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-   -   Kidney stones? (http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=479071)

Joanna J Tue, Feb-06-18 16:49

Kidney stones?
 
I was just diagnosed with kidney stones. Can it be related to Atkins?
I had a very painful episode on Saturday. I had ultrasound today. The results show kidney stones in both kidneys. I wonder if Atkins diet contributed?
(I was never diagnosed with kidney stones before)

deirdra Tue, Feb-06-18 19:57

Dehydration can cause kidney stones - have you been drinking plenty of water and getting enough salt (to help retain some)?

Joanna J Tue, Feb-06-18 20:01

yes and yes
 
Since i started in Atkins i make sure to have 8 glasses every day which is twice as much as i used to

Joanna J Tue, Feb-06-18 20:13

Quote:
Originally Posted by deirdra
Dehydration can cause kidney stones - have you been drinking plenty of water and getting enough salt (to help retain some)?

Deirdra
I agree that hydration is very important!
I watched Zoo Keepers Wife last night and i thought i wish i could live life like that rather than sit in pain in the WC.
sorry for being melodramatic. I am of polish origin and i think that many Polish people have kidney problem

robynsnest Tue, Feb-06-18 21:01

I feel for you Hun, I had a really hard time a couple of years ago, but thankfully I had a great Eurologist, and I asked him how I could avoid this EVER happening again, was it Atkins? Absolutely not,you either get them or not, you may get them again or not. Nothing you did caused this.

teaser Wed, Feb-07-18 13:04

It is a possible side effect of a ketogenic diet, although it doesn't come up much here. Kids on the much stricter high fat ratio ketogenic diet for epilepsy are given potassium citrate to prevent kidney stones. But often kids are put on formula diets, and in the earlier days water intake was restricted to increase urine ketones, these might have contributed to the increase in kidney stones.

Joanna J Wed, Feb-07-18 14:41

Teaser
That makes sense. Should i take potassium citrate?
I also had blood metabolic panel done. My Potassium is 4.1 mmol/L (range is 3.5-5.3)

teaser Wed, Feb-07-18 16:22

It's not so much that lack of potassium causes stones. It's more that citric acid itself has an effect vs. metabolic acidosis.

https://kidneystones.uchicago.edu/h...into-the-urine/

Whether you should actually take potassium citrate and how much is a bit above my pay grade. I'm just pointing out one situation where some degree of metabolic acidosis with a ketogenic diet might result in kidney stones.

It's really impossible to connect the stones to the diet for certain unless you know for a fact that you weren't already developing kidney stones before. You have a correlation for the symptoms, that doesn't tell you when the stones started forming.

Joanna J Wed, Feb-07-18 16:36

Thank you Doc :)

i will start with a low dose supplement

Grav Fri, Feb-09-18 01:24

I had one a couple of months ago; wasn't much fun. There was nothing in response to my telling the staff attending me that I'd been lowcarbing for a couple of years, they just said it was one of those things that can happen to anyone, and I just needed to make sure I stayed hydrated.

teaser Fri, Feb-09-18 06:23

I do think that it's likely as not just random chance. Just throwing out there that there is a possible connection. It's probably more of a concern for people pushing a really ketogenic version of the diet for therapeutic reasons.

JEY100 Fri, Feb-09-18 06:47

You have been eating LC less than a month, and as Diedra first mentioned, the Diet is dehydrating so be sure you have enough water and salt.
Here is an article on LC myths, then below it is a video 4 doctors discussing kidney impact/stones. https://www.dietdoctor.com/low-carb/fears#kidneys

Dr Westman mentions the potassium citrate (after consulting with teaser ;) ) From transcript:

Quote:

Can low carb be bad for the kidneys? Dr. Westman: I don't think so, other than the low rate of kidney stones, sometimes kidney stones can back up the... your inflow, but that's pretty rare. And then, we don't know if that's any more common than any kind of weight loss approach.

There is a treatment, potassium citrate, that people can use to reduce the chances of having a kidney stone. So I'll use that if someone has a history of kidney stones, just to be on the safe side. If you're talking about chronic kidney failure and they need the dialysis, there's just no evidence for that.

That's one of the last myths that is really hard to debunk because it doesn't come out of any data. I've learned what discrimination is, because it's not based on fact, so you can't find the fact that led to the idea, so you can't really debunk it.

Joanna J Sun, Feb-11-18 10:37

Thank you all for input. I ordered potassium citrate and am planning to use it


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