# What deficiency causes kidney stones? Source: https://kidneystonediet.com/ep/what-deficiency-causes-kidney-stones/ Published: 2024-10-08 --- [![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=TSlo8SExtO8)[Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-deficiency-causes-kidney-stones/id1528474326?i=1000672229942&uo=4)[Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3n5TbPmC3FRFnvoGXG750d)[Amazon Music](https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/0868148d-adfd-411d-b3f2-71a0ad1461ec) October 8, 2024 --- ![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 In this episode of the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, Jill Harris discusses the importance of understanding nutritional deficiencies and their impact on preventing kidney stones. She explores how deficiencies in hydration, calcium, and other nutrients can increase the risk of kidney stones, particularly in individuals with malabsorption issues or those who have undergone bariatric surgery. She emphasizes a balanced diet and gives practical strategies to reduce kidney stone risk, while also encouraging listeners to maintain hope and consistency in their diet. **Takeaways** - Nutritional deficiencies can significantly increase the risk of kidney stones. - Hydration is crucial; insufficient water intake leads to concentrated urine and stone formation. - Calcium deficiency can lead to higher oxalate levels, increasing stone risk. - Malabsorption issues, such as those from bariatric surgery, can complicate nutrient absorption. - Citrate plays a protective role against kidney stones by surrounding calcium in urine. - Eating less processed food can help reduce nutritional deficiencies. - Consistency in dietary practices is more important than perfection. - Bariatric patients often require higher calcium supplementation due to malabsorption. - There is always hope for kidney stone formers; lifestyle changes can lead to improvement. \ 00:00 Introduction\ 02:09 Exploring the Deficiency that Causes Kidney Stones\ 05:31 The Impact of Malabsorption on Stone Formation\ 06:00 Different Types of Deficiencies and Their Effects\ 07:24 Addressing Deficiencies through Diet and Medical Interventions\ 08:20 Consistency and Enjoyment in Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle\ 09:45 The Link Between Deficiency and Kidney Stone Risk\ 10:49 Resources for Kidney Stone Prevention\ 11:16 Encouragement and Hope for Kidney Stone Formers\ 11:43 Conclusion and Call to Action **HAVE A QUESTION? _**\ Leave us a voicemail at (773) 789-8764. ***NEW NUMBER!*** \ **KIDNEY STONE DIET® APPROVED PRODUCTS** - [Protein Powders, Snacks, and more](https://kidneystonediet.com/favorite-things/) **WORK WITH JILL _** - [Kidney Stone Diet®](https://kidneystonediet.com/) - [Kidney Stone Prevention Course](https://kidneystonediet.com/kidney-stone-prevention) - [Kidney Stone Diet® Meal Plans](https://kidneystonediet.com/mealplans/) \ **SUPPORT THE SHOW _** - [Join the Patreon](https://patreon.com/kidneystonediet) - Rate Kidney Stone Diet on [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kidney-stone-diet/id1528474326) or [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/5O9BXOJUFnnT6JSgfxramx?si=T6lIOozgTUO8K6MobpVWsQ) \ **WHO IS JILL HARRIS? _**\ For over 25 years, Jill Harris has been a kidney stone prevention nurse helping patients reduce their kidney stone risk. Drawing from her work with world-renowned University of Chicago nephrologist, Dr. Fred Coe, and the thousands of patients she’s worked with directly, she created the [Kidney Stone Diet®](https://kidneystonediet.com/). With a simple, self-guided online video course, meal plans, ebooks, and group coaching, Kidney Stone Diet® is Jill’s effort to help as many patients as possible stop making kidney stones for good. ## Chapters - 00:00:00 Sleep Schedules and Podcast Recording Routines - 00:02:09 Hydration and Calcium Deficiencies in Stone Risk - 00:04:18 Citrate Deficiency and Malabsorption in Bowel Diseases - 00:07:18 Addressing Nutritional Deficiencies and Maintaining Consistency ## Transcript ### Sleep Schedules and Podcast Recording Routines 00:00:00 Jeff Sarris What deficiency causes kidney stones? Let's talk about that. Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet Podcast. I'm stumbling over my words. What am I doing? It's all about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life. I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris. 00:00:23 Jill Harris And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. You know, it's late. We're taping at night, so You know, it's not late for you because you get up late, but it's late for this one. 00:00:32 Jeff Sarris You would You would be shocked with how much we have to travel now for everything. I am up so early. My 00:00:39 Jill Harris What, 10:00? 00:00:41 Jeff Sarris I was up today at 7:00. 00:00:43 Jill Harris Wow! 00:00:44 Jeff Sarris That is crazy. For anyone who doesn't know me personally, like that is so out of character, but like my circadian rhythm is now sort of right in line with sunrise, sunset, and everything, like it should be. Like it's it's better for us all around. But sort of traditionally I have always been just a very late to bed, late to rise kind of person. 