In this conversation, Jill Harris discusses the reasons behind low urine output despite adequate fluid intake. She emphasizes the roles of sodium and sugar in hydration and kidney health. She explores dietary adjustments that can enhance urine production and prevent kidney stones, highlighting the importance of fruits and vegetables, and the complexity of kidney stone disease management.
Takeaways
- You’re drinking enough fluids, but you’re not peeing enough.
- Lowering your sodium is important for most health conditions.
- Drinking water is the number one thing you can do to prevent kidney stones.
- You will pee more if you lower added sugar.
- The longer these crystals sit in the urine, the higher your risk for kidney stones.
- Make sure what you think you’re drinking, you’re really drinking.
- Kidney stone disease is complicated.
- All fluids count, so you don’t only have to count water.
- Lower your added sugar and salt.
- You need to up your fruits and vegetables.
00:00 Introduction to Kidney Health and Hydration
01:31 Understanding Urine Output and Dietary Impact
04:18 The Role of Sodium and Sugar in Kidney Health
07:33 Super Saturation and Kidney Stone Risk
10:12 Practical Tips for Kidney Stone Prevention
Jeff Sarris (00:00)
You’re drinking enough fluids, but you’re not peeing enough. Let’s talk about
Jill Harris (00:07)
This is from Rob. Facebook. Yep.
Jeff Sarris (00:05)
because this was a question from the Facebook group.
Hmm. and actually we will get back to the voicemail, but if you have a question in or out there and you want your voice feature on the show, the number is 773-789-8764. Just leave us a voicemail or send a voicemail and we’ll send podcast to candystonediet.com and we will feature you in the future. But yeah, why don’t we dive in to this question?
Jill Harris (00:29)
Yeah, Rob asked, because I asked on my Facebook page, my private page, what can we do a show about for you guys? And he said, what about when you’re drinking, drinking, drinking, and you’re not, you’re drinking two and a half liters, but two and a half liters is not coming out of me? What’s going on here? Well, there are several reasons why that might be. Number one, what we drink typically
more can come out than what we actually drank, or less can come out than what we actually drank. Why is it that sometimes we pee less than we drank? Well, you ate too much salt that day. That will, wherever salt goes, water follows. So if you ate a bunch of salt, it’s going to stay in your body. That’s why we get bloated after a salty meal. So, lowering your sodium, you will pee less.
It’s really important. So I’ll tell people, this is how important salt is. Not only will you lower blood pressure, you’ll feel better, but you’re going to pee more without even increasing fluids. You’re going to pee more. You’re going to lose weight because when we eat a lot of salt, our body holds onto water. You guys know you go out to eat. The next day you look at the scale, you’re up three pounds. It’s all water weight.
and over the course of the next few days you’ll lose that if you keep lowering your sodium. But if you want to pee more, please stop using so much salt and turn it around, bust around and look at your nutrition labels to make sure the portion of food you’re eating doesn’t have a buttload of salt in it. Okay? So that’s really important. Number two, lower your sugar. Lower added sugar. Lower
your sugar. Why, Jill? Because also you will pee more. That’s the other thing. When we have too much sugar in our system, water is also kept in our body. So you will pee more if you lower added sugar. So two goals of the kidney stone diet, lowering sodium, lowering added sugar, both of those things help keep calcium in the bone.
instead of the urine where we do not want excess because that’s how we form stones. And also lowering added sugar and lowering sodium is going to make you pee more without even drinking more water. So that’s awesome. There’s that. Number three, when you work out a lot, you sweat a lot. So you’re losing fluids through your skin. You’re going to need to drink extra water to compensate for that.
So that’s a big thing. You’re a triathlete, you’re a marathon runner, you’re lifting your weights every day. When I’m lifting weights, I sweat a lot. And so I know I need to drink extra water that day so I can get my urine output to where it needs to be. When we eat more fruits and vegetables, again, without even increasing our fluid intake, we will pee more. So that’s really important too.
A lot of people I tell when I’m talking to them on the phone for private consult or going over their urine analysis, it’s like, listen, you don’t even have to have another cup of water. I’m begging you to eat more fruits and vegetables. They’re naturally low in added sugar, obviously, and they’re low in sodium. So that’s great. And plus, they’ll make you pee more because they’re so filled with water. The other reason why you may not pee as much is because maybe you have an enlarged prostate.
This is very common for men who are getting older. Very, very common. And that can decrease urine output as well. So these are just a few things off the top of my head that will increase urine output or decrease urine output. So the sodium, I can’t, I really can’t drill that home enough. Lowering your sodium is important for most health conditions. Now I know there’s some of you
with a health condition that you may need to get enough salt. I’m not talking to you. So for those of you who have medical conditions that you may say in the comments, but Jill, my doctor said I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to the average person who is eating about 5,000 milligrams of sodium and needs to lower that to the 1,500 to 2,000 milligrams of sodium a day. Once you start doing that, you are naturally going to pee more. And you’re also going to feel a lot better. And the same thing with the added sugar.
