In this episode, Jill dives into whether or not basil tea can prevent kidney stones.
Takeaways
- There is no scientific evidence to support the claim that basil tea can prevent or break up kidney stones.
- It’s important to focus on evidence-based strategies, such as following the kidney stone diet, to prevent kidney stones.
- Don’t overdo any remedy or food that is believed to promote health, as excessive consumption may have negative effects.
Jeff Sarris
We have another fact or fiction. Today it’s: basil tea will prevent kidney stones?
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
Jill Harris
And I’m Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. It is not even, I don’t think it’s even 30 today, it’s in March. You know? I’m not.
Jeff Sarris
Yeah, this is not fun. I am ready for spring, ready for summer, ready for all the warmth as soon as possible.
Jill Harris
And you know where I live, I live in Boys Town, right? So I can’t tell you, so it’s March 18th. Man, I saw a lot of drunk leprechauns walking around my neighborhood this weekend. I mean, it was crazy. Chicago loves it’s St. Patty’s Day, loves it. Crazy. Now, that’s amateur night as far as I’m concerned. But see, I’m right here on the first floor, so I watch all the passerby.
It was hilarious because in the morning, eight o ‘clock in the morning, because we died the river green. So they did that at 10 and you know, it’s packed down there downtown Chicago. So I saw young folks all with their shamrock little dilly boppers on their head wearing green, drinking Guinness at 7am, getting to the train. Then I saw those same people like at 1 .15 in the middle of the day coming home.
like this if you’re on YouTube they don’t look so fresh no more coming off the train so I was just dying it’s one of those it’s one of those kind of days where you party early you get home and you call your friend like at 2 30 in the afternoon and you’re like you up just because people probably were drunk by 10 passed out you know what I mean it’s just like it’s the whole day drinking thing so happy here’s the best thing about getting older so happy
so happy I don’t feel obligated to do those kinds of things anymore because I watch these kids go by and I’m like, oh, have fun, honey. And at the same time, I’m like, oh, hell no. Don’t envy any of them because I know what’s about to happen, right? They’re going to have fun and then they’re going to be like, just a mess. But then the next day, so that was Saturday, Sunday on St. Louis the 17th, you know, people went out Saturday, so the river died and…
They were out just as much on Sunday the 17th too. So Chicago likes their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations for sure. So much fun watching them. So much fun watching them. From a far. I don’t wanna be, yeah.
Jeff Sarris (02:46)
and and like you know we were. Yeah from afar and yeah we were just in Pennsylvania and we were in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and we were just around the corner from a pub and apparently when we were leaving it was Saturday they were doing a best legs kilt competition so there were a bunch of guys all decked out like ready for Saint Patty’s Day and their kilts and just all the attires so.
Jill Harris
Oh, uh -huh.
Jeff Sarris
We definitely missed out on that, but yeah, it’s just it’s I don’t know one of those fun little novel things, but to see it from a distance like St. Patrick’s Day to watch it from a distance is definitely enough for me, but it’s yeah.
Jill Harris
Yeah, me too. Yeah, those days are long over for me. But I love, I love people having fun. I like watching them. I said, good time, have a good time. You know, all of it. I just, you know, I don’t want to be part of it. It is like New Year’s Eve though here. Chicago takes that little celebration very seriously. And where I live, you know, everyone likes to party. So it’s something, it’s something. All right, what are we doing?
Fact or Fiction: Basil Tea and Kidney Stones
Jeff Sarris
So this week it’s Fact or Fiction: Will basil tea prevent kidney stones?
Jill Harris
Again, I’m going to get a lot of schmuck about this one. Basil tea. So here’s what I’m going to say because everything we talk about here is science -based, evidence -based. There’s no science that says basil tea is going to break up the kidney stone.
Basil tea is not going to prevent a kidney stone. And people will swear that it did. Jill, I drank basil tea and the stones crumbled before my eye. Just came out of me.
What can I tell them? If they believe that the basil had this medicinal property that made them break up that stone, I can’t change their mind about that. Was it just the stone was ready to move on its own and just that they were drinking fluids that the stone actually moved? That’s where I would lean. So there’s no science that says that basil tea.