00:01:06 Jill Harris Yeah, people have their things like, you know, Jeff will be asking me a question in email at midnight, meanwhile I've been in bed for a while, and then I'm I'm leaving him a text at like, you know, 6:30 in the morning. So, we're very much on different schedules. But you know, you got to do what makes you happy overall, right? 00:01:24 Jeff Sarris Absolutely. 00:01:25 Jill Harris There's a lot of night owls out there. I used to be when I was younger. What are we doing? And I'll tell you guys we do Jeff's like he looks at Google questions and he's like, "What about this? Deficiency and blah." I'm like, "All right, let's try it." All right, so these are on the fly, people. It keeps me entertained just to see if I can do it, quite frankly. Of course at the cost of the audience, but you know, let's try it. 00:01:48 Jeff Sarris No, and that's the whole thing is we're trying to reach as many people as we can. So, we're doing all the research we can to find the different ways people ask the questions, cuz we want to get the actual scientifically valid answers to the masses. We're doing our best every week here to try to do that. 00:02:03 Jill Harris Yeah. So, the specific question is what? 00:02:05 Jeff Sarris So, what deficiency causes kidney stones? ### Hydration and Calcium Deficiencies in Stone Risk 00:02:09 Jill Harris Okay. So, you know, it's interesting, right? There's many ways, so it's a very general it's a very general question because you can have deficiencies medically, nutritionately, and then there's being deficient in not meeting the kidney stone diet goals. So, if you're deficient in calcium, if you're deficient in not getting enough water, so if you looked at it that way that way, that's going to increase your risk for kidney stones, right? Cuz if you're not drinking enough water, you're definitely going to be deficient in hydration. Your urine will be saturated with crystals, and then you can form kidney stones from that. If you're not getting enough calcium, you're deficient, your body's deficient in getting enough calcium, then oxalate can not be released in the stool, and you can have higher oxalate levels because of that. So, that's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is say you have had a bariatric surgery. There will be nutritional deficiencies. You won't absorb calcium well. A lot of bariatric patients are on pretty high supplements of calcium, and they have to be because their body's just not absorbing it. When you've had a bariatric surgery, you know, your stomach is like the side of an egg. It depends on what kind of bariatric. This is a weight loss surgery. There are a few different ones, but typically these patients will have malabsorption issues. Meaning they eat stuff, but they may have a lot of diarrhea, they may not be absorbing nutrients, they may have dumping syndrome from too much sugar. There's all kinds of things. It's complicated, and that's not what we're here to discuss, bariatric surgery, but these patients can have malabsorption issues, which can lead to deficiencies, nutritional deficiencies. ### Citrate Deficiency and Malabsorption in Bowel Diseases Also, For people with malabsorption issues, if you look at their urine collection, there are other things that are going on. They could be deficient in citrate. That's something that we care about in kidney stone prevention. That's a molecule in our body that basically citrate surrounds calcium in the urine and protects calcium so other crystal forming agents cannot connect to her, like phosphate, like oxalate. So, people who have malabsorption issues, their citrate will be low, therefore, their shield is low from protecting calcium from these other crystals trying to get her, okay? So, when we have a lot of calcium in our urine because it's not being absorbed for many different reasons, phosphate and oxalate will look for calcium, and if there's not enough citrate surrounding her, I always say calcium's a girl, I don't know why, Then they can join and form a stone. Also, if you have malabsorption issues, you are not peeing as much in a lot of cases. The fluids are going out through the back end instead. People who have Crohn's, people who have colitis, these bowel disease patients will have malabsorption issues, the same, little bit different, but a lot the same, lower citrate, lower urine pH, they'll be deficient in that. Their urine pH will be much more acidic, all things that can increase stone risk. So, you know, it's complicated, this stuff. So, deficiency can mean many different things. If I were If a patient was asking me that, I would say, "What are you specifically thinking about? Is it Is it, you know, you're deficient in not getting enough calcium? Are you deficient because you have malabsorption issues? Are you deficient because you have medical issues going on? Are you on chemo? Are you going through cancer treatment?" There's so many reasons why we could be deficient. Are you deficient because you're eating Twinkies and drinking Coca-Cola all day long? You're going to be deficient in a lot of things, right? Mainly, nutrition. So, can deficiency equal higher kidney stone risk? I'm going to slap a big Y-E-S on that. Yes, it