# I have one kidney. How do I prevent kidney stones? Source: https://kidneystonediet.com/ep/i-have-one-kidney-how-do-i-prevent-kidney-stones/ Published: 2021-10-26 --- [![Kidney Stone Diet Podcast](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Kidney-Stone-Diet-Podcast-1-1024x1024.jpg)](https://kidneystonediet.com/podcast/) [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEZSgykZP7E)[Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-have-one-kidney-how-do-i-prevent-kidney-stones/id1528474326?i=1000539772074&uo=4)[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0nF2Aj5j3W8hoNUpGpqrBX)[Amazon Music](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/0868148d-adfd-411d-b3f2-71a0ad1461ec) October 26, 2021 --- ![Jeff Sarris](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Jeff-Sarris-150x150.jpg) Jeff Sarris Host ![Jill Harris](https://kidneystonediet.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Kidney-Stone-Diet-Jill-Harris-150x150.jpg) Jill Harris Host \ This week Jill answers a listener question about preventing kidney stones after a nephrectomy.\  \  Have a question? Leave us a voicemail at (773) 789-8763.\  \  **= Stop your kidney stones once and for all =**\ • [Kidney Stone Prevention Course](https://kidneystonediet.com/kidney-stone-prevention)\ • [Kidney Stone Diet Meal Plans](https://kidneystonediet.com/mealplans/)\ • [24 Hour Urine Collection Analysis](https://kidneystonediet.com/24-hour-urine-analysis/)\ • [Private Coaching](https://kidneystonediet.com/coaching/)\ \ **= FREE Kidney Stone Resources =**\ • [Kidney Stone Diet](https://kidneystonediet.com/)\ • [Free Kidney Stone Diet Resources](https://kidneystonediet.com/resources/)\ • [Oxalate Food List](https://kidneystonediet.com/oxalate-list/)\ • [Kidney Stone Diet Recipes](https://kidneystonediet.com/recipes/)\ \ Find more episodes of the Kidney Stone Diet Podcast at [kidneystonediet.com/podcast](https://kidneystonediet.com/podcast)\ \ —\ \ **= Who is Jill Harris? =**\ [youtube.com/TheKidneyStoneDiet](https://www.youtube.com/TheKidneyStoneDiet)\ \ Jill is a nurse and health coach that specializes in educating patients on kidney stone prevention. For more than 20 years she’s helped patients understand that kidney stones can be prevented with the right treatment plan. It’s one thing to be told to lower oxalate or drink more water, but HOW do you do it? That’s where she comes in. Through the educational resources at [kidneystonediet.com](https://kidneystonediet.com), stone formers can learn everything they need to know to significantly lower new stone risk.\ \ —\ \ **= Who is Jeff Sarris? =**\ [youtube.com/jeffsarris](https://youtube.com/jeffsarris)\ \ Jeff’s co-founder of [SPYR](https://SPYR.me), a branding agency based out of Chicago, where he and his business partner Dave help awesome people like Jill create online platforms that make an impact.\ \ He’s also a certified health coach, Executive Producer of the Netflix documentary Minimalism, and host of the [Starting Now podcast](https://SPYR.fm/now).\ \ Reach out on Twitter! [@jeffSARRIS\](https://twitter.com/jeffSARRIS) ## Chapters - 00:00:26 Thrift Stores and Candle Smoke Stories - 00:03:25 Candle Soot Concerns and Pet Safety - 00:05:43 Kidney Stone Risks After a Nephrectomy - 00:08:09 Kidney Stone Diet Goals for One Kidney - 00:11:47 Purpose of a 24-Hour Urine Collection - 00:14:52 Interpreting Lab Results for Prevention - 00:19:37 Meal Plans and Healthy Recipe Variety - 00:21:59 Free Kidney Stone Resources and Community ## Transcript 00:00:13 Jeff Sarris 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. 00:00:20 Jill Harris And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. You know what I was just thinking about? 00:00:25 Jeff Sarris What? ### Thrift Stores and Candle Smoke Stories 00:00:26 Jill Harris I love going to thrift stores. I love them, and I've always loved them. It's like a treasure hunt, right? And so I always, There's always candles on in my house. As a matter of fact, I'm going to I was going to tell one story now. Let me tell you what happened the other night. This is not a cute story. Okay, so my son had homecoming. I one minute I'm burping him. Now he's having a homecoming. I don't even know how that happened, but there you go. Anyway, So I was up a little later waiting for him to come home, and so he came home, we chatted for a little, then he went to bed. I went to bed. Now, I always have candles, as my regular people know, my patients and my little friends on Facebook and stuff, they know that I always