And a lot of people, a lot of like, these are old remedies. Drink basil tea and your stone will break up. Listen, I’ll say it again. These stones, lots of times the lasers don’t even break up these stones. So they’re very, very, very hard material. Now, uric acid stones, as Jeff knows, can be broken up by alkalinizing your urine. Taking the urine, maybe your urine is…
of a certain pH, but the doctor gives you a pill or a potion to increase the pH and that can help break up only a uric acid stone. So no science saying that basil juice or tea is going to do anything to help pass a stone. If you swear by it, I’m not going to argue with you. I’m just saying there’s no science to support that.
And I know people will say, well, there’s things that happen in the world and there’s no science. Or science is wrong a lot. Science isn’t wrong. We take a hypothesis. We put an experiment around it to see what we get. And as we know more in the world, things change. New science emerges. Then we know more. Maybe. Maybe they’ll find out that basil juice is doing that with stones. But there’s no science to say it. These stones are very hard. Did the basil?
Pass the stone or was it just fluids that passed the stone? Could you have some gin and it passed too? Right? Just like people will say, beer helped me pass a kidney stone. So I’m going to say no science. So I would not be stocking up on basil. And also what would be the oxalate of all that? So there’s that. So consensus says, no, basil tea is not going to prevent kidney stones. But the kidney stone diet goals will help prevent kidney stones. So please check.
and that’s drenched in science. We’re not just selling a diet. These are goals. Lowering your sodium, lowering added sugar, not overeating meat protein, drinking enough fluids, getting enough calcium because that will help lower oxalate and taking away the highest oxalate foods like spinach and almond products. So that’s a great start. Do that. Make sure you get a urine collection to see if there’s any medications that you can use.
That’s about it. Basil tea is not going to do anything for you folks.
Jeff Sarris
And I wonder how many people drink basil tea just naturally if it wasn’t for something. That’s not something I feel is so common, but like you mentioning how much oxalate would be in it is also an interesting sort of catch 22 there because you are introducing this steeped plant like a tea in general, like obviously tea leaves can have oxalate and you can have oxalate in the tea you’re drinking. Well, these are different leaves, different plant.
Jill Harris
Yeah.
Jeff Sarris
How much oxalate are you consuming with that thing that you’re hoping to help pass or prevent a stone?
Jill Harris
Yes, and typically if one hears, this is just human nature, if one hears that something may help, they’re going to have copious amounts of it. That’s just what we humans do. Just like take the keto diet, right? Or take any kind of diet that says let’s take away carbs. We’re going to take away a whole food group. Well of course people are going to overeat all the other things. So we…
Jeff Sarris
Oh, you
Jill Harris
down going. What is that? I don’t know what that is. I don’t know. Okay. So we tend to, if someone says, basil is going to get rid of your stones, they’re going to be sucking on basil every single day as much as they can. That’s what they’re going to do. Have almonds as a snack as a diabetic. What do I hear all day from my kidney stone patients who are diabetic? Jill, I was eating almonds all day long.
So we tend to overdo things that are told to promote health. When we’re told that that thing promotes health, well, we overdo it. That’s what we do, because more of that thing will bring more health, right? So it’s just human nature. It’s just what we do. Yeah.
Jeff Sarris
Absolutely. So yeah, I think with that, we will wrap for this week. If you’re out there with a question, the number again is 773 -789 -8763. And we’d love to feature you on a future episode, or if you’re outside the States, you can send a voice memo recorded on your phone, email it to podcast at kidneystonediet.com. And we would love to have your voice.
Jill Harris
Yes.
Jeff Sarris
But if you want to dive deep, if you want to learn everything, the ins and outs of the kidney stone.
resources, you can go to kidneystonediet .com. And sometimes I trip over my words, even though we’re 100 and what, 187 episodes in, I still trip over these sometimes, but.
Jill Harris
Well, that’s also because we tape lots of them at the same time. That’s why you’ll see, still see this tank top I’m wearing underneath all the shirt changes. So, you know, we’ve been doing this for the last couple hours. So it makes sense, Jeff. You’re not perfect. I’m not perfect. Nobody’s perfect.
Jeff Sarris
Thanks for tuning in, for liking, subscribing, and commenting, and we’ll see you next week.
Jill Harris
Everybody have an excellent week.
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