This week, I’ve seen patients who suffer greatly due to kidney stones. So it was a typical week filled with painful stories and familiar tales of people lowering their oxalate intake as their doctor had told them only to produce a new stone anyway.
I’ve been helping patients prevent kidney stones for 26 years by teaching the principles of the Kidney Stone Diet. As you can imagine, I have heard many similar stories.
A question I get almost daily is:
“Why am I still making stones?! I lowered my oxalate like my doctor told me to, but I continue to make new stones.”
Friends, there is so much more to this than simply overeating spinach and almonds. Once you eliminate the highest oxalate foods, you have all the other Kidney Stone Diet goals to incorporate into your lifestyle. You can find those here.
But before that happens, you must complete a 24-hour urine collection to see why you’re forming stones in the first place. Some of the most common reasons are not drinking enough fluids, overeating salt and added sugar, not getting enough calcium (this applies to everybody prior to the first stone), and way overeating meat protein. Click on these links to learn why these goals are important.
Lowering your oxalate is the easiest part of this diet. The other goals are more challenging, much more challenging, but when you get there, you can:
- Lower your A1c
- Lower your blood pressure
- Lose weight (FINALLY)
- and, of course, lower your kidney stone risk.
Make no mistake: You must stop overeating high-oxalate foods to lower your stone risk, but all the other goals are just as important as oxalate.
I am here if you need help understanding your 24-hour urine collection results—I can’t tell you how much you’ll benefit from it. Here is a lovely testimonial someone gave on the FB page this week.
“I highly recommend doing the call with Jill regarding your 24 hour urine results. I did it earlier this week and have felt so much better about everything since then. After the phone call, I couldn’t decide if I had met with a coach, a doctor, a nutritionist, a counselor, or a friend. But in the end, I guess it was a mix of all of them. SO worth it! Thank you, Jill.”
And there are tons more testimonials here.
Have a good week. And all of you, stay safe!
Your friend and advocate,
Jill
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