# Most common ages for kidney stones Source: https://kidneystonediet.com/ep/most-common-ages-for-kidney-stones/ Published: 2022-07-05 --- [![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=6iUMUx77NE0)[Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/most-common-ages-for-kidney-stones/id1528474326?i=1000568889882&uo=4)[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ueT3CvaiuUW5LsV7VLKy9)[Amazon Music](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/0868148d-adfd-411d-b3f2-71a0ad1461ec) July 5, 2022 --- ![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 age in relation to kidney stones. 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, host of the [Starting Now podcast](https://spyr.fm/now), and developing NFTs and community with an artist named [Badfroot](https://badfroot.com/). Reach out on Twitter! [@jeffSARRIS](https://twitter.com/jeffSARRIS) ## Chapters - 00:00:00 Discussion on Middle Names and Podcast Topics - 00:01:48 Listener Question on Age and Kidney Stone Risk - 00:05:35 Social Media Demographics and Kidney Stone Patients - 00:07:40 Age Related Health Factors and Stone Formation - 00:11:19 Development Timeline of Undetected Kidney Stones - 00:13:51 Weight Management and the Kidney Stone Diet - 00:17:20 Building Healthy Lifestyle Habits for Prevention ## Transcript ### Discussion on Middle Names and Podcast Topics 00:00:00 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. 00:00:21 Jill Harris And I'm Jill Harris. I am Jill Harris and I have no middle name, your kidney stone prevention nurse. So, Jill Blank Harris. 00:00:30 Jeff Sarris You really have no middle name? 00:00:32 Jill Harris No. Next question. I don't know, my guess, you just my mom was just not that creative. 00:00:40 Jeff Sarris And I'd just like, no! 00:00:43 Jill Harris No. People are always like, "What is it, Gertrude or something?" Not that there's anything wrong with the name Gertrude, but I no, I don't have a middle name. None. Ni- None of us do. Jill, Steven, Kim. Harris, blank, that's it. 00:00:56 Jeff Sarris Yeah. Yeah, that works. I mean, because when do we even- I never use my middle name for anything. It's Michael, but it never comes up. There'd be no reason for it to. It is funny. I wonder, sort of, historically where that came from, why we would have middle names. 00:01:07 Jill Harris I don't know, but I think we should do a show on it. 00:01:10 Jeff Sarris Yeah, full episode about middle names. 00:01:12 Jill Harris All the audience is like, yeah. Go ahead, what were you going to say? 00:01:15 Jeff Sarris Middle names and kidney stones, are they related? 00:01:18 Jill Harris Oh, my god! I- just like, people are like, "Okay, we put up with the Joy video, but that's some shit, Jill, we're not doing. We're not doing that. We're not putting up with that. Unsubscribe!" 00:01:29 Jeff Sarris Yeah, we may So, we may have to save that for April 1st next year. Just anyone listening now, just forget. Forget when it comes around next year. 00:01:39 Jill Harris Oh, that's funny. Yeah. 00:01:40 Jeff Sarris Anyway, we have another listener question, so what do you say we just fire that up right now? 00:01:46 Jill Harris Let's rock and roll, my love. ### Listener Question on Age and Kidney Stone Risk 00:01:48 Jill Harris Hey Jeff and Jill, this is Pam from the Facebook group. And I just want to say before I ask my question, I admit I was one of those people when you first started making these that I thought you were closely related because of the similarity in your names. And it took several times and me actually looking at the labels under your pictures to realize that was not the case. And I felt pretty silly about it. But it's quite apparent now that's actually common because you guys mention that a lot. But anyway, to the point. My question was this. I'm 53 years old and I noticed in the Facebook group that a lot of the people there are older like me. Maybe not as old of me- as me, but in I'd say just an educated guess, 40 plus seems to be like a more common age for people that are in there talking about having stones. And there are young people here and there. And there are people that have MSK that have had it all their life. But I'm talking just in general. And you often see people say, "You know, I'm this many years old and I never had a stone until now." And I'm wondering, obviously, a lot of that, it could just be coincidence. It could just be that us older folks are more confident about posting, so maybe we're more heavily represented by the people that are actually posting. But I'm just curious if there is any research or data that shows that people are more prone to getting them as they get older. And if so, is there a explanation for that? Like is there something about the functioning of the kidneys that changes as people near, you know, the last half of their life that makes it harder for them to filter those things out and causes the stones to form? I'm just curious about that. Because I do notice that a lot, that there's a disproportionate number of people posting in the group that are older, I would say, above 40, even above 50 or so. So, just curious if you know anything about that. And that's it. I hope you guys have a great day and I'll talk to you soon. Bye. 00:04:02 Jeff Sarris That's a great question. But, yeah, we love hearing from Pam. 00:04:09 Jill Harris Yes, Pam's one of our all-time superstars. So, so yes, our names, yes, we talk about it because we're just always flabbergasted by it, too. It's so similar and everyone always thinks I'm his mother, which I could be, or I guess that's the only Maybe his great aunt. But no, Jeff and I are not related. But yeah, I know, at first glance, you just assume. It's so crazy, right? 