So the goals of the kidney stone diet, there’s five of them, but those two particularly, the salt and sugar one, are gonna help you not only feel healthier, not only lose weight, not only lower A1C, not only lower blood pressure and all that good stuff, make your kidneys function better overall, but it’s going to help you pee more. And that is really important. And prevent the kidney stones because your urine gets saturated with all these crystals. And if you’re not peeing enough,
That’s what happens. The urine gets more more saturated because you’re not releasing all those crystals. So I think that’s it for this one, Jeff. mean, you know, it’s short and sweet. Start right there. Start with that. Also, make sure what you think you’re drinking, you’re really drinking. A lot of people think, I think I’m drinking two and a half liters, but are you? Are you really measuring it? So pay attention to that. Also,
Jeff Sarris (05:53)
Mm-hmm.
Jill Harris (06:11)
All fluids count, so you don’t only have to count water. You can count your milk or whatever you’re using for your calcium needs. You have a glass of wine, you count that too, not when you have 10, because that’s not good, but a cup of coffee, that’s all going to count toward total fluids, but water, remember, is always best. Okay?
Jeff Sarris (06:30)
Definitely. You said saturation of the urine. What does that mean?
Jill Harris (06:33)
Yeah, so our urine gets super saturated, so there’s some values. Not all laboratory companies report on this. They should, because it’s the most important value on urine collection results. But there’s this thing called super saturation. It’s actually pretty complicated, but of course I always Jill it up. And it’s basically on the day of the collection you see how saturated your urine is with the salts, the minerals and salts that make kidney stones.
calcium, oxalate, phosphate, uric acid, struvite, apatite, these are all types of crystals. And so when we pee more, our urine is less saturated. Makes sense because they’re not just sitting in our urine and our kidneys getting more more saturated. Once we start peeing these crystals out, your urine is less saturated. So the more we drink, the less saturated our urine is with these crystals.
because they’re winding up in the toilet bowl where we want them. The longer these crystals, all the crystals I just mentioned, sit in the urine in your kidney, the higher your risk for kidney stones. So if your super saturations are high, that’s not good. That means your stone risk is high. The lower your saturations, the better. Also know this, and this is why urine consult is really awesome, if you do one with me. Lots of the lab results, they’re
their reference ranges are much too generous and the doctor may not know that. A lot of patients will say, Jill, don’t need to look at my report. My doctor said everything’s fine. And it’s not that I’m going against what a doctor says. I just educate the patients say, have this conversation with your doctor because although the doctor said it falls within the reference range, that reference range is not cool for a kidney stone former. We want to hear.
for kidney stone formers. And so I know those values because I know the research. So in general, the lower, the better. That means your kidney stone risk is lower. The lower your urine saturations are with these crystals, and that happens when we pee more, when we lower our sodium, when we lower our added sugar, when we don’t overeat oxalate.
when we’re not spilling out too much calcium from our bones. It’s all of this. Kidney stone disease, is complicated. It’s very complicated. my doctor told me nothing. He may not know because it’s really complicated. And your doctor, for the most part, is a surgeon. And what he or she does is really complicated. They’re not sitting there studying diets. So.
It’s a disease too that’s in the hands of surgeons and typically with every other disease like my cancer. I have an oncologist that deals with the medical side of my cancer and then I have other people that will help me with diet. Now I don’t need that because I know what to do but I’m just saying my oncologist surgeon ain’t helping me with the medical side. They’re separate entities and so in the stone world you have the urologist which is the surgeon and the nephrologist that will deal with the medical stuff.
Some urologists are very well versed. A lot of my referrals, which is where my business comes from, a lot of my business is from doctors sending patients to me. And they’re like, I’m a surgeon, go talk to this nurse over here in Chicago, she’ll help you with everything else, okay? But then there are, I have plenty of patients that were like, my urologist has been helpful.
they did suggest the 24 hour urine collection. So I’m getting off point here, but I’m just saying I don’t like people bad mouthing their doctors because we’re expecting surgeons to know everything about diet. Most doctors are not studying diet folks. That’s why there’s special people to do that, whether it’s me or a dietitian or whatever. You know, got to get the specialized people in the diet world. Surgeons are not typically going to help you with that.
Drinking water is the number one thing you can do to prevent kidney stones. It’s just that important to lower all your saturations. And if you’re drinking a certain amount and not keying the same amount or more, you need to up your fruits and vegetables. You need to lower your added sugar and salt and maybe get your prostate checked out. Replenish with extra fluids on days you’re sweating more if you’re working outside, you’re exercising, you’re whatever.
training for a marathon. you’re sweating more, you’re going to need to drink more that day. It’s not the same two and a half liters that you did sitting on the couch yesterday. Does that make sense, Jeff? Yeah. All right, cool.
Jeff Sarris (11:17)
Definitely. But yeah, I it’s a great spot to wrap. YouTube thinks you’ll like either this one or that one. One of these sides is a video that YouTube thinks you’ll like. If you’re listening on the podcast app, share this with a friend. Every little bit helps us reach more people with valid scientific advice. So with that, we’ll wrap and we’ll see you next week.
Jill Harris (11:35)
Bye everybody, subscribe please, it really helps us. Thank you,
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