Do women get more kidney stones?

Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, the show about reducing your risk for kidney stones and living your best life. I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris, and I'm here as always with everyone's favorite nurse, Jill Harris. How you doing, Jill?

Hi Jeff! I'm thrilled to be here as always and I can't wait to hear what you're going to pummel me with today. I don't know if that's the word pummel.

I don't know what the hell pummel is, but I just made it up. This is what happens when you're middle-aged. Yeah, this is what happens when you're middle-aged.

Shit just comes out of your mouth, and people just look at you and go, " she's old. God bless. Let her say it.

No one will say nothing." So, it's wonderful. So, pelt. I think I was I think I was looking for the word pelt.

Pelt me with questions.

There you go. So, the first question for today, or the question for this episode of the podcast is coming right from your Facebook group, the Kidney Stone Prevention Diet, and someone asked, "Is it me or do more women suffer from stones? Because in the group, there are quite a few women."

Yes, there are a lot of women. I think, in general, so, it's a great question. I think, in general, there's more women tend to seek help for their issues.

And Facebook is a great place for people to come and get support. With my, stage 4 cancer stuff, I'm on Facebook groups for people, private groups like I have, that just deal with stage 4 cancer. And so, it's a it's a place where, one can go because maybe their spouse is sick of hearing about the, your ailments or your friends, and so you go to a place where people are all there and supportive and can talk about things.

So, more women than men go seek out support in general, whether it's Facebook or talking to their friends or family or whatever. So, although it seems like more women, if you were just on my Facebook page where there's thousands of people, you're going to think, "Oh, I thought this was more men got kidney stones. Look at all these broads over here." But more women seek out help, so that's why.

It's still But, here's the interesting fact.

Although men have always, in general, been the sex that makes more stones, they Men make more stones than women overall, women are catching up. So, that's something to note. So, we're we're we're noticing that, so there's more women.

That population is growing. Catching up to men, so that's interesting.

So, do you have any, sort of insights on why that might be? Is it something to do with diet or environment?

You know, I would think Now, this is I don't have any research to back this up, but off the top of my head, I would think that women are more apt to try diets that, like, just say low-carb diets where they overeat high oxalate foods, do not get enough calcium, because most adults don't get enough calcium, and/or overeat meat, as well.

So, it could be. It could be that. Up and down with weight all the time, could be.

A lot of people will want to say, "Oh, it's I went through menopause, that's what's going on." No. Not really. So, if I were to guess off, and anybody in the comments can certainly correct me, 'cause I know you will, but if I was going to come off the top of my head, I would I would probably say trying some fad diets may have led to their stones, because after I work with somebody, and they get their diet back to where it should be, which is everything in moderation, way more plants and fruits, low oxalate ones, there's only a handful you need to take away, people, and get your meat portions, if you eat meat, in control, and make sure you get enough calcium, and of course, getting enough fluids, most patients won't make stones again, unless they have other medical conditions predisposing them to make the stones, okay?

Does that make sense? I said a lot of words right there. I want to make sure that made sense.

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And, in terms of like whether it's fad diets or things, I mean you've talked about it in the past, but like more health isn't better health. Like more healthful foods doesn't make better health, and like totally makes sense because a lot of times I think we like I mean, you might even want to talk about smoothies a little bit.

Like veggie smoothies and green smoothies aren't always the best choice.

Right. And you'll have to forgive me if you're watching this on YouTube, because I have something in my eye. Okay, so here's the deal.

So, patient every day, all day, hours and hours on the phone with people and in the course, I'm telling patients this one thing, my students. I understand, first of all, people are going to be like, "A keto's not a fad. I've been on it for 20 years." Okay, it's not a fad.

Okay. Most people try keto, get off of it. Most people Most people try paleo, can't do it.

You need a bun here and there, okay? So, when I use the word fad, I'm not talking to every single person. I'm talking about the people It's a fad when you couldn't do it consistently.

That's what I'm talking about. Most people, when you take away one food group, in this case, carbs, it's very You're going to overeat the other ones, and it's very difficult to constantly deprive yourself of things, foods. Okay, so there's that ball of wax, 'cause people might say it's not a fad.

