In this episode of the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, Jill Harris discusses the critical role of vitamin D in kidney stone prevention and overall health. She emphasizes the importance of maintaining balanced vitamin D levels, the risks associated with excessive supplementation, and practical advice for effective vitamin D intake. The conversation highlights the need for regular testing and the significance of taking vitamin D with healthy fats for optimal absorption.
Takeaways
- Vitamin D is crucial for calcium absorption.
- Excessive vitamin D can lead to kidney stones.
- Regular testing of vitamin D levels is essential.
- Vitamin D should be taken with healthy fats.
- Maintaining balanced vitamin D levels is important.
- Many people are unaware of vitamin D’s effects on health.
- Functional and holistic doctors may overprescribe vitamin D.
- Vitamin D supplementation requires careful monitoring.
- Dietary sources of vitamin D should be considered.
- Education on kidney stone prevention is vital.
00:00 Understanding Vitamin D and Kidney Stones
08:35 Practical Tips for Vitamin D Supplementation
Jeff Sarris (00:00)
Most people don’t know this about vitamin D. Let’s talk about it.
So yeah, vitamin D, it is a big topic, especially in the winter right now. I am as pale as I possibly can be.
Jill Harris (00:14)
I I glow, I’m translucent. The only thing that
gets, I have red because when I get a little excited, I get red here. Yeah.
Jeff Sarris (00:22)
huh. Yeah. But yeah, this is
the time of year, taking those supplements, doing everything, wishing for the sun, but there’s some things with vitamin D that people don’t know about.
Jill Harris (00:34)
Yes, so vitamin D, there’s a few things I want to talk about here. first of all, a lot of functional doctors, holistic doctors, naturopaths, they like to put a lot of the patients that come to me. I can only speak for what I see, my experience. But they, what’d you say? Decades, yeah, so it’s a lot.
Jeff Sarris (00:57)
And that’s decades, decades of patients. that’s decades of patience, thousands of patience.
Jill Harris (01:04)
It’s a lot, meaning when people try to say something, I’m like, I’ve been doing this almost 30 years. So I do have, I may not be the smartest person in the world, but boy do I have experience. So I’ve heard a lot. And I know what you guys do is patients because thousands and thousands of people I’ve talked to. And so I have heard this from many of my patients. Well, Jill, I was sick of conventional medicine.
So I went to a functional doctor, went to the naturopath, I went to my acupuncturist, I went to my chiropractor, all these other people. And all these other people who are not perhaps mostly, they’re not thinking about kidney stones. So they’re loading up patients on vitamin D. The problem with that is
They don’t know that vitamin D in excess can cause kidney stones. that’s simply because, well, vitamin B’s tricky, like I said. It’s kind of like Goldilocks. So we want vitamin D levels to be pretty much in the middle, 40s, 50s. Those are nice levels for vitamin D. We don’t want them way too high, like over 80. We don’t want your vitamin D level way too low. That’s why you get on supplements.
Because if it’s too low, then you’re not absorbing the calcium you’re taking in. If it’s too high, you may be over absorbing. So we want it right in the middle. That’s really important. But a lot of you get loaded up. Here’s another common scenario. Jill, I went to my doctor, my functional medicine doctor, and they put me on 10,000 units of vitamin D every day. OK. So what’s your, when was that? Well, it was about a year and a half ago.
Well, has it been rechecked? No, it hasn’t been rechecked. And now their vitamin D is sky high. And when they do their urine collection, because I ask all these questions when I’m taking a history on patients. I ask about their medical history, I ask about supplements, I ask about pills, I ask about no-stern, unturned. Yes, I meant the pun. So, a lot. So when they tell me how much they’re taking, I’m like, when’s the last time did you have that checked? And they’re like, I haven’t gotten it checked.
So now their vitamin D is so high and now their urine calcium is high because of that. So when I’m looking at a urine collection, I’m trying to figure out why somebody’s urine calcium is high so that they can talk to their doctor about that. Here’s all the possible scenarios. It may be high. And now go have that conversation with your doctor. So number one, if you’re put on a vitamin D supplement, you must get it checked in four weeks, five weeks to see
where that supplement is hitting you, especially if it’s on a high dose. Some people put on 50,000 units. So if your vitamin D is super low, a doctor, naturopath, any of those doctors, holistic people, they may put you on a supplement, but please make sure your blood gets checked to see because vitamin D slowly accumulates.
You guys, most of the time you all think you take a vitamin and next thing you know you’re immune, your vitamin C is good. It takes time for these things to be absorbed. Vitamin D takes time to be absorbed. So you want to get a follow-up test in however long your doctor tells you and then see where your vitamin D falls. If it’s still really low, the doctor may keep you on that dose. If it’s where the doctor wants it to be, then you go on a maintenance dose. So for me,
I take 2,000 units a day. I live in Chicago. My vitamin D is low. This keeps it where it needs to be. I did a really poor job one year not consistently taking my vitamin D. And so when I went in for my prim- I’m not perfect. And when I went in for my primary visit, she’s like, Jill, what the hell? Your vitamin D is low again. I said, but I wasn’t taking my pill.