00:04:32 Jeff Sarris Yeah, four letters, starts with a J, last name almost identical except S versus H and yeah. 00:04:39 Jill Harris Yeah, I love it. We just- we pronounce it a little differently because you have your East Coast, I have my Midwest, so. Exactly, I'm Ha- and you're Sa-. When I'm writing you things on envelopes, I'm always laughing. It's so funny. All right, so Pam. So, here's here's just This is the kind of stuff Jeff and I love talking about, too. So, So, her question is about kidney stones, of course. Don't worry, I'm not going too far from her question. But she's saying, you know, what is it? Why Is it because older So why is it? So, Pam is a superstar on the Facebook group in the Kidney Stone Prevention Diet Facebook group. Excuse me, and so she's like, "I notice in that group, we're all older. What's up with that? Once in a while we'll get a young'un, but what is up with that?" Well, here's the deal. ### Social Media Demographics and Kidney Stone Patients 00:05:35 Jill Harris First of all, we old people are still on Facebook. Young people ain't! They're not My son when he sees me on Facebook because I'm doing my page, he's like, "That's for old people." I said, "You know what? You can just make your own dinner tonight, young'un, okay?" Well, Facebook is for old people. We Young people don't go on Facebook. So, of course, you're going to see we elders there, okay? But the question is, Oh, and before I take off, I have had a lot of people say, "Jill, what the heck are you doing on TikTok? You shouldn't be there." Oh, yes, I should! Because the young people that get kidney stones find me there. And that's why I'm on TikTok. So, yes, the average age starts, it's about 30, okay? So, again, most 30-year-olds are not on Facebook. That's why I'm on Instagram. That's why I'm on TikTok, because the younger people need to see education, too, and credible information. So, that's why I'm there, because I have had a lot of slack behind the scenes by people saying, "You shouldn't be doing TikTok." Okay, well, you don't know why I'm doing TikTok, so please don't say that. I'm doing it for a reason. There are young I've had babies with kidney stones sent to me from Mayo Clinic and other places. So, and you know, now you have a baby with kidney stones for different reasons. It is rare, but I'm I'm saying, so anybody can get a kidney stone. There's quite a few 20-year-olds that call me and say, "I need help." And they found me on TikTok or Instagram. So, it starts to It can It's more popular starting around 30 and above, okay? Is there a reason? Well, there's certain reasons. I There's certain things like, as we get older, we have more diseases from years and years of bad habits, or good habits we've taken to a whole 'nother level. ### Age Related Health Factors and Stone Formation 00:07:40 Jill Harris Did somebody suffer with obesity their whole life, and then get a gastric bypass in their 30s and 40s, and then 10 years or 5 years later start making stones from there? Did a patient in their 30s or 40s start getting chronic kidney disease, and their kidney has less function and now they're forming stones? Is a patient who's in their 50s, 60s, and 70s now presenting with cardiovascular disease, and that is a reason they're getting kidney stones? Did I say diabetes? Diabetes, same thing, going to worsen kidney function problems. So much of those things I just talked about has to do with diet! Years and Look, we don't get we're We don't become obese in a month. Years and years of bad habits: not drinking enough, eating too much sodium, too much added sugar—these are all goals of the Kidney Stone Diet— being on keto for a while, being on paleo where you're overeating meat protein. Does this mean I hate paleo and keto? No. If you do it sensibly, so you don't increase your stone risk, God bless, go forth. I don't care. Do what makes you happy. But these are the not getting enough calcium. Nobody does! And that's going to increase urine oxalate, overeating the spinach and oxalate spinach and almonds, almond flour, almond milk. So, these things take time. As we get older, now, some of this stuff I'm just saying common sense-wise. I'm not saying there's research done on this. As we get older, we lose our sense of thirst! We stop drinking. I all the time, my 70-year-olds, 60-year-olds, my age, "I'm not thirsty." Well, that doesn't mean I don't care. What do What do you think, I'm a camel? Drink thirsty all the time? I'm