In this conversation, Jeff Sarris and Jill discuss the prevention of kidney stones, emphasizing the importance of understanding dietary factors and the necessity of conducting a 24-hour urine collection to identify the underlying causes of stone formation. They highlight common misconceptions about diet, particularly regarding foods high in oxalate, and stress the need for personalized treatment plans based on urine analysis. Jill passionately advocates for patient empowerment and education to improve health outcomes and prevent future kidney stones.
Takeaways
- Most people focus on spinach and almonds, but that’s not the whole story.
- Overeating healthy foods can lead to kidney stone formation.
- A 24-hour urine collection is essential for understanding stone formation.
- Many patients are unaware of their actual dietary impacts on kidney stones.
- Salt intake can significantly affect urine output and stone formation.
- Oxalate is a factor, but not the only one in stone disease.
- Understanding urine composition can help tailor prevention strategies.
- Patients should advocate for their health and request necessary tests.
- Education on kidney stones can lead to better doctor-patient communication.
- Preventing kidney stones can save patients from pain and costly treatments.
00:00 Understanding Kidney Stone Prevention
02:18 The Importance of 24-Hour Urine Collection
05:23 Common Misconceptions About Kidney Stones
08:20 Empowering Patients for Better Health Outcomes
Jeff Sarris (00:00):
Don’t skip this if you want to prevent kidney stones.
What is the thing that is holding people back from prevention that isn’t necessarily even what people are talking about?
Jill (00:14):
Yeah, I think it’s a great question and most people are talking about spinach and almonds. “Gotta get rid of those. Gotta get rid of those.” But you know, maybe, yeah.
Jeff Sarris (00:26):
Actually, real quick, why? Just in the like really brief, we have plenty of episodes on it, but what is the thing about those, spinach and almonds?
Quick Spinach and Almonds Explanation
Jill (00:32):
Yeah. Spinach and almonds are two foods that people specifically overeat. They eat them every single day and they eat them in any amounts they want. It’s very common that somebody goes to their dietician and they have diabetes. So the dietician, no shade on dieticians. What they’re telling their patients is correct. You know, for a healthy snack, have almonds. Put spinach smoothies, eat some spinach, eat your leafy greens. So what they’re being told, because now they’ve got to lower carbs. And so they incorporate these healthier foods into their diet. The dietician never said, “And also Sally, make sure you eat a bag of almonds a day and so much spinach, it’s going to come out of your eyeballs.” The dietician didn’t say that, but when we healthcare professionals tell a patient to do something that is healthy, they tend to say, “Well, more of it means more health.” And if you’re a diabetic and now you’ve taken away a lot of carbs, you’re looking for something that you can snack on throughout the day. And almonds are crunchy and they’re there and you know, they’re easy. You can put them in the car, you can bring them to the office, whatever. And they’re good for me. So you don’t need three almonds. You really overeat them.
And so, and along with that, nobody’s getting any calcium needs met at that point. So, mm-hmm.
Jeff Sarris (02:05):
And real quick too, like the almonds and spinach, they’re very, very, very high in oxalate. And most people have calcium oxalate stones. So that’s usually where we’ll start, but this episode we’re going a little different. And if you want to learn more about specifically oxalate, you can go to kidneystonediet.com, find all the goals of the Kidney Stone Diet and how to prevent future stones. But this week, a slightly different thing that people are skipping.
The Critical Step Everyone Skips
Jill (02:14):
That’s correct. Yes. The old timers that have been around here for long time may know what I’m going to say, but for anybody that’s just found us, you will not be able to prevent kidney stones unless you do a 24-hour urine collection. That is vital to start a kidney stone treatment plan. You may think you know why you’re forming stones, but until you do a urine collection folks, you don’t know why you’re forming stones. I can’t tell you how many people they call me because I do urine consults all day long with folks. I help them understand the report so then they can have a better appointment with their doctor. When you are educated on why you’re forming stones, then you can get on a better treatment plan, talk to your doctor, all of the things. But if you don’t understand why you’re making stones and you just drink more water, I can’t tell you how many patients, “Well, Jill, I was drinking more water, that’s what the doctor said, and I was still making stones. And I did a urine collection because I saw your YouTube channel, and then I realized I’m eating so much salt, and I never used a salt shaker, so I was shocked.”
Or somebody’s eating way too much meat protein because they’re on the paleo diet. And so, yes, up to 80% of stone formers are calcium oxalate stone formers. But uric acid stone formers are getting up there too just because so many people overeat meat products. And then typically when you’re on paleo and keto, you’re way overeating salt. Okay, you’re doing a good job on sugar, but you’re way overeating salt.
What a Urine Collection Reveals
So there’s so many things in the urine collection. Your saturations will be listed there and your saturations are the driving force of stone formation. Super saturations are telling the doctor that will be found on a urine collection result how saturated your urine is with stone making crystals and which one. It will also tell the doctor what stone are you most at risk for making. It will tell you how much water you’re drinking. You may say, “Jill, I drink like a fish. Why is only this much coming out of me?” Because you’re eating 10,000 milligrams of salt a day. Fluid is staying inside your body instead of you urinating it out. And so it will tell you your citrate level, your pH, your calcium level, all of those things matter in stone disease.
