This week we separate the truth from the myths about apple cider vinegar and kidney stones.
Chapters
00:00 Debunking Apple Cider Vinegar Myths
11:01 Understanding Citrate and Kidney Stones
Transcript
Jeff Sarris (00:00)
What’s the truth about apple cider vinegar and kidney stones? Let’s talk about
Alrighty, so
apple cider vinegar. That is ⁓ it’s one of those key points, key questions people have. And sweeting of questions, if you have a question that you want featured on the show, go to call dot show slash kidney stone diet or click the link in the description and we will feature your voice. But let’s dive right into apple cider vinegar.
Jill (00:27)
You know, over the years, some especially once ACV got really popular, you know, several, several years ago, apple cider vinegar came into the scene and everybody’s using it for all kinds of things. I’m not trashing it. Y’all do what you need to do. You’re grown. You know, I always say that. But we’re here, Jeff and I are here to debunk kidney stone myths. And why do I care about that so much? Just shut up about Junkka Piagra. Just shut up about apple cider vinegar. Let me do what I want. You can.
Do what you want, but my job is to tell you what’s scientifically not gonna work. And then people say, of course, you know, science is wrong. She doesn’t know. A chunk of piedra broke it up. It didn’t break it up. It doesn’t break it up. Apple cider vinegar is not going to break up a stone. And you can say, but it did. Mine fell right out of me. As soon as I looked at the ACV bottle in the jewel.
It just popped out. It didn’t, Clyde. It didn’t pop out. Usually when you’re s wanting to use one of these potions, you’re already pasting the floor. You know a stone feels like it’s moving. You’re drinking copious amounts of fluids, plus the tea, plus apple cider vinegar. Was it those things that made the stone fall out? I mean, if that were the case, then we wouldn’t have Lysotripsies anymore. And we wouldn’t have Eurina Rash.
Anymore. We would never need a kidney stone surgery. People would just suck down these products and sip the tea. So it’s not about science. People will say, I want to do a natural. She’s a nurse. Of course, she’s gonna say, I what I’m talking about. Jeff and I are doing nothing but talking about the most natural thing in the world. Diet change. Okay. So I’m all for you guys that want natural. Me too.
I’ve been sick in my life. I don’t want to have to do anything that’s going to make anything worse, pills and side effects from them and all that. I always want to start with diet first, diet and fluids. So apple cider vinegar, a lot of people on the internet, snake oil people, will say, breaks up stones. Breaks up stones. It doesn’t. And there is science behind that that says it doesn’t break up stones.
Now there’s a study, I believe it was from 2019, and it said it it didn’t say apple cider vinegar. This was a study in China. And the study said that mature, what was studied was mature vinegar. So could be kind of like apple cider vinegar, right? So that study, and this is but this is where people get this notion from that it’s breaking up a stone or it’s a miracle thing for kidney stone.
And you gotta be careful when you’re reading studies because the study titles, a lot of them are clickbait. So it will say something, but when you read the study, which so many people don’t, it’s not what it didn’t show that what the title says. So there’s that too. So you gotta know how to read a study. But this study was talking about that mature vinegar, that’s what they use in China, does not
break up stones. It may increase the citrate level a little.
That can help break up stones, uric acid stones only. Also, please know it said only a little bit it showed increased citrate. Lower than lemons, lower than coconut water. So it wasn’t something that, like for you guys that are on potassium citrate, holy show, I’m gonna take apple cider vinegar, get rid of this damn pill.
It raised it a bip, which is my word for just a tiny little bit. Okay? So that’s not something to use apple cider vinegar for. Another thing. Many of my patients have told me in the past, Jill, I tried it for a month, my esophagus got all inflamed. I had issues swallowing, it did not go well. And also I still had to have the lithotripsy. Okay.
So, but it can cause ⁓ it can cause problems with your esophagus. So that’s a problem. So the other thing I don’t like about these alternative treatments, if they work, people, I’d be the first one. I’m in prevention. I don’t want you to get the stone. You’re talking to me about things that happen once you get the stone. My whole deal is we don’t want you to get stones here at kidney stone diet. So if this stuff worked, I’d be we’d have
300 videos on take apple cider vinegar, don’t have a surgery ever again, drink chunk of pH tea, please never have a I would be on all the time. We don’t make money or don’t make money, whether we’re telling you about this or not. We’re just telling you what the science is. One of the bigger issues, what I have seen in my practice, is that when people are waiting for a stone to pass.
using chunk of pH or apple cider vinegar, I’ve had, I would say probably in the last 10 years, 15 to 20 people go through sepsis where they almost died. That’s an infection in your blood. Because they were waiting for these treatments to work and they ignored signs of sepsis like fever, chills,
And all the s trouble urinating where your urine’s backing up because you have high hopes. And believe me when I tell you, no one wants to go to an ER, especially in the United States. I don’t know how it is in other countries, but nobody wants to wait in an ER for hours and hours. And so I understand that people want something, you know, this hopefully will work, and you bypass or overlook really serious symptoms of sepsis.
