- Hey, this is Dr. Barry.
In this quick video,
let's discuss the rumor
you may have heard
that the ketogenic diet
causes kidney stones,
and then we're gonna get into
what actually does cause kidney stones
and what you can do,
to prevent them
or keep from having another one
if you've had one in the past.
Now, if you know someone
who's worried about kidney stones,
or who's had one in the past,
feel free to share this video with them.
You can send it to them on Facebook,
on a text message, email, Instagram.
You can even just write them a letter
if you'd like, okay?
So let's talk about this.
There's multiple different
types of kidney stones
but I'm going to talk about the three most common
because they make up about 98, 99% of all kidney stones.
By far, the most common
is calcium oxalate stones
and other calcium based stones.
They make up about 80 to 85% of all kidney stones.
The second most common is a uric acid stone.
That's more common in men for some reason.
It's made up of uric acid
that makes up about
7 to 10% of all kidney stones.
Then struvite stones
are much more common in women
and they come from repetitive bladder
and kidney infections.
It builds up a struvite stone.
So the rumor, you may have heard
that ketogenic diet
or a high protein diet
or a high fatty meat diet
increases your risk of a kidney stone
is just not based on any science.
It's also not based on common sense.
So between the years of 2001 and 2010,
the hospitalization rates for kidney stones.
So, every day we pass little micro meter stones every day,
it's not a big deal.
You never even know you do it.
When they start to get about one millimeter in size,
you can kind of feel them a little bit.
Then when they get bigger than that,
that's when you go see the emergency physician
or you get admitted to the hospital
if they're four or five or six millimeters.
So between 2001 and 2010,
hospitalizations from kidney stones
increased by 50%.
Now, if (indistinct)back to the decade,
2001 to 2010,
that was way before the ketogenic diet
was starting to come back into favor, right?
That's when we were eating lots of processed carbs,
lots of inflammatory vegetable oils,
lots of fructose
and getting fatter and fatter right?
So even that one fact alone
would make you doubt the fact of eating a good whole
food ketogenic diet,
would make you have a kidney stone.
It doesn't make common sense.
Then when you look at the research,
things do are shown to be associated
with kidney stone formation,
but it's not high fatty meat,
not ketogenic diets that are associated with this.
So let's talk about the actual causes,
okay?
First of all,
it's just a chronically
inflamed state in the kidney.
That comes from eating inflammatory foods
that are highly processed,
lots of vegetable oils,
lots of processed carbs.
Those things inflame the kidneys
as well as they inflame everything else.
The leading cause of kidney failure
in the United States today
is not the ketogenic diet,
it's the standard American diet
and the American diabetes association diet
in which you eat lots of processed
wheat products,
carbohydrates,
you drink lots of fruit juice,
you eat pancakes,
those sorts of things.
So the true causes of kidney stones,
I think by far in a way
that the thing that's correlated more with kidney stones
and almost everything else
is being overweight,
being obese.
That and so I'm not saying that being obese
causes kidney stones.
I'm saying that the same thing
that causes you to be obese
also leads to kidney stones.
That ain't fatty meat, right?
That's not a ketogenic way.
That's the standard American diet.
That's what leads to that.
So obesity is very very highly correlated
with kidney stone formation,
and so also not having enough magnesium in your diet.
You don't necessarily
have to take a magnesium supplement.
There are multiple ketogenic foods
that are rich in magnesium.
The average citizen in the United States
is very magnesium depleted.
Same goes for potassium,
and being too low in either one of these
can increase your risk of developing a kidney stone.
So when you go out of your way
to get plenty of real salt,
real magnesium
and potassium in natural sources,
you will slash your risk of producing a kidney stone.
So losing weight
and getting plenty of magnesium
and plenty of potassium
and plenty of salt,
those things are going to slash your risk
of ever forming a kidney stone right off the bet.
Now, if you've had a kidney stone in the past,
you've probably done a little reading about them
and you realize that they're actually a crystal,
they're not a stone right?
That crystals form in concentrated solutions.
So you may remember the little experiment
from high school if you did it,
where you make rock candy
or sugar crystals
by super saturating water with sugar,
heating the water, putting in even more sugar
and then putting a wooden stick in there.
When the water cools,
the sugar forms a crystal, right?
That is what rock candy is.
Kidney stones or (inaudible), renal stones.
They're formed that same exact way.
They're actually a crystal
that comes from a very, very concentrated solution.
So if you've ever had a kidney stone before,
you want to make sure that your urine
is never a dark, dark yellow, okay?
If it's as yellow
as the paper of a legal pad,
you're at increased risk of having a second
or a third or a fourth kidney stone.
So you want to have your urine to be pretty diluted
if you're at risk for kidney stones to start with.
So drinking more water
in the case of someone who's had a kidney stone previously
is probably gonna also decrease your risk.
If you're eating a very high carbohydrate,
high processed carbohydrate diet,
if you're eating vegetable oils
like margarine, Crisco, canola safflower,
those things will inflame your entire system
and inflame your kidneys.
Any inflammation is going to increase the risk
of precipitating a stone
in your urine.
If you're drinking lots of fruit juice,
getting lots of fructose.
If you're drinking lots of soft drinks
and getting a lot of high fructose corn syrup,
that's going to increase your risk of a kidney stone
as well.
So basically
anything that increases your risk
of developing a kidney stone
ain't on the ketogenic way of eating.
So that kind of answers that question.
There is one study that shows
that taking a calcium supplement
might increase your risk
of developing kidney stones,
but going out of your way to get natural sources of calcium
in your diet does not increase your risk whatsoever.
So that's why I recommend
that almost no one should take a calcium supplement.
It probably makes it easier for your body to put calcium
in places that shouldn't be like your heart arteries,
but then also it probably increases your risk
at least a tiny bit of forming a kidney stone.
Now, if you have a parathyroid problem
and your doctor told you to take calcium,
that's a different story, okay?
You need to keep taking that calcium.
But if you're just taking a calcium supplement
to make your bones stronger,
that's probably a waste of money
and also increases your risk of kidney stones
a tiny bit.
So the way to not ever have a kidney stone
or to never have a second or third kidney stone
is to get lots of magnesium
and potassium in your diet
to decrease sugar,
fructose vegetable oils
from all causes
to try to get your body weight
as close to your ideal body weight as possible,
and drink more water
if you're prone to kidney stone formation.
Now if you go back and listen to that again,
the things I just said are
all things that are easy to accomplish
on the ketogenic way of eating.
So obviously the keto diet
does not increase your risk
of forming a kidney stone.
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This is Dr. Barry,
I'll see you next time.