You’ll wish you knew this sooner

In this conversation, Jeff Sarris and Jill Harris delve into the complexities of kidney stones, focusing on their formation, types, and the myths surrounding their dissolution. Jill emphasizes the importance of understanding the specific type of kidney stone one has, as only uric acid stones can be dissolved with potassium citrate. They discuss dietary impacts, particularly the carnivore diet, and the significance of urine pH in stone formation. The conversation aims to educate listeners on effective prevention strategies and the importance of consulting healthcare professionals for personalized advice.

Takeaways

• Dissolving kidney stones is a complex topic.
• Only uric acid stones can be dissolved with potassium citrate.
• Diet plays a significant role in stone formation.
• High purine diets can lead to uric acid stones.
• Moderation in diet is crucial for kidney health.
• Many home remedies for stones lack scientific backing.
• Understanding urine pH is essential for prevention.
• Consulting a doctor for urine analysis is important.
• Not everyone on a carnivore diet will form stones.
• Potassium citrate can help manage uric acid levels.

Chapters

00:00 Understanding Kidney Stones and Their Dissolution
08:40 The Role of Diet in Kidney Stone Formation

Jeff Sarris (00:00)
So you want to dissolve your kidney stones. Well, you’re going to wish you knew this sooner.

Dissolving kidney stones. This is a tough topic. It’s something that we all want to know. None of us want to deal with passing stones, but there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of information, a lot of information out there. You’ve been doing this since 1998. You’ve helped thousands and thousands of patients pass and prevent stones.

Jill Harris (00:07)
Wow.

Jeff Sarris (00:27)
And what do we need to talk about in terms of sort of the truth, the fact, and the fiction, I guess, about dissolving stones?

Jill Harris (00:35)
I hate this topic. I do because people have gotten in real trouble. Well, I hate love it. I love talking about it because it will help people. I hate it because a lot of people say I deserve my stone. Hmm. Okay, I will always say mmm unlikely, okay, so let’s talk about this. There’s all kinds of magical potions on the internet that will tell you you can dissolve your kidney stones from teas to gummies to parsley smoothies to all kinds of stuff. So I hope one day we can just take something and our stones dissolve. There is a form of stone called uric acid stones and they can be dissolved with a very alkaline product, something like potassium citrate. So uric acid stones are made because there’s too much uric acid in your crystals.

I have a lot of people that come to me from the carnivore diet. You know, they heard super foods are toxic to go on the carnivore diet. And then they make a different kind of stone. You can make calcium oxalate from that diet and very common uric acid stones from that diet. And so typically when you’re eating a diet that’s high in purines, which is meats primarily, there are some vegetables that are very high in purine, but it’s rare that people are overeating them so much to make uric acid stones. But typically one is eating too much meat. I have a lot of carnivore people in my practice, paleo people overdoing the meat portion. And so also on another segment of patients that make uric acid stones are diabetics, because along with the carnivore people, they’re diabetic and carnivore people will have very acidic urine, acidic urine. And that is an environment which uric acid crystals thrive. So anything less than a 5.6 urine pH, a 24-hour urine collection pH, 5.7, 5.8, even that, uric acid crystals can begin to form. So in that case, your doctor will do a 24-hour urine collection. That’s how you know you have this problem.

You do a 24-hour urine collection. The doctor will say, here’s the reason you’re making uric acid stones. You’re eating too much meat. Your urine pH is extremely low, so it’s very acidic. Your citrate is very low, which is a natural stone inhibitor. Citrate is a molecule in the body that basically shields calcium so that oxalate and phosphate cannot connect to her. So when you eat too much meat, your citrate goes low, your pH goes low, and your calcium can be high. That’s another way you get high urine calcium. Anyway, specifically for dissolving stones, if you do make uric acid stones, the doctor could give you potassium citrate. This will alkalinize your urine. He will also or she will also tell you to stop eating that diet because that’s not working for you and your chemistries. But they will put you on potassium citrate to help dissolve, may not dissolve fully, but will dissolve some fully, yes, the uric acid. That alkaline citrate that you’re taking, the potassium citrate, it will start dissolving those uric acid crystals so you can start passing them. Some people, it will just dissolve it depending on how big that stone is, the uric acid stone.

