If I get uric acid stones do I still have to worry about oxalate?

Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet Podcast, the show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life. I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.

Hello, and I'm Jill, your kidney stone prevention nurse.

Yeah, so we are here with another listener question this week. Thanks everyone for calling in. And this week it's a question from Vicki.

My question is, a good friend who's had kidney stones twice, their uric acid kidney stones, he's gotten conflicting messages from his doctors and wants to know from you, you seem to be really excellent at this subject, is he vulnerable to other kinds of kidney stones, such as, you know, the calcium oxalate or does he just have to follow the diet to, you know, be careful for the uric acid kidney stones?

So, it would be very, very helpful to know that. Thank you so much, bye-bye.

That was a sweet question. I love her little voice and she's being so nice trying to help her friend. I love that.

Oh, yeah.

Okay, so, anyway, everyone's like, shut up, Jill, who cares.

No, no, no, but it's really sweet. I mean she's trying to help her friend, yeah.

I love it. Okay, so, so Vicki wants to know her friend gets uric acid stones and she wants to know, "Does he have to worry about other stones?" And so, I get this a lot, too. So, people are like, "I make calcium phosphate stones, I don't got to worry about oxalate." Here's what I say.

Here's what I say.

The Kidney Stone Diet will help all stones, whether you're uric acid, each part of that Kidney Stone Diet, the low salt, the low sugar, getting enough calcium, watching your oxalate, eating moderate amounts of meat protein, not as much as you want, getting enough fluids, low salt, whatever, whatever, you know them all.

The point in all those is it hits everything. So, so it works for uric acid stone formers, it will work for calcium, it will help calcium phosphate, it will help all stone formers, okay? Plus, it's again, I'll always say this, this is why I remain so passionate about it, it's just a healthy diet, right?

But it particularly helps stone formers because a lot of those elements are lowering urine calcium. People always think this is an oxalate issue. Once you take away a handful of foods, it ain't no more.

This is mostly a calcium issue, whether we're not getting enough, whether our body isn't absorbing it, a combination of both, primarily, whether we're eating foods that are pulling calcium from our bone and into our urine. So much of this is about calcium, guys, although, you know, most of you come to me because of oxalate.

Now,

Uric acid, does he still, Vicki, your friend still, I will say yes, still has to worry about all stones only because I have patients that make combination stones, uric acid and calcium oxalate in the one stone, okay? They'll make a they'll make a combination. Sometimes, "Hey, Jill, the first time I did a stone, it was 100% uric acid.

Now, what the hell, it's calcium oxalate, what's going on here?" So, this is why the whole diet will help all stones, but you can switch back and forth to different stones. So, so a uric acid stone former, I'm still gonna say don't be going near no spinach as a stone former. But people definitely have a propensity for a certain type of stone, okay?

So, especially with uric acid, it could be some genetics are involved. I find that, well, studies show, here's what I find, but, yes, I do find in my practice, too, patients I'll say, "Do you have a family history of uric acid stones?" "Well, no, but my dad had gout." You know, so there is excess uric acid in people's blood, urine, and so they just have this genetic component, too.

So, yes, he should adhere to all aspects of the Kidney Stone Diet so he doesn't go back and forth to make different kinds of stones, and particularly for uric acid stone formers, we want to lower your purines. It's not just in meat, you can find it in overeating mushrooms. I once had a patient,

She didn't really eat meat, but she ate so many mushrooms and she was like, "I eat a lot of mushrooms." I'm like, "Really? I mean, Peggy Sue," that's not her name, "Peggy Sue, how many can you eat?" She's like, "I'm telling you, I eat a lot of mushrooms." I said, "Okay," cause I'm being a very stubborn, middle-aged gal.

I'm like, "Show me some pictures, Peggy Sue." That's not her name. "Send them to me, text them to me." Well, oh, my goodness! Peggy Sue was eating so many mushrooms, I couldn't believe it!

And so mushrooms can are higher in purines. Oatmeal! For those of you who eat oatmeal every day, "I eat oatmeal every day for breakfast, Jill." Well, number one, please don't eat the same breakfast every damn day for the last 50 years.

Change it up, people! There's a lot of food out in the world. I know you want to go on autopilot, I know you don't want to think about it too much, but I'll always say this, cuz, yes, I'm very annoying.

I will say, if there's one thing you think about, there's two things you should think about in the world: love and, well, three, kindness and what you're gonna feed your machine, because guess what? If it ain't happy,

You ain't gonna be happy. You got to nourish your body. So, oatmeal every day, do you know what your body's thinking?

Well, that's not nice of you to give me oatmeal every day, it wants different things. Anyway, for your friend, Vicki, there's other things. Mayo Clinic actually has a lovely little list.

If you Google, tell your friend, Vicki, or Google for your friend, "Mayo Clinic and purine foods," purine, p-u-r-i-n-e, so uric acid can break down into purines and then these purine, well, these purines break down into uric acid, and if you're eating too much of those certain foods, you can have a buildup of it. Now, some people don't overeat high-purine foods, they just have a genetic issue, so they may have to go on besides lowering purines, they may also have to go on a medication called allopurinol.

So, and there's other ones as well, but

So, to answer Vicki's question, yes, he can go to other types of stones, most particularly calcium oxalate, it's doubtful he'll go to calcium phosphate stone, but calcium oxalate he does run the risk, so he should follow all aspects of the Kidney Stone Diet. The end!

Yeah, and that's, like you mentioned, the diversity in the meals, not sticking to oatmeal every morning. That's why we started the meal plans is trying to give people the inspiration to change it up day after day, and, I mean, you'll If you go to kidneystonediet.com and check out the meal plans, you'll you'll find that there are repeats.

Like, it's not a thousand unique recipes. There's going to be repeats over time, but this is just inspiration to be like, "Okay, yeah, put the oatmeal aside today. How about let me try this?

