This week, Jill answers a listener question about Medullary Sponge Kidney (MSK) and kidney stones.
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.
Jill Harris: I’m Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse.
New Merch at kidneystonediet.com!
Jeff Sarris: Here we are. We’re back at it. How you doing it? I love the shirt. It’s looking good.
Jill Harris: Portion, not perfection! Dave did a stunning job on these!
Jeff Sarris: Yeah, I really like it!
Jill Harris: It’s really pretty, too, in the color and everything. I know that, you know, we made these T-shirts at kidneystonediet.com because people kept bugging us for them–bugging us in a happy way, not mean. I’m just saying, though, people were like, “You should make some T-shirts. I love the portion, not perfection thing!” So we’ve got a whole bunch of new merch on the website, enjoy it. Dave also put a little our little kidney stone logo on the back. It’s a picture of a little kidney with the stone in it, so I thought he was very clever doing that. It’s one of my favorite things. And, yeah, I have the hoodie. I’ve got it all.
Jeff Sarris: We’ll be seeing a lot more of them on the show.
Jill Harris: Yeah, we’re seeing a lot more because they’re fun colors, too. So yeah, I love it. And they’re good quality! They are a little bit more expensive, but I will tell you what, the three of us Dave, Jeff and Jill, we do not do anything in low-quality. So, you know, you pay what you get for in life–except when I have sales or my services. They’re all priced nicely, people. We don’t want to get crappy T-shirts. I mean, you know, so they’re nice. The hoodies are super comfortable and warm and just really high-quality. And we all know that I love a hoodie. So it had to be high-quality.
Jeff Sarris: Definitely!
Jill Harris: How are you doing, Jeff?
Jeff Sarris: Oh, yeah, I’m doing good. Just busy. It’s cold out already. It’s fall, which throws me off, but, today, Amara and I are actually going to the world’s largest corn maze. I think it’s Richardson’s farm. It’s an hour, maybe hour plus away, but it should be fun. This year, they have a carved out–you can see it from above, it’s carved out like a huge James Bond 007 tribute thing. So, like, there’s a lot of different paths in there. So, it’ll be neat.
Jill Harris: That’s amazing and the weather is perfect. It’s chilly and it’s sunny. So it’s a perfect fall day. But I’ll say this. So one time I took my son to a corn maze. He was five, so it was like for a baby. We went to this frickin’ corn maze, man, and it was one of those really weird days where it was like, I don’t know, 80. And, so, he and I–because anybody that knows me knows that I really have no sense of direction. So he was like, “Let’s go in the corn maze.” And I was like, “Oh, shit. Okay, baby!” I didn’t say it was shoot in front of my baby, but I did say, “Okay!” So, I take him in that corn maze and, dang, if we didn’t get lost in a little baby corn maze. But I’m sweating. I looked at him. He was a bright cherry red. Oh my god. So we haven’t been in a corn maze since, but God bless. Enjoy your time.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah, it should be fun. I mean, it’s so different. It’s just such a novel thing and neither of us can believe–we’re recording this on, what the 28th of October? Neither of us can believe that Halloween is days away, like how is it already this far into the season? It’s craziness!
Jill Harris: I don’t know. But, you know, the older you get, the faster time goes. Remember when you were like, you know, 10 and you’re like, “Oh, summer!” It felt like an eternity. Now, summer’s just like a blip in time and so yeah, look, I mean, the older we get, the back half the middle and back half of life goes like that. And that is why we’ve got to take care of these bodies of ours, right? We just must because time does go fast and you want to do things you love, like take your lady to a cornfield, the largest one ever and just have a wonderful afternoon. That’s what this is about enjoying that. Being healthy enough, and strong enough, and emotionally prepared enough to just enjoy something like that. It’s the simple things in life that are so wonderful.
Jeff Sarris: Definitely! It’s just so important. And like we do the work, like the work is sort of what funds things but then you got to have that time away to still have time to do things that give you that reward.
Jill Harris: Oh my god. So much fun. I’m excited for you two!
Jeff Sarris: Yeah, it’ll be a good time. But, yeah, what do you say? Should we dive right into a listener voicemail today?
Jill Harris: Yeah, let’s see what you got for me this week, lovely.
What is Medullary Sponge Kidney (MSK)?
