Drink tea all day long with kidney stones

The following is designed to entertain and inform, not provide medical advice. Always consult your doctor before starting a new treatment.

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.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse.

And here we are in person. We may have recorded one already that we are going to scrap, but if you're watching on YouTube, you see that it's a little different. You're seeing sort of the same shot in Jill's Jill's place, but we are both here in person, which is really fun.

Always love it.

We love being in person, folks.

Yeah, when we have the opportunity to do this, it's awesome. It just it changes it up, you know? We don't get to see each other at We see each other face-to-face, but through the camera lens on the computer.

So, it's always fun to see you.

I love it. And, you know, and Amara's here, too. She takes care of all the things in the background for us, and so, say hi, Amara.

Waving to us, not to the camera, but she's back there. You might hear just little chuckles here and there. But, yeah.

So, how have you been?

I've been great. I mean, the weather's been a little chilly. I mean, let's just say May has been freaking moody, no?

It is wild.

And I know whenever we start talking about random things, people are like, "Oh, Jesus, when is she going to get to the kidney stone stuff?" Just hold on, okay? 'Cause we're visiting. Forget about you.

And also subscribe, too, by the way.

Yeah, hit that subscribe, join on Pateron– no, you don't have to join Patreon. That's just people have asked about it, but there is a Patreon, just so you know. But–

No, I'm asking people to subscribe. I'm relentless about it, because–

Yeah, on YouTube.

Yes, on YouTube, because over 60% of people are watching, but they're not pressing the red button, and I'm just asking. It ain't hard, folks. And this way, when people are looking for kidney stone information, they find us, and it's credible information for the most part, anyway.

Yeah, that's the important part, is getting the valid information out that you have the experience with people for 20-plus years, which is mind-blowing.

Yes.

But you know what works and what, unfortunately, doesn't, but is still being promoted heartily everywhere else.

Yes, yes, and, you know, those the information that's put out there that is wrong is just causing more frustration and more overwhelm for people when there's plenty of credible information on the internet, okay? So, you just have to find it. So, by pressing the subscribe button, you can get good information.

That's it. I'm not going to talk about subscribe for the rest of the show, I promise. But do it.

Maybe once or twice.

Maybe.

But, yeah, and even leave comments below. Everything, any engagement with it helps a lot, because we want to reach as many people. And when you share it, share it with your friends, someone who you might know who needs to have this information.

It means a lot, so thank you so much.

I swear to God, whenever I'm out and about town, I always meet people. "Oh, what do you do for a living?" "I do kidney stone prevention." "Oh, my god, my uncle Carl, he's had…" blah, blah, blah. Everybody knows somebody who's had a kidney stone, so, it's just But even if you didn't have a kidney stone and you happen to stumble upon us, what we're talking about here is a healthy diet for everybody, and this is why we can talk about it so passionately and so long,

Because asking people to lower their added sugar and salt is good for every kind of medical condition and just for overall health. So, there you go.

Yeah, absolutely. Do we have a caller?

Yeah, we have a question that we will queue up right now.

Okay.

Hi, Jill and Jeff. My name is Sherry, and I'm from Richmond, Virginia. I just experienced my second kidney stone about a month ago, and having done some reading, realized that I was accidentally on a high oxalate diet, which included green tea and black tea pretty much all day long.

I'm wondering if the amount of time that you steep the tea affects the amount of oxalates in that cup of tea. So, if I– in other words, if I steeped the tea for a shorter period of time, would that reduce the oxalates? Because it seems like tea has a pretty broad range from low to really high when I've seen it in everybody's charts.

Thanks so much. Love the podcast.

Well, Sherry, Share, I'm going to tell you what. The fact that you had two stones, I'm sorry about that. I don't want anybody to have any stones, so let's go.

Tea. So, is it tea that causes kidney stones or is it how Sherry drank her tea, quote-unquote, "all day long"? So, this is the problem with the oxalate.

It's not just because you had a couple of high oxalate foods. It's what you were doing all day long. So, drinking tea all day long is definitely going to be a higher oxalate diet.

The other thing is, her question was great. The longer she steeps it, the more oxalate will be in that tea. So, yes, that does have an effect.

New England Journal of Medicine did study green tea and tea in general, and they studied the steep times. The longer it was steeped, the more oxalate was in the tea. So, Share, you could have your green tea.

You could even have black tea. Keep it to a cup or two a day, in normal cups, think Norman Rockwell, okay? Not Starbucks, okay?

1952 diner cups of tea, not "I need a friend to help me bring the tea out from the Starbucks," okay?

A cup, okay? So, you have one or two cups a day, and even if you do steep it a little longer, because you're not drinking it all day long anymore, no problem. Plus, you know you should be getting calcium every day, so that's going to help the oxalate, as well.