drinking because I want to be hydrated. As we age, we lose our sense of thirst. Then there's then there's calcium phosphate stone formers. They're interesting. There's some people who have higher pHs. And Dr. Coe, C-O-E, Fred Coe, who's my mentor, he has a great article, both of us wrote on his website at kidneystonediet.uchicago.edu, and or just Google, Kidney Stones Middle-Aged and Kidney Stones: Why Now? So, basically, the article says, " we really don't know." There's certain things like as we get older, our pH goes up, which can increase your calcium phosphate stone risk. There's and that typically happens in women, although it can men. So, I think there's a multitude of reasons, but I want everyone to know, so the so the average age is 30 plus and it does seem to be 40s and 50-year-olds, 60-year-olds get them a more than young people, for sure. But young people do get them. You're just not seeing them on Facebook. So, again, that's why that's why I am on Instagram and TikTok, because that's where the younger audience can find somebody who's trying to educate people on stone disease. And YouTube, quite frankly. The younger kids like YouTube, as well. So, so it's a great question. I think there's many different reasons, but I think mostly, it's accumulation of bad habits over the years that just leads to these stones. ### Development Timeline of Undetected Kidney Stones 00:11:19 Jill Harris Also, y'all could have had these stones for a really long time, but they never presented. They didn't move, they didn't cause any problem. How many times a week I hear, "I found them on a scan. I didn't even know I had them." Happens all the time. So, they don't come overnight. And this is why I always say, too, people will call me in their or they'll write me at jill@kidneystonediet.com, "Jill, oh, my god, I'm going away for a week! What am I going to do? How am I going to-" You're not going to form a stone in a week! You're not going to gain weight in a week. Real fat. Water weight, that'll go away, a couple pounds, no one cares. It takes time. It takes time. It takes time to get a disease. It doesn't happen overnight, and that's why the changes that need to happen also don't happen overnight, okay? So, that's really important to know. And because a lot of people come to me and they're super anxious, "Oh, my god, I don't want to form a stone. I went out to eat last week." And why I say that is not to make fun of that patient, because I hear that a lot, too, it's to show you how anxious people are from the experiences they've gone through with kidney stones, and why I have dedicated my career to this. When you hear these stories every day, and the anxiety and the frustration and the sickness that people have gone through from these little critters, well, you would be as passionate as I am in teaching it. And so, and this is why people really do seek the right information out, because they do never want to go through this again. Also, for those of you who are trying to lose weight, so many of my patients come to me for weight loss. And what I do, because obesity is a precursor for kidney stone disease and everything else, not always, but a lot of the time, the Kidney Stone Diet will decrease You'll lose weight doing the Kidney Stone Diet, not because it's magical, folks, but because you're eating better. You're eating within portion size. You're eating less sugar and salt, so you're going to be eating healthier foods, because the salt goal at 1500 and the added sugar goal, 25 grams for women, 38 grams for men, you get there real fast. One can of Coke is that's going to be it for a man for his added sugar allotment. ### Weight Management and the Kidney Stone Diet 00:13:51 Jill Harris So, it's a healthy diet. And I bring up the weight because it takes years to gain weight, but a lot of a lot of people are overweight and have kidney stones. It's not just because they're overweight, although there is research bringing the two together. Is it the weight itself, or is it the dietary habits, right? So, leading to the kidney stone risk increasing. So, great question. Typically, the medium, you know, 30 and above get kidney stones. You will see them on the Facebook page, it seems like Pam, our age, you know, 50s and up, but that's who's on Facebook, too. So, you know, young people do get kidney stones. And if One more thing. If you have kidney stones and you have children and you have high urine calcium, you want to be teaching your children as best as you can, folks. I know it's not easy with kids. But to eat a healthier diet because there's definitely a genetic component here, and you want to make sure that your children don't get these things. So, that's really important, too. Try to show them by role modeling, following the diet, drinking your fluids, being Like, Pam is very active. She I know Pam, so I know her family eats the Kidney Stone Diet, you know, she is a good role model for her family. So, the more I don't really have to say too much to my kid, because he hears me all the time talking about diet and he watches me. He goes to the gym with