Once the doctor determines why the stones are forming and what type they are, he/she will give the patient advice on how to prevent the growth of stones. First of all, a change in diet and the intake of certain medications, and correction of the drinking regimen are necessary. There is no universal diet for preventing kidney stones.
Although diet alone cannot cause the stones to dissolve, there are certain changes that are necessary to keep the stones from getting larger. It is important to pay attention to some vegetables or fruits and adjust the amount of protein in the diet.
How To Prevent Kidney Stones?
Here are some tips that can help you prevent kidney stones:
Drinking Mode Correction
If a person does not excrete enough urine, causing it to become concentrated, the attending physician will recommend changing the drinking regimen. On average, you need to drink at least 2-2.5 liters of fluid every day. An optimal drinking regimen is a great way to reduce the risk of new stones forming.
It is important to drink even more to replace fluid lost through sweating during exercise or in hot weather. When calculating the drinking regimen, take into account the entire volume of fluid you consume. But it is best to drink mostly non-calorie or low-calorie drinks.
You should drastically limit sweetened juices, soda, or alcohol.Initially, it is worth calculating how much a person drinks during the day. This will help you figure out how much water you need to add to produce approximately 2 liters of urine.
Limit Alcohol Consumption
Though frequent consumption of alcoholic beverages does not lead to kidney stones, it impairs the functioning of kidneys. It makes kidneys unable to maintain the balance of electrolytes and water in the body.
Thus, increasing the risk of developing kidney stones. The problem of kidney stones like the rest of the civilians is also common among veterans due to increased consumption of alcohol and lack of water intake.
Thus, to prevent kidney stones from developing, veterans need to quit alcohol addiction. They can get assistance from veterans’ drug and alcohol rehab hospitals that provide free addiction treatment. Apart from quitting alcohol, it is also important for veterans to drink more water.
Reducing Salt In The Diet
This advice is especially relevant for people who consume a lot of salty foods and have high levels of calcium or cystine in the urine. Sodium in the diet can lead to active filtration of both calcium and cystine into the urine. Therefore, your doctor may advise you to avoid foods that contain a lot of salt. On average, you need no more than 3-5 g per day. It is worth limiting such types of products as:
- Cheese (all types)
- Most frozen foods and meats, including salted, sausages, and hot dogs
- Canned soups and vegetables
- Salty snacks like chips
- Pickles and olives
- Mixed foods such as pizza, hamburgers, and lasagna
- Canned and bottled sauces
- Some seasonings and mixtures of spices
The diet should contain enough calcium, but in regards to supplementing with it, it is worth consulting with a doctor. It will help you not to receive excess amounts of calcium. Often, the consumption of low-salt foods improves the absorption of calcium from foods.
In addition to dairy products, there are many other sources of calcium such as vegetables, cereals, and nuts. If the diet contains enough calcium and some sodium, this helps to maintain the proper pH of the urine.
More Fruits And Vegetables
The consumption of at least 400 g of fruits and vegetables per day is beneficial for all people who develop kidney stones. Regular consumption of fruits and vegetables provides an adequate amount of potassium, fiber, magnesium, antioxidants, phytate, and citrate.It can help prevent stones from forming.
You should eat fresh fruits and vegetables and can even make salads or boil them. It is worth excluding pickled and salted vegetables, in which there is a lot of sodium. If the patient worries that they may not be consuming the right amount of fruits and vegetables, it is worth talking with the attending physician about how to properly adjust the diet.
Diet Modification For Oxalate Stones
Diet correction is necessary for patients with high levels of oxalate compounds in the urine. Eating calcium-rich foods often helps control urinary oxalate levels, as calcium lowers oxalate levels in the body. But if that doesn’t help, certain high-oxalate foods should be cut out of the diet. Almost all plant foods contain a small amount of oxalate, but some have a lot of it.
These include spinach, rhubarb, and almonds. It is usually not necessary to completely stop eating foods containing oxalates. You need to reduce the consumption of chocolate, cocoa, coffee, salty foods, and nuts. Correction of the diet also includes the intake of sufficient amounts of liquid and dairy products.
Correction Of Protein Intake
If an excess of cystine or calcium oxalate is found in the urine, and uric acid levels increases in the blood, your healthcare provider may recommend reducing your intake of animal protein. Similarly, you should reduce animal proteins in the diet in the presence of gout and the formation of urate stones.
If the doctor believes that it is irrational nutrition that increases the risk of stones, he/she will recommend eating less meat, fish, seafood, poultry, pork, and lamb. It is worth reducing the total amount of protein per day. You can also do two or three vegetarian days a week so that the proteins come in a little less volume.
Medications
Changing your diet and increasing your fluid intake may not be enough to prevent stones from forming. Then the doctor may prescribe medications that change the pH of the urine, affecting the excretion of certain salts. The type of stone and biochemical parameters of urine will help the doctor choose specific drugs.
For patients who have calcium stones and high urinary calcium levels, thiazide diuretics may be helpful. They reduce urinary calcium by helping the kidneys reabsorb it from the urine and return it to the bloodstream. When taking thiazides, you need to limit the amount of salt, as these drugs work best with low sodium in the urine.
Now you know what you need to do to prevent kidney stones from developing in your body.