So that’s I, you know, you gotta understand that I’m hearing the worst of the worst every day. So I always get upset that people are using these things because the internet is saying do it, and then they don’t work and you can really have terrible things happen to you. ⁓ so I always remind people if you have fever, chills, vomiting, uncontrolled pain, a lot of blood in your urine, not being able to urinate.
You must go to the ER and heed my warning on that one. After 30 years of experience listening to people, please listen to that. That is those are those are emergency signs. You have a stone blocked and you’re having issues. And I’ve had people lose kidneys because of that. So when you bring up apple cider vinegar and chocka piedra and you know eat grapes or drink celery juice, it just upsets me because of what I’ve seen every day. And if those things helped you.
as a lot of you will say it did. I always push back. There’s other things you’re doing. It’s not nobody’s passing a stone because of celery juice. It’s fluid and all that can help pass a stone when you’re drinking lots of fluid. If the stone’s gonna pass, it’s gonna pass. But many stones will not pass because of the location they’re in or their s the size they they are. And they can’t pass. But y’all are waiting for that because you don’t want to go to the ER. And again,
God knows I I don’t blame you for that. And guess what? Not everybody has insurance. Jeff is like, geez, don’t talk about I’m just saying. So it’s a lot of money. You can’t just go to the ER. You’re gonna have you’re gonna have a bill. So all of this stuff is scary. I never want you to think I’m taking away things that might help you. That’s not what I’m doing. I want you to never get a stone. So I want you to eat better, and there’s nothing more natural than that. I want you to get your fluids.
Apple cider vinegar is not like Drano for your kidney. That’s not happening. It’s not eroding kidney stones. It may erode your esophagus, but it’s not eroding your kidney stones. Now, let me get back to the citrate. We only know that China studied this quote unquote mature vinegar. We don’t know what the heck that is. But I bet it’s similar enough to apple cider vinegar. And you may be thinking, yeah, Jobotta raves citrate. And some of you may understand.
And I just wrote an article, you can find it at kidneystonediet.com ⁓ on ⁓ citrate and how important it is in kidney stone prevention. So citrate is a little molecule in the body that will protect calcium in the urine. And it’s a shield that protects calcium. And we want so citrate is a molecule, our body makes it.
We can also get more of it by eating more fruits and vegetables, which is one of the reasons I’m always screaming about that. So when your citrate is low, that means the calcium that’s sitting in your kidney is unprotected. And when calcium is all naked in there by herself, oxalate and phosphate can bump into her and connect with her and form stones, eventually forming stones. So if you have excess calcium in your kidney,
And not enough citrate to protect her from the other crystals that are also in your kidney, then that’s a problem. So that mature vinegar, and perhaps I do not know because it wasn’t studied in this study. Maybe apple cider vinegar vinegar can increase your citrate. But please, folks, you don’t know you know need that unless you do a 24-hour urine collection. And also.
Since we don’t have apple cider vinegar studies, please know that the citrate was less than lemon juice alone and coconut water alone. So it did not raise it significantly. But I did want you to understand why we care about citrate. That’s just a brief little explanation. It’s kind of a little complicated, and the article goes over everything at kidneystonediet.com. But apple cider vinegar, is it gonna melt your stone away?
is it like Drano for your pipes? 100% no. I’m not a fan of it. If you are using it for other things, that’s your business, but it’s not going to break up kidney stones. Again, winning no fans, telling you things you need to hear but perhaps don’t want to hear. Love nurse Jill.
Jeff Sarris (11:11)
Yeah.
For sure. Yeah, and if you want
if you want Jill in your inbox to keep you on track, to help you with these little nuggets. But yeah, little nuggets of inspiration and just more knowledge so you can prevent future stones, go to kidney stonediet.com and sign up for the free weekly email newsletter. And if you have a ⁓ question, you can click the link in the description, call.show/kidneystonediet, and we’ll
Jill (11:24)
They’re like, I don’t know after this video, I don’t know if I want that.
Jeff Sarris (11:46)
feature you on a future episode. Thanks for tuning in and we’ll see you next week.
Jill (11:48)
We love getting questions.
Bye,
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