have a candle on. But I always shut them off before I go to bed. Anyway, I was tired. I fell asleep with a candle on. The candle was almost out, okay? But it was a bigger candle in a big glass jar, so it wasn't going to burn nothing up. But it started smoking cuz it was at the very end, so that black puff of smoke. Anyway, The fire alarm went off. The fire alarm, the smoke alarm is right above my head. And you know in cartoons when a cat hears something and it goes boom like that? Okay. All I got to say, cuz it was like 20, 30 minutes right after I went to bed, so I was getting, ooh, really into my sleep, and that alarm scared the living heck out of me. So my girls upstairs were like, "What the hell is going on?" I'm like, and I'm screaming, "Girls, girls! Get a ladder!" So these apartments are small, but the hoochie, the roof, is high, whatever this is, ceiling. 00:02:17 Jeff Sarris Yeah, the ceiling.. 00:02:18 Jill Harris So there's no way. So they're like, "We have a four-step stool." I'm like, "Well, that's great. We need a 25-step stool, cuz I can't reach the smoke alarm!" So, you know, it's 1:00 in the morning, they're running downstairs, so all these drama going on, I'm getting towels, going like this, and I'm like, "What the hell? Why is it going off?" And they're like, "Smells like a candle in here, Jill." I said, "What?" They said, "It smells like a candle in here." I said, "Oh, sweet baby Jesus, I left the candle going." They took their ladder, they looked at me disgusted, And they left and went back upstairs. I said, "Sorry, girls." That was that. But Jeff, it scared the heck out of me, cuz I didn't know what it was, cuz I was asleep, right? So just telling you. So anyway, I love going to the thrift store and finding all these old-time votive candles, like dark ones, yellow, you know, my brown kind of candle glass thing, Glass thing, and it makes me so happy. You can get like a whole bag for 52 cents. Nothing makes me happier than that. Do you like candles? ### Candle Soot Concerns and Pet Safety 00:03:25 Jeff Sarris I don't use them, actually. Just It's because of that mental component of that soot and everything in the air. It always I have that little like hesitation towards it. I just always have. And having Alpha, our cat Yeah, having Alpha, our cat, too, I'm always just, I don't know, I'm very cautious with everything with him, because like my first cat, We had him for like a year. This Again, not a great story. We had him for a year, and like he was from kitten to a year old, and he actually passed from like just a freak like it was actually kidney failure. Actually, now that I say it out loud, I didn't even think about that. 00:04:02 Jill Harris Oh, really? 00:04:03 Jeff Sarris But it came down to, yeah, he got into something he shouldn't have gotten into, and then yeah, things just immediately it was a weekend. It was just like that. So ever since, 00:04:12 Jill Harris Oh, that's terrible. 00:04:13 Jeff Sarris Alpha now is 10 or 11 years old, which is so weird to me, but yeah, I've just been very I'm very deliberate and cautious with things. Just I don't I never want something like that to happen again, cuz that was not a good not a good time. But, yeah, I appreciate 00:04:26 Jill Harris Oh, that's a terrible story. 00:04:28 Jeff Sarris I appreciate candles, especially the like the vibe that they create, like the lighting and everything. It's just so nice, yeah. 00:04:33 Jill Harris I love it! I love it. I love it. So anyway, I don't sleep. So that's never going to happen again. But anyway, it scared the heck out of me. Anyway, and also, I have to get a ladder. Although I don't know where I would put it, I'm going to have to get something, because I can't I cook all the time. What? I can't have it. It went off the other night, too, cuz I was cooking, so it's an issue. I got to deal with it. 00:04:56 Jeff Sarris Yeah, I wonder if you can almost get one that's like half-decorative, but actually functional, you know? So it's like up on the wall that looks kind of nice? 00:05:03 Jill Harris Yeah, you know, I'm looking into that. And they have expandable ones, but they're a lot of money. You know, everything when you're trying to do smaller, they get you. They're like, "Oh, it's a small place, they're never going to be able to find it anywhere. Hank, Jack up that price. 50 bucks more cuz it's small." I mean, what the heck? 00:05:22 Jeff Sarris Yeah. 00:05:24 Jill Harris You know? 00:05:25 Jeff Sarris But should we get rolling on this week's question? 