The pain of passing a kidney stone has been compared to the pain of childbirth. With childbirth, there’s a sweet reward. With a kidney stone, there’s nothing but the production of a granular object. Men are more likely than women to get calcium stones, and genes play a role as well. Because of that genetic factor, if your parents or grandparents had kidney stones, you’re at higher risk for getting them yourself.
Some people have a tendency to excrete high levels of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate. If all goes well, you get rid of these calcium salts every time you urinate. But sometimes, however, the salts hang around the kidneys like bad leftovers. Eighty percent of all kidney stones are composed of these calcium salts.
Diet is important if you’re trying to avoid kidney stones. Stay away from foods such as spinach, beans, parsley, tea, and coffee. Although some of these items are normally thought of as healthy foods, they are rich in oxalates, says Anne McClenon, N.D., a naturopathic doctor at the Compass Family Health Center in Plymouth, Massachusetts. If you have a problem turning oxalates into a form that your body can use, they remain in your urine. "They may precipitate as a stone," she says.
The stones can’t be ignored, and there’s no way to treat them yourself. If you have a stone, you may have severe pain, blood in the urine, and fever. Any of these symptoms should tell you to see a doctor as soon as possible. "It can be a medical emergency. The pain can be excruciating," says Dr. McClenon.
Sometimes, a small stone will pass on its own—with that childbirth-type pain mentioned earlier. If you have a stone that’s too big to pass, your doctor will probably recommend an ultrasound procedure that breaks it up without surgery.
There are a few strategies and supplements that might help you avoid forming another kidney stone from calcium salts. First, however, you should see your doctor and have a blood test and chemical analysis of your urine and stones to determine if calcium is really your problem. There are other types of stones, which can form because of a urinary tract infection, gout, or a hereditary kidney disorder.
If you’re prone to getting calcium stones, here are some tactics and some supplements to help prevent them.
Drink Up
Water, that is. It’s a simple bit of advice, but it makes a lot of sense when you consider that stones come from dissolved solids, says Leon Hecht, N.D., a naturopathic doctor at North Coast Family Health in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
It’s similar to the rationale behind adding more and more water to soup that’s too salty. The objective is to keep the saltwater solution in the kidneys extremely diluted so that a concentration of stone-forming salts doesn’t get stuck there. Water causes the concentration of chemicals in the urine to decrease, making them more soluble and less likely to form stones.
Drink at least 8 to 10 full 12-ounce glasses of water each day. Not juice or soda or milk—just water, says Dr. Hecht. (Salt and sugar can raise the level of calcium in your urine.) "You should drink enough so that you’re urinating every couple of hours," he adds.
Stonewall with Magnesium
Having high levels of calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate in your urine isn’t a problem as long at you excrete those salts. For that to happen efficiently, they need to hook up with other essential chemicals in the urine. Otherwise, they’ll clump together, form crystals, and precipitate out like sugar settling to the bottom of a glass of iced tea.
That’s where magnesium comes in. It binds with the calcium salts so they stay dissolved in the urine.
Magnesium is a regulator of calcium, says Michael Gazsi, N.D., a naturopathic doctor in Ridgefield, Connecticut. "You excrete it rather than having it settle out in the kidney," he explains. "If you keep the magnesium ratio in the urine high, there’s less chance of forming a stone."
If you have a predisposition to calcium stones, Dr. Gazsi suggests that you take 500 to 1,000 milligrams of magnesium a day. "It’s the single best thing you can do to prevent these types of stones," he says.
B6 Boosts Protection
For added insurance, you can take a vitamin B6 supplement, since B6 reduces the production of oxalate, says Dr. Hecht.
He recommends taking 25 to 50 milligrams of vitamin B6 daily along with a magnesium supplement. "Magnesium alone decreases the likelihood of kidney stones, but when you put it with vitamin B6, it has an even greater effect," he says.
Keep Your Cs Low
Vitamin C is good for protecting your cells and boosting immunity, but high doses may be a problem for people with a tendency toward kidney stones, says Dr. McClenon. That’s because one by-product of vitamin C is oxalate.
While this doesn’t mean that you should avoid vitamin C entirely, it’s probably a good idea to limit your dosage to no more than 2,000 milligrams a day, says Dr. McClenon.
Some research suggests, however, that for the average person, vitamin C does not promote kidney stones. It may even have a mild protective effect, according to Alan Gaby, M.D., professor of nutrition at Bastyr University in Bothell, Washington.