There are no other kidney stones that you can dissolve. Now, people are going to say to me, Jill, but my stone did break up when I drank some tea. Did it break up or did the stone move because you’re drinking a lot of fluids? I’ll ask the patient, were you also drinking a lot? Oh yeah, Jill, I was drinking so much water. So how do you know the tea worked? That’s all I’m asking. So here’s the other thing, though. People will say, well, of course she’s going to say science doesn’t say it. Well, science doesn’t say. For like chanca piedra. What science does say with that is it can relax the ureter a little bit to help the stone. So your ureter is the tube that’s connecting the kidney to the bladder. And so that’s where you feel the pain typically when the stone is sliding through that tiny little narrow tube from the kidney to the bladder so you can pass that stone. Now, so the tea may dilate the ureter a little bit and help the stone pass, but we’re using the word dissolve for a reason. Parsley smoothies. What am I just talking about now? Jeff, the tea, they’re not dissolving stones is the point here.

So people will say, well, I’m just going to start drinking that tea. I’m going to drink a lot of lemon juice. I’m going to drink, but you don’t know. First of all, there’s a lot of people that start apple cider vinegar, lemon, crystal light. They’ll start doing all this stuff and they don’t even know what kind of stone they made because number one, it hasn’t come out yet. And number two, they haven’t done a urine collection.

Jeff Sarris (05:42)
Right. Yes.

Jill Harris (06:07)
So a lot of you were doing these things and that could make your matters worse. I heard lemon juice dissolves kidney stones, so I’m going to drink lemon juice. And they drink so much lemon juice, number one, they lose the enamel on their teeth. And number two, now they’re forming another type of stone or the same stone they were forming but they didn’t even know what stone they were making. They use lemon juice, increase their pH so much that that made a calcium phosphate stone.

So number one, I will tell you to get a urine collection to see what type of stone you made. There’s nothing that’s going to dissolve calcium phosphate stones or calcium oxalate stones. They’re not being dissolved. And people say, she’s saying that because she doesn’t want us to pass the stone. Why would I say that? Because I don’t want you to pass the stone. I’m just telling you what I’ve seen for 30 years, there’s no science that says that’s holding up anywhere. Those stones the lasers can’t even break them up a lot of the times, more times than you’d like to know about. Uric acid stones can be broken up.

But you don’t know what kind of stone you make. Well, I know I’ve made uric acid in the past. Stone types change all the time. So some people say, Jill, I’ve made every stone there is, uric acid, calcium phosphate, a combination of, you know, because they’re trying to, if you make a uric acid stone and the doctor says, take this, take this, you stop eating as much meat, you do all the things the doctor says, maybe even too, way more than you should, now your pH is too high. I mean, the things I have seen. So again, it always comes down to moderation, right?

There’s a lot of things nowadays that alkalinize your urine, liquid IVs, electrolyte drinks, things you don’t need. Could that help a uric acid stone dissolve? Maybe. But typically, if the doctor knows you make uric acid stones, he or she is going to put you on potassium citrate because they want the citrate to come up and the pH to come up, and that will help dissolve the stone. Perhaps, lots of times they don’t, but it could help that along, but it will definitely keep you from making uric acid stones along with getting off carnivore diet. For those of you who are prone to stones, some carnivore people will say, Jill, this is bulldo. I have not made a stone and I’ll say, yet, or you may just not be, it’s like the guy that smokes two packs of cigarettes a day, he’s 92, still breathing. I mean, there’s some people that that diet is not going to affect them. But if you are bent toward making kidney stones, it will, for sure. I see it every day. So it may not just happen to you or yet because stones take a while to form. But not everybody will form stones by eating the carnivore diet. So I do want to make sure of that. OK, let people understand that.

But dissolving kidney stones, there’s only one that can be dissolved. It is uric acid stones. There’s no guarantee of it, but it is when we alkalinize the urine. Calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate stones do not break up.

Jeff Sarris (09:16)
Yeah, I think that’s whether or not we want to believe it. It’s there just is the data and the time. And if you want to talk to Jill directly, remember you can go to kidneystonediet.com where she can help you. I know, right? But she can help you decipher your 24-hour urine collection, understand really what is happening inside your own body, which we can all benefit from knowing more and understanding.

Jill Harris (09:25)
They’re like, not after this video. Not after this video. I don’t. Yes.

Jeff Sarris (09:41)
So there’s private consultations with Jill, 30 or 60 minutes, you can find it at kidneystonediet.com or all the free resources, including the free weekly email where Jill appears in your inbox to keep you on track to prevent stones this year. So I think with that, we’ll wrap. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you next week.

Jill Harris (09:58)
Have a great week everybody.