00:05:28 Jill Harris All right, how the hell do we segue into kidney stones from ladders and candles? I don't even know what to tell you. And a cat with kidney failure! Let's go off that. 00:05:36 Jeff Sarris Yeah, there you go! But yeah, so we'll dive into this week's question, which comes from Lynn. 00:05:41 Jill Harris Lynn. ### Kidney Stone Risks After a Nephrectomy 00:05:43 Jill Harris Hi, my name is Lynn and I'm calling from Ottawa, Canada. I have a question about a kidney stone that a few kidney stones that were recently discovered in a CT scan. I live with one kidney following a nephrectomy that I had done in March 2020, when a tumor was found. So I have one kidney left, and now have discovered that I have these three kidney stones. So, I would appreciate any, I guess, advice you have on diet going forward. I'm fairly healthy. I've tried to incorporate a little bit more calcium, as I mainly eat vegetables, so vegetarian diet, and slowly incorporating a little bit more protein. But yeah, any advice you would have would be very helpful. Thanks very much. So, I had actually two private clients today that had one kidney. And so because of various reasons, whether it was cancer, whether it was they had too many procedures because of so many kidney stones, or just one kidney stone caused that much damage. Listen, there's a reason I've dedicated my career For over two decades to kidney stone prevention. It's not, you know, I'm not talking about oxalate all day long, I'm not. I'm talking about a lot of other things. I listen to stories that would make your eyeballs fall out of your head. They cause kidney stones cause so much havoc into people's lives. Of course the pain, but the damage they can do to kidneys is unbelievable. So, I take this very seriously when someone calls and says Now, she had it due to kidney cancer, so she's had a nephrectomy, which is the removal of a kidney. She had it in March of 2020. Not a good year for Lynn, okay? So Because Lynn has one kidney, and she has, and I do have a lot of patients that, they call me after they now have one kidney, and that one kidney has stones. They don't want those stones to get bigger, nor do they want to produce more stones, because you can live with one, ### Kidney Stone Diet Goals for One Kidney 00:08:09 Jill Harris Okay? You can't live with none. So, you can live with one kidney, but you can't live with none. So, I take this very seriously. So, what would we say for Lynn? Many of my patients who've had a nephrectomy, who only have one kidney, they're on the Kidney Stone Diet, of course. So, the Kidney Stone Diet, and I always tell patients who have other medical conditions, always check. So, she has one kidney, there's not typically any special restrictions for people with one kidney, except to treat it like A beautiful prize, right? So, you do want to lower your sodium. Now, I don't know Lynn's other medical conditions, so because I don't know that, I will tell her, unless a doctor has told her otherwise, because she has other medical conditions or other things going on, follow the Kidney Stone Diet. What is the Kidney Stone Diet? It is a set of goals. We are not telling you what you can and cannot eat. Yes, we take away spinach and almonds, so what? Overall, though, this is a set of goals, no matter, and Lynn happens to be a vegan, but no matter what lifestyle you practice, it's a set of goals. Make your goals, make your lifestyle fit into our goals. So, that's what's special and unique about the Kidney Stone Diet. Dr. Coe and I called it that just sitting around one day, writing articles on his website. He has an article that he wrote specifically on the science, On the science-backed Kidney Stone Diet, meaning, here's the science. This is why we call it the Kidney Stone Diet. This is why it works. Here's all the research to show you. We didn't just make it up with kicks and giggles. There's a reason that it works. When you lower your sodium to the goals that we have, when you lower your added sugar, when you get enough calcium, when you get enough fluids, when you watch your oxalate, if you need to do that, when you don't overeat meat protein, Standard these goals will help lower your kidney stone risk, and the science is on his website. You can go to kidneystones.uchicago.edu, and I think it's called just google "The Science of the Kidney Stone Diet." He named it something like that. 00:10:35 Jeff Sarris Yeah, it's yeah, it's slash "The Kidney Stone Diet", so I have it on the screen right now. 00:10:39 Jill Harris Okay. What's it called? 