Green tea is known to be lower oxalate. Black tea is one of the highest oxalate. There's hundreds of teas.

Has Harvard or anybody else studied every single tea? No. So, all teas, one or two cups a day, get your calcium needs met, and you'll have no problem with oxalate.

And, hopefully, all the other aspects of the diet, so you don't have stone number three. That's my goal for you, Sherry.

Yeah, and what are those calcium needs?

Calcium, for women who no longer get their period, 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day. If you still get your period, 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day. Up to, not over.

"She said 1,200! Let's do 1,500!" Don't do that. We don't absorb calcium that great, anyway, so go up to your goals.

Even if you're a little short, that's fine. For men, we want you to get up to 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day. We want you to get it throughout the day, never more than 500 milligrams at a time, again, because of absorb– of absorption.

And

That's how you lower your urine oxalate. And, also, that's how you don't get bone disease. So, you want to get your calcium needs met.

It's very important, and I've never worked with a person that says, "I get plenty. Shut up, Jill." Nobody in 25 years almost has said to me, "I get enough calcium." Nobody does. Nobody thinks about it until a doctor tells them they have bone disease or now they have a kidney stone.

So, you need your calcium, folks. It does not have to be from dairy. At kidneystonediet.com, our website, you can go to the blog and you can see many ways to get calcium non-dairy and dairy.

The end.

Yeah, and I like when you also say that we have a skeleton that we need to feed, as well.

Yes! Yes.

Because that's something I never thought of before.

Well, nobody does, and here's what gets me hot. Not that anybody asked, but I'm going to tell you. Why is it that no one is saying anything to us about calcium until we have a medical condition?

And now we're We can'undo five decades of not getting calcium. We already now have bone disease. We can slow the progression of it, of course, and with weight training, we can really do a good job at maybe building a little back up, but gosh, people, we need our calcium, and no one is telling us that until it's already too late or we have a problem.

So, it's very important. I'm very passionate about that piece. Same thing with salt.

"Jill, I didn't have no high blood pressure,

So I didn't have to worry about salt, or I don't have heart disease or, you know, sugar, I don't have diabetes. Why do I got to worry about it?" Well, those things can cause too much calcium to come out in your urine. When you have too much calcium in your urine, that can increase your risk for kidney stones.

So, I make this stuff kind of fun and we have a good time doing it, but it is complicated, guys. And this is why I also ask you, please get a 24-hour urine collection, because what you think caused your stones may not have been the case, and you need that so you can find out.

Yeah, absolutely. That's such an important place to start. And when you get that urine collection, there is the urine analysis on the website, which Jill will help you break down and understand what those results actually are, because that's always an added challenge, an added piece that people don't necessarily get.

That service is invaluable. You could say, "Well, yeah, girl, you're making money." No, listen to me. It is invaluable, because if you can stop making kidney stones, you're going to save thousands and thousands of dollars, not to mention being sick, going through that pain, time off work, etc.

But what that consult will help you with is I will break down the lab report and get you talking points, so when you go to your doctor's office visit, you'll know exactly what to bring up,

Because you don't know what you don't know. Now, when I was going through all my cancer stuff, many times I left the a doctor's office and I was like, "Oh, my god." I'd go back and I'd Google stuff and I'm like, "Damn, now I just lost my time with this doctor. Now I have to go to the portal and they have to write me back." And if I had known going into my appointment, it would have been a way better appointment.

And so, that's why I came up with the urine consult to prep you guys so you can have really productive doctor office visits, because you don't know what you don't know. So, it's really important, that service. Honestly, and it's priced very cheap for what you're getting.

I promise that. I'm very I promise that.

Absolutely. Yeah.

It's very valuable.

And there's also the free resources on the website, too, at kidneystonediet.com. And this is specifically the one about having a better doctor's visit. So, on top of it, there's just any the questions you need to ask and what you need to know going in, so you can find all of that at kidneystonediet.com.

And if you want to dive deeper, join the Prevention Course, the accountability calls, and really take control.

The course The course is on sale $40 off still. We're taking it off sale soon, so I don't know what time it is by the time you see this video, but check the website at kidneystonediet.com, the course.

Yeah, and thank you again for watching. Thank you, Sherry, for your question. If you have a question, the number is 773-789-8763, and we'd love to feature your voice on a future episode.

I love hearing everyone's voice. It's so nice to integrate the community.

Yes, we do. We like building a community. We're all part of that.

So, Sherry, thank you, and no more stones for you, sissy.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, that'll be it for this week, and we will see you next time. Thanks again.

Bye, Sherry!