She’s like, well, start taking your pill. You know better. Look what you teach for a living. I said, I know, Courtney, I know. Anyway, I took my extra dose, 4,000. She tested me in four weeks. It got to the middle where it should be. And then I stay on my 2,000 to keep it there. Like a good girl, I take my booboo kitty pill. OK. The other thing is, when you take vitamin D, here’s another thing nobody’s telling you. You’ve got to take it with fat, because it’s a fat soluble.
Vitamin so it will absorb better when you’re having a fat a food that has fat in it good, can I have a can I have Doritos Jill can I have no I don’t want you having Doritos with your vitamin D I have something like Avocado so typically I have avocado. I do have that pretty much every day. It works well for my gut issues It’s a great healthy fat and it has nice fiber in it. So that’s a staple in my diet and it is then
that I take my vitamin D pill. So please take your vitamin D supplement with a higher fat product. Healthy product, avocado is a great thing. And yes, you can have avocado on a low oxalate diet. There’s videos on avocados on this YouTube show. So the other thing, so if your vitamin D is too high, the doctor may say, let’s get you off vitamin D for a minute.
and then we’ll recheck you and then we’ll put you on a supplement that will keep you where we want you to be. Okay? So that’s important too. Here’s another common scenario. I’m taking my medical history. Do you take vitamin D? Jill, no, no, no, I don’t take vitamin D. As soon as I got a kidney stone, I went on the internet and it says, don’t take vitamin D all these places. So I got off of it. Do you know what your vitamin D level is? No. Well.
You need to go get a plug test. You need to see where your vitamin D level is because if it’s too low, you may need a supplement. That is so very common. People tell me, Jill, no, as soon as I made a stone, I took away my supplement. You need vitamin D to help you absorb the calcium you’re now, especially with kidney stones, going to start consuming. So vitamin D is important for a lot of things, but it helps us absorb.
Calcium and we do want to absorb it so our bones stay happy. All right, so vitamin D It’s annoying because we do want it to be in the middle. It’s like Goldilocks Not too high not too low if you need a supplement take it with a healthy fat like avocado Don’t forget to take it don’t be like Jill Make sure you take it every single day. Of course, if you forget a day you forget a day get right back on track. I forget something
But I do get right back on track and make sure to get your blood if you’ve never had your vitamin D checked and a lot of doctors will say you know Doctors will say I you don’t need that I do because I have high urine calcium So I want to rule out that my vitamin D is not too high or not too low. So that’s super important So do you have to stop taking vitamin D when you have kidney stones? Absolutely not
In fact, you may need vitamin D to help you absorb the calcium you’re now getting. I think that’s it, Jeff. I think so.
Jeff Sarris (08:41)
Hmm. Yeah.
But for anything that you didn’t cover here, all of that is at kidneystonediet.com. can find all the kidney stone prevention goals right on the homepage. Absolutely free. There’s no paywall or anything. Just kidneystonediet.com. can scroll right down and find all of the core fundamentals of the Kidney Stone Diet. But then if you want to dive deeper, we have the all access pass. Excuse me. With that, you get the kidney stone prevention course, Kidney Stone Diet meal plans.
All of the eBooks with all of the myriad recipes that Jill’s created over the years to prevent future kidney stones and live a better life. So you can find all of that at kidneystonediet.com and also sign up for the email newsletter. Don’t forget about that. Every weekend, Jill sends you a a little nugget of inspiration to keep you on track. Again, absolutely free, just like the Facebook group and everything else, but you can find absolutely everything at kidneystonediet.com.
Jill Harris (09:25)
Yeah.
Jeff Sarris (09:37)
Now we appreciate everyone for tuning in again another week, for subscribing, for liking if you’re on Facebook and sharing with a friend. Anyone who you think can benefit from learning more about vitamin D, about kidney stone prevention, about all the things we talk about here, please share it with them. It means the world to us. So with that.
Jill Harris (09:53)
Jeff I can’t tell you
how many people say I told my Aunt Irene, I told my father, I told you know because there’s there’s so many people there’s millions and millions of people that get kidney stones every year so and also guys it really does Jeff said to subscribe it really does help if you press the subscribe button because YouTube will show us higher in the rankings so people get good credible information we don’t feel popular from it we just want YouTube to show our videos otherwise we just get lost in all the muck that there is
Jeff Sarris (09:59)
Nice.
Mm-hmm.
Jill Harris (10:23)
And we want to show higher in the rankings so people get great, credible, easy to understand information on how to prevent kidney stones and stop this nonsense. Painful nonsense, by the way.
Jeff Sarris (10:33)
Absolutely.
Yeah. And speaking of YouTube thinks you’ll like the video that’s on the screen right now and we will see you next week.
Jill Harris (10:41)
Bye guys.
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