00:10:41 Jeff Sarris Yeah, the site the post is just called "The Kidney Stone Diet", so it's just kidneystones.uchicago.edu/the-kidney-stone-diet. 00:10:52 Jill Harris And then there's another article with where he writes "The Science of the Kidney Stone Diet". So, there's a few. There is an article that we both wrote on the Kidney Stone Diet, there's one I just wrote, then there's the science of the Kidney Stone Diet, so there's different things. Is that Is that it, though, Jeff? 00:11:07 Jeff Sarris Yeah, that one goes into yeah, it looks like it goes into the It starts with calcium, dissecting the diet, calcium, sugar, 00:11:17 Jill Harris Yeah. 00:11:18 Jeff Sarris Yeah, and I'll find the other one as well and mention that in a moment. 00:11:21 Jill Harris All right, cool. So, all that's on there, cuz people are like, "You know, what about So, what about this stupid diet?" This is all science-backed. We're not making it up to give you a whole new diet to even think about things. All of this matters. So, because, Lynn, you have one kidney, you want to do your very best to follow the goals of the Kidney Stone Diet and any other goals that the doctors have for you, okay? So, the first thing I would do, if you have not already done it, ### Purpose of a 24-Hour Urine Collection 00:11:47 Jill Harris Is to get a 24-hour urine collection done. You want a You want a You want to know why you're forming stones. Please don't let a doctor say you don't need that. You do! And I know doctors say, "Well, she's just a little nurse. What does she know?"! Well, that's why I always talk about Dr. Coe, so you don't think I'm making this up. He's like the granddaddy of kidney stone prevention. He's a nephrologist from University of Chicago, and I've been very lucky to learn everything I know from him, okay? So, he's done nothing more than 50 years of science in kidney stone diet stuff and kidney stone just everything. So, anyway, so, you need a 24-hour urine collection. You must get that done if you have not, okay? See what your kid See what you are See what your diet, your lifestyle, is doing, so see what kind of changes you need to make, and then get the goals from the Kidney Stone Diet on our website at kidneystonediet.com. Go to the start page, and you'll see the goals in a really sweet infographic, what we want patients to strive for. That does not mean we want you to be perfect, because that's impossible. But these are the things that these goals, the salt goal, the added sugar goal, the fluid goal, these are the things we want you to pay attention to every day, best you can, given the situation you got for that day, right? So Yeah, you've got to take care of that one little kidney. And I'll tell you what, Lynn, many of my nephrectomy patients, people who've only had one kidney, they do great! They do great. Another reason, well, live the rest of their life perfectly fine. And so, the question is, too, you have those three stones, ask the doctor, "Can I leave them in there, Doc? Do you care that they're in there? Are they in a place where you don't care about it?" Cuz if so, I'm good with that. And then, When patients have stones, especially patients who have one kidney and it has stones in it, it will make you even more dedicated, more disciplined, because you have a very big, motivating factor to keep you compliant on most days. You want to get enough fluids, you don't want those stones to get bigger, because if at all possible, if they're in a cool place in your kidney and they're not bothering anything, you could leave the earth with those kidney stones, depending upon what your doctor says, of course, and where they're located, how big they are, and blah, blah, blue. But a urine collection is in order, see what diet changes you need to make. The Kidney Stone Diet is there, right there on my website, and it has all the goals. And if you need more help, you can book a private with me. I never say this, but people who have a nephrectomy, they may need more special help, so you can always You can always book an appointment with me, too. Have all kinds of different services, all different price ranges. 00:14:46 Jeff Sarris Yeah, and also the urine analysis for when you do the urine collection, I think, is a super valuable service. ### Interpreting Lab Results for Prevention 00:14:52 Jill Harris Yeah, 15-minute call, 49 bucks. Can't beat that. And you'll get more out of that 15-minute call for $49 than you've ever gotten in your life with a with a visit for something like that, I promise you will. 00:15:04 Jeff Sarris Yeah. Yeah, and just to describe what you do, you just sort of break down that You break down the urine report itself. 