me. You know, he's watched me his whole life. So, he sees it just from what I'm doing. What we do, you'd be surprised what kids follow. You know, they may not say nothing, they're not going to say, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, I want to be just like you." But you'd be surprised what they pick up and take as their adult with their adult life. You'd be surprised, so continue being a good role model like Pam is for her family. And you'll really be surprised. So, that was a potpourri. That was a potpourri of things that, of course, I went off on, but look, there's so much always to talk about with kidney stone disease. It's so easy for me to go off on things because I always want to give so much information, right? That's that's what we're here for, to give all the information we possibly can. 00:16:02 Jeff Sarris Absolutely. And you make a great point just with the cross-section of all the different platforms, because that's what we're That's why we started this show, why we're on YouTube, why it's an audio-only podcast, as well, and everything we do is to try to get the actual, real, correct information from an experienced professional out to as many different people as possible. And, like, just sort of on that note, if you're watching on YouTube, we would love it if you comment below and maybe even maybe even say just what platforms you find to be the ones you go to most, the ones where you find the most information, because we do, the Facebook community is an amazing, thriving community and that's the that's the big one. It's really engaged and interacting all the time. But I think it would be really fascinating to learn who else found the YouTube channel, and maybe if they spend most of their time on YouTube, maybe they're on TikTok more, maybe you drew them in through your TikTok videos, or through Instagram, or the email, whatever. There's a million different places people could come from, so it'd be very interesting to find out. And also, if you're on YouTube and you haven't subscribed yet, hit subscribe, hit that little bell to be notified, because all those little bits help, because, again, like we just want to reach as many people as possible. ### Building Healthy Lifestyle Habits for Prevention 00:17:20 Jill Harris Here's the other thing, too. Because Pam brings up a great question, let's see. Please write in the comments how old you were when you found out you had your first kidney stone. So, we can get that conversation going, as well. And we can see what the average age is. It probably will be older because it is, like I said, an accumulation of disease states and dietary and health habits and everything, and finally We all know as we get older, the shit hits the fan, people! That's why I'm saying, do this now. If you're watching and you are younger, it's so much easier to change It's still hard, but it's easier to change your habits because you have had less time to build them. By the time you get to our old age, you're like, "Holy Toledo! I got to change all this? I've been doing this for 60 years. I got to change now?" It's harder. It's harder. It's still very doable. If you're motivated, you can do it. But, you know, do it now because as you Nobody wants to live a long life if you're living not feeling well. That is not That's That's not enjoyable. So, the reason we're so passionate on this channel is not just about kidney stones. It is exactly what the tagline says, it's about living your best life, and we can only live our best life when we feel well, and we feel healthy. Look, I was just in the hospital two weeks ago, so I am just getting my energy back now. I like being energetic. That's how I roll. So, for me to feel, you know, I'm deficient in iron and feeling tired and all, it's terrible. And because I have been so sick in my life, whenever I'm feeling like, "Eh, I don't know about the gym today," I look back, takes me two seconds, I'm like, "Remember you in that bed for two years?" Yes, I do! And I run to the gym, because I want to feel well as long as I can. And I really want that for the audience, too. I really want that for you guys. So, do your very best. I ain't asking nobody. Jeff is not asking anyone to be perfect. We're asking you to be mindful about how you're living your life, whether it's food, whether it's hobbies, whether it's passions, whether it's relationships, all of it. How are you living your life? How are you showing up? Get yourself some goodness, and it starts with this here, and then how you feed this here. Then you're off to the best start ever. All right, I'm done. I exhausted myself! I tired myself out! 00:19:48 Jeff Sarris No, but that is a perfect note to close on. And, like, thanks again for the question, Pam. And anyone else who has a question, the number's 773-789-8763 and we will feature you on a future episode. But, yeah, I don't think there's any more words that need to be said. I think that was a perfect closing note, so thank you again for listening and we will see you next week. 00:20:09 Jill Harris Thanks, everybody, for being here. Bye, Pam, thank you!