can. In all of those different buckets, it can increase your kidney stone risk. So, how do you get more how do you how do you get less deficient? Well, you eat healthier. Number one, if you're somebody who's eating a lot of processed food, you eat less processed food, and then you get your nutrients back and you will be less deficient that way. ### Addressing Nutritional Deficiencies and Maintaining Consistency 00:07:18 Jill Harris If you have something like Crohn's or colitis, or severe IBD, if you have bariatric surgeries or any abdominal surgery that will lead to malabsorption issues, that is when you may need medications. You need to talk to your doctor or your dietitian, and you need to come up with a plan on how to actually combat what's going on so you can decrease your kidney stone risk and start absorbing what you can better. This is a real problem for people with bowel issues and abdominal issues. They're not getting enough nutrients due to their medical condition. And then, for those of you who are deficient in meeting the kidney stone diet goals, do better, practice more. I'm not looking for perfection. If you all know me, you know I do not care about being perfect. That bores the hell out of me, but I want you to be in the game. I don't want you to give up. You didn't get your calcium needs met this week because you were on vacation, so what? When you get home, get right back on track. Ate too much salt cuz you were celebrating a lot of graduations or whatever over the weekend, no one cares, too bad, so sad, get right back on track when you can. That's how we do it here. That's how we do it here, okay? Every day, there was a quote I read and I'm going to probably screw it up. I forget what it is. I might even bring it up, but rent is due every day, something like that. Have you ever heard this? 00:08:33 Jeff Sarris I don't know offhand. 00:08:35 Jill Harris And the point is, it's a good one, too. I'm really mad. I don't know where I heard it. But what we do here is we just 00:08:44 Jeff Sarris I have it here. "Success is never owned, it's rented, and the rent is due every day." 00:08:50 Jill Harris Yes, that's right. It's due every day. So, what that means is success, consistency equals success, not perfection. Not perfection, folks, stop it with that. Cuz what happens is, you know, we have a chocolate chip cookie, we're like, "Oh, my god, I can't do nothing. I'm terrible." We beat ourselves up, and then we just stop. We quit. All I'm asking you to do is please don't quit. You can have whatever you want. Get right back on track. Have your treat, get back on the street. That's what we do here. We don't talk about perfection. Life is too long to try to be perfect, folks. You got to live your life. You also have to enjoy your food. So, enjoy your treat, get back on the street. That's the latest thing I've been saying, always trying to think of new ones. But deficiency of any sort, yes, they can absolutely Absolutely lead to kidney stones if you're prone to them. But bariatric patients and bowel disease patients is very prevalent in that community because of the deficiencies they're suffering from, they have a higher kidney stone risk. And so, you know, it's a real thing. It's a great question. I'm glad we I'm glad you looked at Google and somebody was asking that cuz it's a good one. 00:10:04 Jeff Sarris Yeah, and if you don't know the Kidney Stone Diet goals inside and out, you can just go right to kidneystonediet.com and you can get an overview of all the goals right on the homepage or if you want to dive deep, we have the Kidney Stone Prevention course, meal plans, everything else. You can find all of that at kidneystonediet.com. 00:10:21 Jill Harris Also, if you want to know if you have a deficiency, guys, you've got to get your 24-hour urine collections done. Have a consult with me. I'll prep you real well for that doctor office visit, and then you can get that stuff fixed and stop making stones. You absolutely can. Now, I will say this, people with malabsorption issues, we can't guarantee that they won't continue making stones, but I sure the hell have helped people lower their risk and make a lot less. So, let's put it that way. 00:10:49 Jeff Sarris Yeah, for sure. 00:10:50 Jill Harris There's always hope. There's I'm sorry, Jeff, but there is. With kidney stone formers, I'm so passionate about them because they're the underdogs. They're walking around being told that they're just stone formers for the rest of their life. That's absolutely bull-doh, people. There is always hope. I 26 years! I see it every day what people do. You can, too. All right, I'm done, Jeff, go ahead. 00:11:13 Jeff Sarris Yeah. No, that's perfect because, yeah, you know where that line is. No one is just a stone former. There are always things that can be done and that's why we even titled this "and live a better life," because that's what we're out to do is help you live a better life. 00:11:26 Jill Harris Yes. 00:11:27 Jeff Sarris But with that, I think we'll wrap. And if you have a question, the number is 773-789-8764. We'd love to hear from you. Leave a voicemail or send a voice memo to podcast@kidneystonediet.com and we will see you next time. 00:11:42 Jill Harris Have a great day, guys!