Listener Voicemail: Hi, how are you both? I’m actually a new listener to your podcast. Jill, I wanted to ask you my name is Gina Prado and I’m from Paramus, New Jersey. I have a medullary sponge kidney, which my urologist tells me means that I make films basically because of the way the kidney is shaped and drains. I’m 52 years old now this has been going on since I was 34. I have, at least that I know about, I have many stones on both sides. I just had to have surgery to have one lasered. And I now also have a lithotripsy scheduled in October to get a couple more on the right side. So my question to you is, is there any hope for me?
And my stones are calcium oxalate, so should I take the Kidney Diet Prevention Course? Obviously, now, I’ve printed out my oxalate list and everything. I’m just very confused. And my last question is, should I be taking a vitamin D with K supplement because I’ve also heard mixed things about that causing kidney stones? And I’m also thinking about, like I said, taking your course and being able to talk to you in person. Okay, thank you so much. I hope you both have a wonderful day.
Jill Harris: Gina from New Jersey. When I was growing up in New York, I had a little friend named Gina. She was troubled that one. She got me in a lot of trouble, but I loved her, little Gina from New York. Okay, so, Gina from New Jersey, hello, and thank you for being here! Jeff’s like, “Oh, shit, here she goes!” Wait, hold on! So, here’s the thing: we take it very seriously. She’s a new listener. She has MSK, which is medulla–I always say it wrong–medullary sponge kidney. And this is when the kidney is such that it’s kind of like a sponge, so things just don’t filter out as quickly as they should. So, crystals and stones can get stuck in her kidneys. And, so, her question is, am I basically do for the rest of my life, because I have MSK?
The first thing I want to say is, you know we take it really seriously here. We joke around a lot here, too, because you know, you have to have some levity when you’re dealing with hard things. You just must. I mean, when I was going through my cancer stuff, I still wanted to laugh because you just you just have to because it’s hard. But even though we definitely joke around a lot here, we take our viewers very seriously. They’re trusting us with their information. They’re trusting us to give them the clinically correct answer and we’re very serious about that. Very serious. Okay? So, Gina, thanks for being here and thanks for trusting us and listening.
There is Hope for you MSK Patients!
So her urologist said, “Listen, sis, basically, you’re going to be a stone maker.” Well, I’m going to tell you this, you are more apt to get stones and they may be harder to prevent, but I will tell you from my 24 years of experience, I have a lot of MSK patients, and a lot of them, if they don’t stop making stones, they certainly lower their risk greatly. So there is absolutely hope for you. And if you weren’t on my private Facebook page, which is Kidney Stone Prevention Diet, you will see there’s a lot of MSK patients there and they will tell you themselves. Nobody here has to believe anything I say go look at the reviews and the praise on my website on Facebook and you’ll see! And it’s not even about me. It’s about how hard my patients work and my students work to get where they are. I just gave some information out. That’s all I’m doing. You have to do the hard work.
Please Use the Kidney Stone Prevention Course!
So, Gina, the other thing I want to say is, God, I’m sorry, you have to go through–by this time, you’ve probably got through it by the time this airs–but I’m so sorry that you have to have yet another kidney stone removal procedure, in this case of lithotripsy. So and I heard that you make calcium oxalate stones, but you can absolutely lower your kidney stone risk 100%. I don’t care if you have MSK, or somebody’s obese, or they have diabetes, or they make a different type of stone. The Kidney Stone Prevention Course is for all stone makers. “Well, sure it is Jill! You want to make money!” It’s not about that. I’m offering you with some ervice which is on sale right now at 40 bucks off–our lowest price ever–take advantage of it. This is airing October, what is it? The 27th, Jeff?
Jeff Sarris: Oh, yeah, today’s the 28th, but it’ll come out November 1st, I think.
Jill Harris: Okay, so the point is, by the time you hear this video, folks, that deal could be off. So the deal is at kidneystonediet.com, we’re offering it because of the recession, it’s $40 off. And what you get is, you’ll get the four hours of video that you can play and you have lifetime access to anytime you want. That’s me teaching the basic stuff on the Kidney Stone Diet. But the best part of the Kidney Stone Prevention Course–I could have easily just sent you to those videotapes, and you never hear from me again–but in good conscious, I couldn’t do that. Plus, my joy comes from working with people. So, yes, I’ll teach you how to lower salt and all the things of the Kidney Stone Diet, but the point is to come to the accountability calls where you can work with me in a group setting and get your specific needs and questions met by me.
And, by the way, I always say this, we have a great time in there, too. It’s a special place where you get support, you can hear from other people that are going through the same thing and we have a good time. We share a lot of things. I also share personal things there. I don’t just necessarily share here because it does need to be a safe place. I’m not just going to put my personal business out on the internet without it being safe. So, we share all kinds of things there. If you want to lose weight, people lose 50 pounds, 90 pounds, because they’re staying long-term.
