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Kidney stones stopped before they start: Top expert reveals the key mineral for kidney health

Kidney stones are among the most painful and frustrating health issues people can face. Affecting millions worldwide, they have become increasingly common in recent years. While conventional advice often focuses on quick fixes, there are long-term, scientifically grounded strategies to prevent kidney stones. Dr Eric Berg, bestselling author and wellness expert, shares insights that go beyond the usual recommendations, highlighting magnesium as a crucial mineral for kidney health... Magnesium is far more than just a component of a multivitamin; it serves as a natural guardian of kidney function. Adequate magnesium levels ensure oxalates are neutralised before they can bind with calcium, while…

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  Most supplements for stones not backed by science

Kidney stone patients take a variety of dietary supplements that claim to treat or prevent kidney stones. While consumer reviews for the supplements tend to be positive, most of the supplements and their ingredients have conflicting or no scientific evidence to support the claims, according to a recent study. “Patients have been asking my colleagues and me about supplements on the market claiming to treat or prevent kidney stones. What we didn’t know was how many of them there are and what a huge variety of ingredients they contain,” said first author Kevin Koo, MD, MPH, MPhil, instructor of urology and fellow in endourology and minimally invasive urologic surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.

 Evaluation of the effects of magnesium supplement in primary and secondary preventions of nephrolithiasis: a systematic review

Magnesium seems to inhibit kidney stone formation by several mechanisms. Firstly, it binds with oxalate in the intestine, and consequently decreases oxalate absorption and the urinary concentration of oxalate. Secondly, it competes with calcium ions to make a complex with oxalate ions and forms magnesium oxalate, which is more soluble than calcium oxalate...

 Kidney Stone Prevention: Is There a Role for Complementary and Alternative Medicine?

The majority of dietary supplements claiming to treat or prevent kidney stones contain ingredients with conflicting or no scientific evidence to support their claims. Clinicians should advise stone formers that the effects of most supplements are unknown or unstudied in humans and that the absence of evidence does not imply absence of potential harm. Unfortunately, the CAM preparation consists of a mix of different molecules, often including alkali, with different potential mechanisms of action and, even when favorable results are reported, the role of the single molecules cannot be assessed.

Articles of Interest

Role of Dietary Supplements in Prevention of Renal Stones: An Update

According to literature survey various preventive measures are available to reduce the risk of kidney stone formation such as life style modification, high water intake, less consumption of salt and modification in dietary habits. As diet has shown its strong association with stone formation, changes in dietary habits may help to reduce the burden of stone formation. Less awareness on effect of food on stone formation is one of the main reasons for increase prevalence.

Are Supplements Good For Kidney Stone Patients?

Kidney stones could not be prevented by having supplements but could reduce the risk of forming kidney stones in your kidney. Dr. Mahesh Krishnaswamy M.S, M.Ch, Urologist, Dr. KM Cherian Institute of Medical Sciences, Chengannur says that knowing what type of kidney stones you have is the first step to prevent kidney stones. Understanding the type of kidney stones helps determine what supplements you should have and exclude from your diet.

Best Supplements For Kidney Stones

Having had two kidney stones myself, I know the immense pain that comes with them and after the doctors gave me some vague diet guidelines to help avoid them in the future, I decided to dig deeper into what I could do to more actively prevent going through that again. Some dietary changes did help a bit, primarily drinking more regular water, but it wasn't until I started increasing my citrate, potassium, magnesium and B vitamins that I stopped having them, thankfully going on 12 years since the last one.

Can Vitamin K2 Dissolve Kidney Stones?

Evidence published by The National Library of Medicine suggests that improving vitamin K2 intake may help reduce the size and quantity of kidney stones by increasing levels of MGPs, which can directly inhibit calcium crystallization and help dissolve oxalate crystals.2 In addition, vitamin K2 can help reduce the risk of renal vascular calcification and support normal circulation, which enhances the kidneys’ ability to prevent and even dissolve existing calcium oxalate crystal formation. To promote optimal vitamin K2 levels, include more vitamin K2-rich foods in your diet. One of the most concentrated sources is natto, a traditional Japanese dish made from fermented soybeans.

Debunking Dr. Berg Kidney Stone Claims

Try again @drericberg - blowing bits of truth out of context to sell your supplements simply isn’t ethical. Does magnesium matter for SOME kidney stones? Absolutely! But when only about 10% of stone formers have low urine magnesium (one of the FIRST and most sensitive signs of deficiency) - and even for them it would be a stretch to say this is the SINGULAR cause of kidney stones… Anyone who says that ONE single thing is good for kidney stones CLEARLY doesn’t understand that there are obviously different TYPES of kidney stones- and completely different causes even for the same type of stone.

Dietary Plants for the Prevention and Management of Kidney Stones: Preclinical and Clinical Evidence and Molecular Mechanisms

Dietary plants, including food additives, fruits and vegetables, have a pivotal role in human health and the prevention of diseases, including kidney stones. However, the pharmacological evidence of dietary plants and their phytonutrients in the prevention of kidney stones have not been well-established yet.