00:15:11 Jill Harris Yep. People get a urine collection, and then I teach them, "Here's your values, here's where we want patients to be, here are the talking points for your doctor, so you can make the best out of that doctor office appointment." I cannot The reason I made this visit, it was two The reason I made this service, it was twofold. Number one, how many patients came to me and said, "I wish I knew all this, Jill, you're telling me, before I had my doctor's office visit last week. Now, how am I going to get ahold of them?" So, I'll say, "Write these things in the portal." But it was a waste of a of a copay. You know, and as a patient myself with my cancer stuff, you're paying each time you're going to those doctor's offices, and you do want the most out of it while you're there, right? You want to have a good conversation. So, me as a patient and my own patients coming to me saying, "Oh, my god, I wish I knew this before I went into the doctor," that's why that service was made. It's 15 minutes. I will go over your lab results, so you can have I'm not giving you a treatment plan. I'm explaining to you where it needs to be, so you can lower your stone risk, and how to talk to your doctor about the values, so you can get on the best treatment plan for you. If you're on a good treatment plan, You're going to lower your stone risk. Of course, you have to comply with it, but listen, just saying the words, "lowering your stone risk," from a patient who's been sick a lot in the last several years, if you can lower a risk for anything, my god, run towards that! I don't care if you're like, "Oh, well, you know, I can't have spinach no more. My life sucks." It doesn't! Being sick sucks. Being sick sucks, people. We've all been there. If you're watching this, you've been sick, and I don't want that for you anymore. So please, get rid of the things that are bothering you, lower your sodium. Once you do things like this, drink more water, follow the Kidney Stone Diet, you're going to feel so much better. You just have to trust me and trust the thousands of patients I've helped, and go look at the praise on my website. It's It's not because of me, it's because people really work hard on changing their habits, incorporating the lifestyle changes, and they get better. So this isn't something You're not doomed, you're not a stone maker for life, you're This isn't something that you can't reverse. Now, there's a very small percentage, you have other medical conditions. I always cover my butt, cuz there'll be somebody in the comments, "I got this and I put." Well, there's always people like that, okay? And that's That's very valid. But for the majority of you, you can really lower your stone risk. The majority of you don't ever have to make a stone again. This is why we do this. This is why we're so passionate about it. So don't let anybody tell you're a stone maker. This is doable, but you've got to do the work, okay? Don't let the diet industry say, "Oh, you read this page, and you're going to know it all." You ain't going to know nothing until you get educated and until you practice it. And guess what? You practice it for the rest of your life, just like yoga, just like anything. You're never going to be perfect, you practice it always, you're always trying to be better, okay? That's what makes it fun! I look at it that way. This is about this It's boring when you know what to do all the time. It's fun when you get to learn. I've been learning about diet for 22 years, longer than that. Exercise, I'm always learning new things as a personal trainer. Love it! Always! I don't know I don't know everything, and you don't either. So take joy in the fact that you're well enough that you get to move your body, you get to educate yourself, you do get to do all these things that make you Better and keep health keep bad health at bay. That's what this podcast is about. Right, Jeff? 00:18:58 Jeff Sarris Yeah, absolutely, and that's why there's so many free resources, too, to get you started. But then the premium ones are to like help you further if you run into any roadblocks or anything, and you have direct access to Jill through the course and the group setting through the consultations, like you mentioned, and one-on-one. We also have the Kidney Stone Diet meal plans, and the meal plans are something to help showcase how much you're able to actually eat, because that is always the big question, is, "Oh, we take away all these things, what's left?" So, right, the meal plans are inspiration, and I'm going to throw it up on the screen right now, so you can get an idea of what it looks like, but with meal plans, ### Meal Plans and Healthy Recipe Variety 00:19:37 Jeff Sarris Every day you have your breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner that Jill has created the recipes, shot the photos, amazing photos, by the way. Like, I really love what you Like, every photo you send, 00:19:47 Jill Harris Don't call me Annie Leibovitz! 