So when you’re scouring the internet on kidney stone prevention, mostly what you’re going to see is oxalate. Is oxalate a big factor? Yes. Is oxalate the easiest thing to deal with in stone disease? Yes. You all, on the internet it seems like, “Oh my God.” But I promise you in almost 30 years, it’s the least important thing. You take away your spinach and almonds, a few foods, you could find those foods at kidneystonediet.com, but mostly there’s all the other values. I think there’s like 50 values on that urine collection test, 30, 40, whatever there are. There’s a lot of them, it’s not just oxalate. And so the urine collection will take all these values, mesh them all together in a very beautiful little algorithm and spit out why you’re forming stones.
And so if you have low citrate, if you have low pH, if you have really high pH, you’re never going to know this stuff. So what are you going to do? You’re just going to go off the internet or the generic advice your urologist gives you, “Drink more water, add lemon.” That’s not touching 99.9% of you.
The Results Speak for Themselves
And then you come to me and you’re like, “Well, I guess I’m just a stone maker.” And I say, “No, no, get a urine collection done.” You get a urine collection done. You call me to go over the results. You’re like, “Holy Brazil, look at all this.” And then you stop making stones because the doctor is then going to look at that result. You’re going to impress your doctor with all the knowledge. I hear that all year long. “Jill, my doctor was so impressed by how much I know.” “Jill, my doctor, just sat down and really listened to me and it was a way longer visit.” When you know what you’re talking about, the doctor’s like, “Uh-oh, let me just sit down. Let me take my time. Great questions here.” So it’s vital to prevent kidney stone. You see, I always get very passionate about this part of it because it’s the most important step that so many of you are skipping.
Do you know how many stone formers come to me? “Jill, I’ve been making stones for 20 years. I found you on Facebook, a kidney stone diet on Facebook, and I saw someone talking about a urine collection. So I got one done and after, you know, and now I see why I’m making stones. I have high urine calcium. I didn’t know. And now my doctor says I have to get my parathyroid taken out because that’s what’s making my urine calcium high.”
How to Ask Your Doctor
Guys, I’m bringing this in a light way, adorable, funny, I’m passionate about it, but I’m telling you, if you listen to the things, you don’t gotta pay for one thing, not one thing. If you just listen to what I’m saying and do the very first step, which is to tell your doctor. “My doctor says he ain’t gonna do it. He wants to wait for the second stone.” Why would nobody would wait for another tumor to pop up in my body before they decided to do some treatment on me? Why are we waiting for two stones to prevent? Why are we waiting for it? Why? Why are we not testing? If your doctor says, “We don’t really do those here,” you say, “I would like to do a 24-hour urine collection because I want to make sure I never form another stone again. And I want to see why I’m forming stones.” It’s very rare that the doctor will say no after you say that.
Many of you have told me that you have said that to the doctor and when the doctor said no, you felt a little timid in gently pushing back. And God, I understand that. I have a big mouth, but I can be kind of timid in real life. And you know, when you’re talking to a doctor, even though I’m a nurse, I’m like, “Well, they know best.” You know, I was brought up in a certain generation. “Who are you to question Dr. Marcus Welby?” I mean, we didn’t do that. So I know it may be a little uncomfortable, but my God, please, let’s not get another lithotripsy, ureteroscopy, cystoscopy, a stent, a surgery. Guys, sepsis, do you know how many of my patients have sepsis before they take this seriously? And it’s not because they didn’t want to take it seriously. It just wasn’t brought up to them that really bad things can happen.
The Bottom Line
So I’m begging you to please ask your doctor to do this very important first step in preventing kidney stones. You don’t know why you’re making them. You may think it’s spinach, but in almost all cases, it’s never just oxalate, ever, ever. It’s a combination of things. And this is why it’s kind of complicated. And this is why also urologists are surgeons. So they’re dealing with the surgeries. Okay? They’re not sitting down and talking to you about how to lower salt. Most doctors don’t do that. But that’s why you have me, kidneystonediet.com. I’ll teach you how to do that. Order your own collection, consult with me. Get on board. It will save you thousands and thousands of dollars going forward. Not to mention the pain and suffering that one has when they go through a kidney stone.
Jeff Sarris (10:40):
And that’s the biggest part. It’s that pain and suffering. But as Jill mentioned at kidneystonediet.com, you can actually work with her directly for a urine analysis, an analysis of your 24-hour urine collection to understand exactly what those results mean for you, for your diet and how you’re approaching your future prevention. But then also to have that better doctor’s visit because the doctor generally doesn’t expect someone to be knowledgeable in this thing that they’re just showing up with. So it is…
Jill (10:41):
That’s it. It’s so important. Yes, it’s the… Yes.
Jeff Sarris (11:09):
…someone to be knowledgeable in this thing that they’re just showing up with. So it is…
Jill (11:13):
You got it right, you got it, you got it Jeff. That’s exactly right. Yes.
Jeff Sarris (11:18):
Yeah, so you can get a better doctor’s visit as a result. So I think with that we’ll wrap again, 24-hour urine collection and everything that you need to know is at kidneystonediet.com, but we will see you next week.
Jill (11:30):
Like and subscribe people. Thanks so much. Bye!
Leave a Reply