?
Order’s, probably the best fluid to take in,
but if you look at the large epidemiological studies stone,
uh, decrease in stone risk occurs if you drinking coffee,
um, um, even with alcohol.
Not that I recommend drinking any alcohol,
but there are some of the fluids that might want
to be avoided would be some of the almond based
or nut-based milks, as they may contain high oxalates
and really should avoid sodas.
I tell patients that they’re gonna consume sodas, try
to stick with the clear sodas,
and then obviously you want to be cognizant
of your caloric intake.
So anything that has high calorie, um, such as some juices
and stuff you want to be cautious of taking, uh,
high calories in as stones have been associated
with obesity and gaining weight.
So the other thing that may help is if you want
to add something to your fluids, such as a citrate powder.
So crystal light is a good option,
and that might be that might, that has been shown
to potentially decrease stone risk
or at least help with some
of the stone parameters like increasing your citrate.
Other ways through which you can decrease your stones is
really focusing on your salt intake.
We really try to recommend 2000 milligrams
or less of, uh, sodium intake,
and that can be helpful for stone disease,
but also cardiovascular issues as well.
Salt comes in many forms
and I tell patients that it’s not usually due to the salt
that you’re adding to your foods.
It is due to the salt within the food that you’re eating.
So being cognizant of that
and looking on your boxes, looking at your prepared foods
and trying to avoid high salt intake can help
with stone prevention.
The mechanism through which this works is it really reduces
your urinary calcium excretion.
We know that in almost all stone formers, um,
calcium based stone formers, cysteine stone formers,
the more salt you take in, the more calcium
or cysteine you release into your urine.
And so reducing your salt intake will help reduce your
calcium in your urine and help prevent calcium stones.
We also, in general, tell people to try
to focus on taking in more fruits and vegetables.
The American diet is high in protein
and does not have a, uh, good amount of fruits
and vegetables usually within that diet.
If you take in more fruits and vegetables, this adds citrate
and that can help with prevention of kidney stones,
citrates, and known inhibitor of kidney stones,
and that comes with also reducing your protein intake.
Um, for most Americans,
they do have very high protein intake, so in general terms,
focusing on more fruits and vegetables
and less protein that can help with stone prevention.
So overall, the dietary advice is increasing your fluids,
decreasing your salt, increasing your fruits and vegetables,
and decreasing your protein intake.
The caveat to all of this is a is an individualized plan
and every patient should stone patient should talk
to their doctor about their individualized
needs when it comes to diet and fluid management.
Take care.