Why is too much calcium a problem for kidney stones?

You may know that you need calcium to prevent kidney stones, but you also don't want too much calcium. Let's talk about that.

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.

Oh, hi! Oh my god, I'm Jill Harris, your funny little nurse friend.

Yeah, for today, yeah, we're talking calcium. This was a question on the Kidney Stone Prevention Facebook group. If you're not already a part of that group, it is a thriving community.

You can find that and everything else at kidneystonediet.com. But yeah, what do you say we dive in? Why is too much calcium a problem for kidney stones?

Yeah, shout out to Drummond. Good question. You know, here, this is what we like to do as humans.

And this is why a lot of people got kidney stones. " I need to lose weight. I sure do.

What about this paleo diet? I'm going to try it. Ooh!

Everything, look at this almond flour. I can still have baked goods. I'm going to use almond flour.

Oh, and smoothies with spinach and almond milk, I'm digging it.

And because it's healthy and I am losing so much weight, I'm going to eat as much as I want." Boom! Jill gets a phone call in six months. There you go, new stone, right?

So, we humans, if we are told to do something, typically, we think more is better. Just as if people, when I tell them lower sodium is important, they'll go, they'll forget the 1,500

What I'm asking, and then they'll be like, "Let's go down to 400," and then pass out. So, people tend to take a goal and do less or more depending on what they think that's going to bring them. When typically goals are goals, and that's good, right?

So, calcium. Drummond, who I care about very much on the Facebook page, he's very kind and I enjoy his posts.

Drummond, calcium: why too much? Because we're not going to absorb all the extra, and that excess does wind up in our kidneys, right? And if we're not peeing a lot, we have all this excess calcium in there that the body's like, "I don't need all of this." And so, what happens is it gets reabsorbed.

It gets back in the kidney. We're not peeing enough. That calcium is looking for other crystals like oxalate

And phosphate, and they join stones. So, in this case, as in so many other cases in kidney stone prevention, too much is not good. Now, when I'm looking at 24-hour—it will increase your stone risk.

That's one of the reasons for like Tums and all the vitamins and the calcium pills, especially Tums. If you go to the drugstore, you'll even see Tums. It will say, "Ooh, new amount: 1,000 milligrams of calcium." Now, unless you've made a kidney stone or know anything about what I'm talking about, which most people don't,

They're like, "Oh, shit, this must be good cuz there's even more calcium in that, and I got bone disease, so let me get some of this." Okay, and now you're taking three Tums a day. 3,000—3,000— You know, all this calcium. 300, whatever.

3,000, sorry, milligrams of calcium a day. Your body don't— The body looks at that and says, "What the hell is Irene doing? What the hell?" And now, all this excess calcium is in, and you'll see it dumped out in the urine on a urine collection.

So, when I'm looking at urine collections and I see a really high calcium amount, I will say, especially for people who are calling me for the follow-up urine collection, so people will call me the first one, I explain everything so they have a really good conversation to have with their doctor, so they're educated going in and they can make the most time with their doctor, most— What am I trying to say, Jeff?

The best use of—

The most effective use of their time, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I want. I want people to be empowered.

That's why that urine analysis consult is so important. I made that based upon my experience going through all my cancer stuff. I'd be in and out of doctor's offices so quick I didn't know my head from my butt, and I'd go home and I'd be like, "Oh my god, I don't even remember what they said, but now that I'm looking at my labs, what does this mean, this mean, and this one?" And good luck getting through the portal!

I mean, you know, you don't—you don't get what you need. So, I prep people before they have their doctor's office appointment, so they know exactly what they're talking about, and the doctor's like this: "Ooh! Tim knows what's going on.

Let me sit down and let me take a minute and listen to him." And you will get better help, trust me, folks. So, that's why I made that service. It's one of our most valuable services by far.

That's huge because the starting line, then, in that conversation with the doctor, is moved forward. It's like—like in golf, they have the different levels of tees. You're moving up to that front tee.

You're like ready to swing in the, like, meat of everything right away, which I think that's why it's so valuable and, like, it can be so overlooked and that not knowing that what we don't know slows us down really from getting where we want to be.

What we don't know, we don't know, right? So, that's it. So, so they come to me, I'll say, "Get enough calcium." I always say, by the way, too, folks, "Don't do too much," because I know what people want to do.

