Diets higher in calcium and potassium may help prevent recurrent symptomatic kidney stones, study finds

Kidney stones may cause not solely excruciating ache but additionally are related to power kidney illness, osteoporosis and heart problems. In the event you’ve skilled a kidney stone as soon as, you’ve a 30% probability of getting one other kidney stone inside 5 years.

Adjustments in weight loss plan are sometimes prescribed to forestall recurrent symptomatic kidney stones. Nevertheless, little analysis is obtainable concerning dietary adjustments for individuals who have one incident of kidney stone formation versus those that have recurrent incidents.

Mayo Clinic researchers designed a potential research to research the influence of dietary adjustments. Their findings present that enriching diets with meals excessive in calcium and potassium could forestall recurrent symptomatic kidney stones.

Dietary elements have been based mostly on a questionnaire administered to 411 sufferers who had skilled first-time symptomatic kidney stones and a management group of 384 individuals—all of whom have been seen at Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Mayo Clinic in Florida between 2009 and 2018. The findings, which have been revealed in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, present that decrease dietary calcium and potassium, in addition to decrease consumption of fluids, caffeine and phytate, are related to greater odds of experiencing a first-time symptomatic kidney stone.

Of the sufferers who had first-time stone formation, 73 skilled recurrent stones inside a median of 4.1 years of follow-up. Additional evaluation discovered that decrease ranges of dietary calcium and potassium predicted recurrence.

“These dietary findings could have explicit significance as a result of suggestions for stopping kidney stones have been based mostly totally on dietary elements related to first-time relatively than recurrent stone formation,” says Andrew Rule, M.D., a Mayo Clinic nephrologist and senior creator of the research. “Sufferers is probably not prone to modify their weight loss plan to forestall an incidence of kidney stones, however they’re extra probably to take action if it may possibly assist forestall recurrence.”

Fluid consumption of lower than 3,400 milliliters per day, or about 9 12-ounce glasses, is related to first-time stone formation, together with caffeine consumption and phytate, the research finds. Each day fluid consumption contains consumption from meals equivalent to vegetables and fruit.

Low fluid and caffeine consumption can lead to low urine quantity and elevated urine focus, contributing to stone formation. Phytate is an antioxidant compound present in entire grains, nuts and different meals that may result in elevated calcium absorption and urinary calcium excretion.

“Altering your weight loss plan to forestall kidney stones might be very troublesome,” says Dr. Rule. “Thus, understanding the dietary elements which can be most essential for stopping kidney stone recurrence might help sufferers and suppliers know what to prioritize.”

Low dietary calcium and potassium was a extra essential predictor than fluid consumption of recurrent kidney stone formation, says Api Chewcharat, M.D., the article’s first creator and a postdoctoral analysis fellow at Mayo Clinic on the time of the research. “This isn’t to say excessive fluid consumption shouldn’t be essential. We simply didn’t discover advantages of accelerating fluid consumption amongst these sufferers with a historical past of kidney stone formation.”

The research concludes that diets with day by day consumption of 1,200 milligrams of calcium could assist forestall first-time and recurrent kidney stones. That day by day consumption is in step with the Division of Agriculture’s day by day advisable vitamin.

Whereas greater potassium consumption is also advisable, the USDA doesn’t make a advice for day by day potassium consumption. The research additionally does not advocate an consumption degree.

Dr. Chewcharat says the takeaway is that sufferers ought to add extra vegetables and fruit which can be excessive in calcium and potassium to their diets. Fruits which can be excessive in potassium embody bananas, oranges, grapefruits, cantaloupes, honeydew melons and apricots. Greens embody potatoes, mushrooms, peas, cucumbers and zucchini.