High-dose vitamin C linked to kidney stones in men

Kidney stones form for a variety of reasons. Genes matter, as do gender (men get them more than women), weight (obesity boosts the risk), and diet (eating a lot of animal protein, not drinking enough fluids). The most common type of stone is a mixture of calcium and oxalate, a substance found in many foods. Some people break down vitamin C into oxalate, which may explain the connection with kidney stone formation. Is there enough evidence to warn men, at least, from taking vitamin C supplements? Yes, says Dr. Curhan. “High dose vitamin C supplements should be avoided, particularly if an individual has a history of calcium oxalate stones.”

Natural Supplements For Kidney Stones

Taking a magnesium supplement may help reduce the risk of recurrent calcium oxalate stones by competing with calcium absorption in the gut and increasing citrate levels in the urine. Magnesium is also needed to metabolize and flush out oxalate from the body. Opt for a chelated form like magnesium glycinate for maximum absorption.

Phyllanthus niruri (stone breaker) herbal therapy for kidney stones; a systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical efficacy, and Google Trends analysis of public interest

Phyllanthus niruri (P. niruri) is the most commonly listed active ingredient in commercially available herbal therapies for kidney stones, despite limited supporting clinical evidence.

Role of Dietary Supplements in Prevention of Renal Stones: An Update

According to literature survey various preventive measures are available to reduce the risk of kidney stone formation such as life style modification, high water intake, less consumption of salt and modification in dietary habits. As diet has shown its strong association with stone formation, changes in dietary habits may help to reduce the burden of stone formation. Less awareness on effect of food on stone formation is one of the main reasons for increase prevalence.

Supplements Show Potential for Kidney Stone Prevention

The findings support roles of these supplements in kidney stone disease prevention, the authors suggested. “It will take a while before we can draw a clear conclusion that prescribing these supplements would really be beneficial to kidney stone patients, without any harms,” Thongboonkerd acknowledged. Next steps would include validating the in vitro findings in clinical settings.

Supplements to Reduce Oxalates: What Works?

Oxalate nutrition is a confusing, frustrating and little known area of health. There is a lot of conflicting advice about oxalate. Some of this advice is inaccurate and some is blatantly harmful.

Taking These Vitamins Can Reduce Your Risk Of Kidney Stones

If you've ever suffered from passing a kidney stone, you'll likely do anything to avoid that kind of pain again. You may already know that staying hydrated and reducing your intake of high-oxalate foods like spinach and dark chocolate can be helpful for preventing kidney stones (via Harvard Medical School). But did you also know certain vitamins and supplements can also reduce your risk? Read More: https://www.healthdigest.com/702082/taking-these-vitamins-can-reduce-your-risk-of-kidney-stones/

The Low Oxalate Diet

The low oxalate diet is simply eating healthy, non-toxic foods and reducing your daily oxalate intake to less than 100 mg per day. For those at high risk for kidney stones or who are battling debilitating symptoms gradually lowering oxalate intake to 50 mg per day is recommended. When your urologist hands you a guide to a low oxalate diet it often seems overwhelming. You may feel hopeless and wonder how you’re going to follow it. Many people believe it to be an elimination diet and wonder what’s left to eat.

Which supplements and foods reduce or increase the risk of kidney stones?

Many supplements are promoted to prevent or treat kidney stones despite having little or no evidence to support their use. A review of supplement labels for 27 products sold online through Amazon and/or Google that make claims to prevent, cure, dissolve or treat kidney stones (and ranging in cost from $4 to $189 for a 30-day supply) showed that nearly two-thirds (18 products) contained ingredients with conflicting or absent evidence of benefit (Koo, J Endourol 2020). Chanca piedra (Phyllanthus niruri), also known as "stone breaker," is an herb that has been used traditionally to treat kidney stones, but there is no convincing clinical evidence that it works for this purpose.

Resources

The Kidney Dietitian

No matter who you are, or why you had kidney stones, there ARE things you can do to reduce your risk of kidney stones. You just need some help from an expert. The Kidney Dietitian is on a mission to change the status quo of kidney stone care. Rather than generic or useless advice, we believe every person with kidney stones deserves a personalized kidney stone prevention plan that actually works!

Moonstone, Litholyte, Kidney COP, KSP, LithoBalance, NOW, Norbaach, TheraLith XR

The nine remedies reviewed here were created to achieve results like those of medicinal potassium citrate. Unlike potassium citrate, none of these remedies have ever been tried as stone preventions. The link takes you to trials showing that medicinal potassium citrate can prevent kidney stones. Instead these remedies rely on a reasonable logic: Potassium citrate prevents stones by raising urine citrate; equivalent amounts of alkali from a remedy that has no trial can increase urine citrate; therefore such a remedy should be able to prevent stones.