Let me try that. Let's change it up to get different nutrients into our body."

And everything's so quick. It's just as quick. Like, my breakfast is like, you know, is just as quick as oatmeal's gonna be.

I have oatmeal for you folks on that meal plan, but I'm just saying, all my breakfasts are five minutes tops. I mean, cuz I'm not What am I, making a lamb, a pot roast for breakfast? I want it to be quick, too, but I want a lot of different fruits in your body.

I don't You can have all fruits. Get away raspberries, every other fruit you can have, so don't tell me there ain't no fruit, there's plenty. So, a yogurt, non-dairy yogurt, because I know you're gonna say, "I don't eat dairy." No one said you have to, there's non-dairy yogurt, okay?

So, mix it up, and, yes, keep your oatmeal, but guess what? Sometimes I have leftover dinner for breakfast, I do. So what?

You know, think outside of the box, people. So, yes, the meal plan is I finally did it. Patients have been asking me for a meal plan service for decades, and so I finally did it.

Super easy recipes, easy, healthy, they follow the Kidney Stone Diet, low salt, low sugar, low oxalate, portions of meat like they should be, not for a family of ten for your one serving, you know, all of that.

Yeah, that's all like straight from your kitchen. You've made all these recipes, you cook them, you take the photos, which you've done a phenomenal job on the photos. Like, every time you send them over, because we're the ones who set them up.

Yeah, for anyone who's listening, like we sort of manage the back end of the website and do things as well along with podcasting.

They take care of it all, people. He takes care of it all. He and He and Dave, they take care of it all, please.

Please, go ahead.

We're just trying to help get, help keep all the machinery running behind the Kidney Stone Diet so you can do what you do best, which is educate people and help them, like, live a better life. So,

Yeah, but now I'm a photographer, Jeff.

You are! Like you're so good at it. It's like I was shooting food photography for a while, and I every time I see them, I'm like, "Ugh, my shots weren't this good after all the years that I was doing it."

I sucked at the beginning.

And after all the years I was doing it, they weren't this good, and you like just hit the ground running, and you're doing such a good job.

It's so fun. It's so fun. I go to the thrift store, and I buy all kinds of like little placemats, I'll get like a whole bag of them for 11-12 cents.

I love it. All the different plates, so I just go to the thrift store and get just bunches of different things and it keeps me inspired to do it because it's actually a lot of work, the meal plan service, you know, for all of us, it's a lot of work, right? So, it's it's a lot of fun, too.

It's a labor of love for me. Who knew that I'd be, because people say to me, "Jill, I didn't cook." I'm like, "Guess what, Betty Sue? I didn't cook up till three years ago.

I never cooked at all. I was the cleaner in the house. Now I'm a cook, what do you know?" But it's it once you start cooking, again, these recipes a baby could make them.

What am I, a Rachel Ray? I'm not, I can assure you. They're easy, but there's something about knowing that you've made your own food, you're controlling, look, everybody that meets me has been sick, and they're anxious, and they're scared, and these kidney stones come out of like all of a sudden, you're like, "What the hell'd you're on the floor, you're throwing up, you have diarrhea, you're running to the." I mean, these things are just not for the faint of heart.

So, my point is this, sometimes we get sick in life, and sometimes we can't control it, okay? But here's the thing: you can control what you put in your body, and once you start doing that and learning how to cook, I learned off YouTube, people. That's how I learned.

That's why I love this platform so much. I've learned so many things from learning how to cook to changing the toilet bulb thingy. I can do all of it now.

But, you know, I'm just saying, so, by taking the bull by the horn, making really quick, easy meals, I'm looking over here cause there's my kitchen, and making it and just knowing that what you're putting in your body is nourishing it, and making it strong, and so you can exercise, so you can make wise choices, so you're not as stressed, wondering what's in your food all the time, it's really it's really important.

If you're gonna spend time doing anything, people, please think about feeding yourself properly and taking a half hour. And I usually do these meal preps, I do a couple hours on Sunday, and guess what? I'm not cooking in the middle of I won't cook it and maybe till Wednesday night I'll start, you know, and then put things in my freezer.

So, you may say, "I ain't got time," but you're saving time all week long, and you do have time. We all have time. Make it a priority.

When you make things a priority, you find time. It's amazing how it works. Please do that, because all my kidding and joking and everything I do funny, try to make this more enjoyable for you to listen to, I am dead serious about this.

Please take your health seriously. You hear me screaming about that on my Facebook page all the time. It means so much to me that you take care of your body so you don't get these kidney stones anymore, and you can live a healthier and happier life, cuz when we're sick, it's awful, and we've all been there, so we know.

Right, Jeff?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's the whole reason for this show and the platform, is to try to help people so they don't have to deal with the things that they've dealt with in the past, or their loved ones have been putting up with.

Yes, yes.

So, yeah, thanks again to Vicki for your question, and hopefully that'll

Thank you, Vicki.

Yeah, help your friend. And if you want to have your voicemail played and answered on the show, the phone number is 773-789-8763. And if you're enjoying the show, be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, check it out on YouTube, and leave comments and reviews, and let us know, yeah, what you think, and how this is helping in your life.

Yeah, people always say, I know I'm I'm interrupting you, people always say, "Jill, what can I do for you? You do so much for us." Subscribe to the channel, because guess what? People can't find us then.

So, subscribe to the channel, press that stupid little bell, press the bell! What's the bell for, Jill? That will notify you when a new show comes on, that's all it is, but this makes me pop up pop up quicker when people search for kidney stones, and we want this to get out, please, so do that for me, do me that favor, it would mean a lot to us.

Yeah, so thanks again, everyone, and we will see you next week.

Thank you. Bye, Vicki.