For most people it is. For you, it's not, beautiful. The other thing, smoothies.

So, I don't have People will say, "You're on me for smoothies." Well, I'm on it 'cause you're eating three smoothies a day and you're not chewing food. So, guess what? You're not going to be able to do for the rest of your life.

What I'm interested for people, the diet that works for you is the diet that works for you. That's That's how you know. It's going to work for you.

You're happy with it. You look at your plate. You're chewing like an average person.

You're not drinking your meals. Remember Oprah in the wagon of fat? Because she drank her meals?

Remember that, ladies? Ladies, I'm looking at you. We can't drink our meals.

We're supposed to chew. It's It makes us happy. We're supposed to sit down.

We're supposed to communicate over food, enjoy good, healthy foods. More healthy foods does not mean more health. Now, let me just say this.

"What do you mean, Jill? I'm eating lots of fruits and vegetables." Beautiful. Variety!

Not the same spinach every day. You can't do that. It's a very high oxalate food, okay?

So, what I'm asking people to do, people will say, "Well, you know, kiwis are superfoods this year!" I don't You Go in the produce section. They're all wearing a cape and a mask. They're all superfoods, each and every one of them.

So, get a variety of fruits. If you've had kiwi and apple and pears one week, when you go shopping the next week, get oranges, bananas, and plums, whatever, change it up. Don't eat the same thing over and over.

Our body wants to get a lot of nutrients. It always makes me a little sad when I have a patient that has 20 supplements, but they're eating one apple a day. You want more health?

Get rid of your pills, get some fruit, get some vegetables. "Jill, there's nothing to eat." Then you need to work with me, and I'll teach you. Most of my job is telling patients, showing patients there's plenty to eat.

You just have to stay away from the highest oxalate foods, get your calcium, you'll never have to worry about oxalate again, and you'll get a variety of foods. So, smoothies, I don't mind that you have them. Just don't make them your whole diet.

You can't. That's not something that can be forever, okay? And change up the Change up the fruits and vegetables you're putting in there, and also, in most cases, use a non-dairy or dairy base, base for that smoothie, so you're also getting calcium in there, too.

It's a nice, quick way to get the extra calcium we're all trying to get.

Yeah, just no spinach smoothies with, almond butter and almond milk as the base!

That's why I get so many patients! I don't need money that bad. I don't want anybody to do that ever again!

So, no. Right, that's a perfect example of how people, you know, come to me and they say, "Well, I was eating almond butter and, almond milk and almonds and spinach all day long." Well, when we do any food all day long, we may get an allergy to it, we may get a sensitivity to it, and we're not getting all the other abundance of nutrients and, phytonutrients and minerals and vitamins we could be getting.

We're missing out on a lot, right?

Yeah, I think that's perfect. So, if anyone is curious for more inspiration on recipes and cooking, head over to kidneystonediet.com where Jill has been, releasing, I think we've been doing about a recipe a week now, haven't we? Been pretty consistent with it now.

I know people have been dying for recipes for quite a while, so it's been awesome to get them out there, and you're you're essentially just you're opening the door to show people how you eat and how you approach your nutrition and just trying to provide some inspiration on different meals and different recipes people can use along the way.

Yes, every recipe is, has the Kidney Stone goals in mind, and the Kidney Stone goals you can find at kidneystonediet.com under the free resource page, and you can see clearly what the Kidney Stone Diet is. And so each recipe is some recipe is something I eat, and it's low most of the time no added sugar, there's, calcium.

There's I try to put calcium in most things. Always low salt, and lots of fruits and vegetables. So, and a lot of low carb, too.

So, there's something for keto, there's something for vegans, there's So, we're building a nice, substantial library, so 'cause I eat all kinds of different things, so putting it up there and having a great time doing it, as well.

Yeah, and, Jill has a weekly email that she sends out every Saturday, too, with, updates and little inspiration. So, if you head on over to kidneystonediet.com, be sure to check that out as well. So, I think that'll wrap it up this week.

Thanks, Jill, for another great conversation. We'll see you again soon!

Thanks, Jeff. Love it. Okay, bye!