00:19:49 Jeff Sarris Yeah, it's so good! But yeah, it's really to showcase the real diversity that you can have in a weekly meal. Or weekly set of meals. 00:20:01 Jill Harris Listen, this is food I eat. People are always like, "What do you eat, Jill?" Here, this is what I eat! And guess what? It's freaking delicious! I'm not eating lettuce all day long. As a matter of fact, I rarely eat salads. There are salads in there, but I'm I'm, you know, I like a variety of food, people. Fruits, vegetables, meats. Some days I'm vegan, sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I'm vegetarian, sometimes I'm not. I do not discriminate against food. So there's something for everybody in that meal plan, too, but it's fun to try to What's fun about cooking, and none of those recipes are laborious. I have no time, just like nobody else has any time. So they're less than 30 minutes, some of them are for breakfast could be 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, lots of them are way less than 30. But the point is this: I always like to push myself and say, "How can I make this feel I like sitting down and eating, and I feel a little bit like a queen for the day, using fresh herbs since I'm on a low salt diet, trying to make things pretty on my plate." So it's all very attractive to me, it makes me Want to eat, it makes me happy. When I'm looking at my plate, I'm not sad about my lifestyle. I'm thrilled about how I get to eat healthy foods in normal portions, and that it fuels my body. What do you think, I make up this energy? You can't make this up! I sleep well, I eat well, I move my body because it brings me joy. If I didn't like it, I could not do this. I could not do this, I could not bring this to you, I could not be passionate. I want to change the way you think about a healthy lifestyle instead of, "Oh, man. 00:21:36 [21:36] S2: Healthy lifestyle." That, you know, that doesn't sound sexy, but I'm telling you, you feel so good when you nourish and move your body how it should be that there's nothing sexier than feeling good, people, and that's what you want to do: feel good. [21:52] S1: Yeah, it makes all the difference. [21:53] S2: I got to get my fan out. I'm putting myself in crazy land, I'm getting so happy. ### Free Kidney Stone Resources and Community 00:21:59 [21:59] S1: No, but I think that was great. And so if you have a question and you want it answered on the show, the number again is 773-789-8763. And Jill will answer in a future episode, because, again, this is always free. This show is meant to be one more resource for you that does not require a purchase. I mean, we're here every week, a new episode every week. We have a back catalog now of 50 plus episodes, so lots and lots of content out here to help you along on your journey. [22:28] S1: But if you do want to dive deeper, kidneystonediet.com, along with the free stuff there, the weekly email and whatnot, there's also the course, there's the meal plans that we mentioned, and just there's so much out there that we really hope that you find the thing that helps you along this journey. [22:46] S2: Yes. That's what we want. And subscribe to the channel! People are always like, "What can I do for you, Jill? You're so blah, blah, blah." Subscribe to my YouTube channel, subscribe to Jeff's YouTube channel! Subscribe to our channel, please. It helps people find us. More people that find us, then we can get the word out. Also, talk to each other in the comments, please. Give some tips, talk about what we just talked about here you know, about the Kidney Stone Diet, whatever you want to talk about, and give us a call if you want to leave a question like Jeff just said. We'd love hearing from you guys. We really want to create a community. [23:20] S1: Yeah. [23:21] S2: That's what we want. [23:22] S1: So, that's it for this week. We will see you next time. [23:25] S2: Thanks, Jeff! Thanks, Lynn, take care now. Get a urine collection.