So that is given to you for the first month, free! I’m giving my time away. That would be over nearly $2,000 and then, there after, every month, it’s only $19. I mean, it’s $4 a week. So, to work with me privately is $250, so I’m literally giving my time away. Take advantage of this, people. I am not somebody who likes selling things. “Really could have fooled me, Jill!” The reason I can sell what I’m doing is it’s such a valuable service, an opportunity for you to stop making kidney stones.
I have people that are competing with me and their course is over $300! I’m not doing that. And I have the most experience! I’m doing this because I want to reach a broad audience. I want to reach as many people as I can. If I outprice this stuff, you’re not going to learn. Also, if you can’t afford to work with me on any level, we pour our heart and soul into this YouTube channel and also kidneystonediet.com for all the free resources, the Facebook page, the newsletter, we give it away for free if you can’t afford anything.
What to Know About Vitamin D & Vitamin K Supplements
Okay, back to Gina. Gina, you can absolutely take the course and you will be helped. The end. Take it while it’s on sale. Get it. I know you’re recovering right now, so, you know, take care of yourself. She also asked about vitamin D and K supplements. There’s a video on this channel about vitamin D. If you need vitamin D, it helps you absorb calcium. If you need it, a blood test will tell you. Some people just are like, “Hey, I read in the Reader’s Digest that I’m supposed to take vitamin D.” So they go to the Walgreens, they look at vitamin D, they see 1000, 2000 IUs, 10,000–”Oh, I’m gonna get 10,000 because I know more is better.”
Now, first of all, they went to the Walgreens. They don’t even know if they need it. They just read a blurb in some kind of something and said I’m going to take it. If a blood test says you need it, you should take it under the advice of your doctor. Don’t be just taking vitamins off shelves. The vitamin people know you’re doing that and they laugh. They like making all the money you’re spending and most of you don’t need any of those vitamins. A blood test will tell you what you’re deficient in. That’s when you take supplements. So vitamin D can be very helpful if you need it.
It can increase your kidney stone risk if you already have enough vitamin D, and now you take more, and now you’re over absorbing calcium, and the excess is winding up in your urine. Too much calcium in your urine can increase your stone risk because it’s it’s looking for other crystals and minerals like oxalate and phosphate. So you don’t want too much calcium in your urine. Too much vitamin D can cause that. All right? So if you need it, please take it. I supplement with vitamin D because I live in Chicago and we only see the sun a few times a month, especially in winter. So I do take it. I take 2000 IUs, but I take it because I know what my level is. I want to raise it to a certain point and then I just use a maintenance dose.
Vitamin K, if you have bone disease and you need vitamin K, or your doctor says, “Hey, you might want it–” because they’ll know all your medical stuff. If the doctor says you want to take vitamin K as a supplement, then do so. But talk to your doctor about supplements, people. A lot of you are wasting a lot of money. You don’t need these things. If you look on the back of the supplement, it will say vitamin A, just as an example, 5,000% of your RDA. Well, why do you need that much? And people look at that and go, “Oh, look at all that vitamin A I’m getting!”
I’ve Said it Before and I’ll Say It Again: Get a Urine Collection!
People, you don’t need supplements, unless a blood test has told you do, for the most part. Talk to your doctor about supplements. It’s important. Just don’t take them. I mean, they’re not doing anything for you. But talk to your doctor. There’s that. And I think I think I did cover everything. So, to wrap that up for sweet Gina, of course, there’s hope. Of course, there’s hope! I also hope, Gina, you have done a urine collection to see precisely what is the–I get the MSK diagnosis, but also what else is going on? A urine collection will tell you. And you don’t need a urine collection, folks, to join the Kidney Stone Prevention Course, especially while it’s on sale. Do it so you can educate yourself.
We couldn’t have hundreds of YouTube videos, I couldn’t be doing this for all these years if there wasn’t so much information to teach you. Because just teaching people on nutrition–which they have no clue about nutrition because the diet industry has told us a million conflicting things. So we don’t know anything. People don’t know what food is good or bad all day I’m pelleted, “Is this good? Is this bad?” Meanwhile, we’re grown people. We should be able to make good decisions upon food, but we can’t because the diet industry has been bothering us about food and telling us we got it all wrong every year when they create a new diet to make money. So my advice that we give here, the advice we give at Kidney Stone Diet is a lot of common sense, practical information, doable information, honest information.