Cuz what my job is, is studying human habits. That's what I do. So, when people come to me, they're like, "How do you know I'm going to do that?" Cuz I've been doing this for 26 years now.

Happy anniversary! So, 26 years now.

I know what you're going to do based upon thousands and thousands of people that I've talked with over the years, which is so unbelievable, right? So, I get kind of a preview of what you might do. So, my advice is based upon that.

You may say, "Jill, I would never think that." You'd be surprised how many people do. So, I'm going to offer it anyway. So, I will say when I'm talking to people, "We need to start bringing calcium back into your diet." Some people have never had it.

And then, because you don't want bone disease, and many kidney stone formers have bone disease, by the way, because they're losing calcium.

And so, we want to get enough calcium, but not too much, Drummond, because we're—the body doesn't want the excess, and it winds up excess in the urine. And so, when I then see the follow-up test, I'll see a higher urine calcium, and I'll be like, "Listen, Crystal, what the hell's going on here?" "Well, Jill, I know you said don't have too much, but I got nervous and I realized when I saw my calcium number, cuz what you taught me, that I was probably going over."

And so, now her risk of stones has increased. So, pay attention to what I say, folks. Don't go over your amount.

So, some people are always like, "Okay, I still get my period. I need 1,000," or some folks like me are like, "I don't get my period. Thank the Lord above.

I only need I need 1,200." Look, I'd rather you go a little under than over anyway, okay?

So, look, even if you're a couple hundred under, okay, it's better than being over. Because there's stuff you're not counting. The average person, without trying to get calcium, is getting a couple hundred in their food: vegetables, English muffins have a hell of a lot, you wouldn't even look for it there, but there's just things you're eating.

You're going to get bips and boops of calcium from other foods. So, I'd rather you be a little under than over with calcium, especially if you're a stone former. That's it.

For sure.

It's a great question, Drummond. Drummond, I'm so happy I saw that before as we were— We had an intermission, Jeff and I. I'm like, "Ooh, Drummond just asked a great question!" Also, I want to say I love you, Mia, because she said she wanted me to say how much I love her.

So, there you go, Mia. I love you. You know that, though.

You know that.

Yeah, that is such a great community there.

It— The Facebook group is my family. The Facebook group, the accountability group, we have a support group for kidney stone formers, that is a paid service thing, cheap as hell, $24 a month. I'm giving away 2, 4, 6 hours a week in there, folks, by the way.

So, it's it's basically a free frickin' frickin' service. But it's I love it. It makes my day.

It's wonderful.

And that's direct access to Jill in a group setting every single week, multiple days a week. It is amazing. You can find that and everything at kidneystonediet.com.

And when you mention Tums, I just—the 1,000 mg—whenever I see some of the, what is it, the rehydration drinks, the, I and like some of them on the front, not to name any names, but they'll say 1,000 mg of sodium per packet.

I know!

And every time I see that, I'm like, "Ooh," cuz I you know people aren't necessarily having one, and that's all their sodium that they're having. And so, like, there's just so many of these things that, like, more just isn't better.

Yes, and I do want to say this because I didn't say it in the video, and most people don't watch to the end of any YouTube video, but, but you shouldn't be having more than 500 mg of calcium at a time. And then, you should space it all out throughout the day, by the way. So, no more than 500 mg at a time and space your calcium consumption throughout the day: breakfast, lunch, dinner.

If you're not doing breakfast and lunch, you know, if you're fasting, it's harder with calcium.

And now, because Jeff just said the sodium part, please know this, folks: unless you're a frickin' athlete—today was the Chicago Marathon. They may have been drinking high sodium electrolyte drinks because they're sweating. They're working.

But you see electrolyte drinks, and I see people that haven't been in the gym or worked out since 1947, and they're drinking all this electrolyte stuff thinking that's doing something for them,

And it's just marketing bull-doo, folks, marketing bull-doo. And Jeff is right: turn it around, bust the brand, and look at the sodium in those drinks. Also, for people who have chronic kidney disease, CKD, you don't need all the potassium in those drinks.

Those drinks should be sold only to athletes, and I mean athletes. Athletes, honestly. So, those drinks make me mad.

I have a lot of stone formers because of those drinks. They're It's unfortunate,

To tell you the truth. Yeah, it is.

Yeah, so with that, if you have any questions, the number is 773-789-8764, and we would love to feature your voice on a future episode. And, as always, you can find everything at kidneystonediet.com. But with that, we'll wrap and see you next week.

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