No bull-doo here. And we will also say that this is hard work because it is. Anything worth getting in your life is going to be hard work. So stop listening to diet industry saying it’s quick and easy because if it was quick and easy, guess what else is going to be real quick and real easy to do? Gain all the weight back because that’s what the diet industry tells us. Easy weight loss is always going to be easy weight gain, because if it’s easy weight loss, fix, you will not be able to sustain that long-term. So, it’s hard work, but I don’t know where else you want to put hard work in, except your health. There’s nothing more important than that. You don’t need me to tell that to you. That’s what I have to say about this. What do you have to say, Jeff?
Jeff Sarris: Well, yeah, I think it’s important, too, because–sort of the thing, “I have this ailment. Am I doomed?” And I think leaning on the fact that this is reducing someone’s risk, so, like you said, it will absolutely reduce the risk. Will it be zero? Maybe not, but it will be a lowered risk, which then will result in a better quality of life. And that’s sort of like why we couple that, too, is reduce your risk to live a great life. It’s like doing everything that we can, in our power, no matter what we’re faced with, to approach it in the best way and that’s what what you help people do.
Please Never, Ever Give Up Hope
Jill Harris: Yeah, and that’s exactly right, Jeff. Here’s what else I hear in her words. And I know people are like, “Oh, God, Jill. You’re so silly and dramatic,” but this is what I hear. I hear she’s anxious. This is not a judgement. This is just what I hear and, from somebody who’s been very sick in her life, me, I know what it’s like to be sick and anxious and now you have–nothing against this doctor. He’s saying, “Look, you know, you’re gonna make stones.” I have a lot of patients that don’t make more stones, so there’s that, who has MSK, but more importantly, what I want her to understand is that she does have some control of this.
So, sometimes we get diseases that we really don’t have control over. She has no control over MSK. She has it. She was born with it: spongy kidneys, so things don’t filter as quickly as possible. Things get stuck more in her kidneys, but what I’m saying is, we always have control over what we put in our body. But if she feels anxious and hopeless, then she may not seek out the information. Thank God she is! She’s saying, “Look, I’ll do whatever I can! Should I join your course? Will it help me?” It will 100% help you. I know it will help you because I’ve helped many people with MSK. But, of course, I’m not a genie. You have to do the work.
More importantly, we should never–whether you have MSK, or cancer, or asthma, or whatever you have–please never give up hope. Just don’t. You can always control a little bit, at least, with diet, exercise, working on your attitude, your emotions, your stress, sleeping, hydration, all of that. We’ll never be like, “Holy shit, I can’t believe I drank enough today!” No one’s ever gonna say that. “I can’t believe I’m sleeping like a baby. I can’t believe I’ve managed my stress.” No one! Everyone’s going to be happy with those things. If my cancer comes back, I know–because it’s come back a couple times, so, you know, it’s very probable–if it comes back, I know that I’ll be able to look my son and his eyes and he will say, “God knows my Mom did whatever she could to make this not come back.”
Right? As opposed to if I just did whatever I wanted to and just led a whole life of debauchery and said, “Well, it’s probably going to come back might as well do this, or that, or that unhealthy things.” And if it didn’t come back, I’d always feel bad about that. So, if it comes back, I know that I have done everything possible. And what I’m asking all of you, whether you have kidney stones, diabetes, or whatever, just never give up hope. Never give up hope. You’re never hopeless. There’s always something you can do. Always, always. I’m very passionate about that because of my personal experiences. Never give up hope. There’s always something you can do. There’s always some control you can have because when we have medical conditions, and disease, it’s very easy to feel hopeless. I understand that, too. So, there’s hope for you, Gina. I promise you. I do promise you that. That’s it, Jeff.
Jeff Sarris: Yeah, I mean, hope is a perfect note to end this week’s episode on. So, thanks, Gina, for your question. If you’re out there listening or watching and you have a question, the number is 773-789-8763. We’d love to feature your voice on a future episode. And to dive into more, head on over to kidneystonediet.com, where you can find the Prevention Course that we’re talking about today; the meal plans; also the free email newsletter, which has been growing like wild, which is awesome.
I know people are really loving everything that you’re sending out because we’re seeing the feedback. We’re seeing that feedback loop go into effect. So, for everyone who has subscribed, thank you so much. I hope it’s really brightening your days, you know, and there’s just so much out there to help, paid and free, so we just want to do everything we can to to help you guys on your journey. But I think, with that, we will wrap for this week. So, thanks again, Gina, and we will see you all next time.
Jill Harris: Thank you Gina. I hope you’re recovering well!
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