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  #1   ^
Old Tue, Feb-06-18, 16:49
Joanna J Joanna J is offline
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Posts: 35
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 124/122/113 Female 62 "
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: Maryland
Default 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)
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  #2   ^
Old Tue, Feb-06-18, 19:57
deirdra's Avatar
deirdra deirdra is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,324
 
Plan: vLC/GF,CF,SF
Stats: 197/136/150 Female 66 inches
BF:
Progress: 130%
Location: Alberta
Default

Dehydration can cause kidney stones - have you been drinking plenty of water and getting enough salt (to help retain some)?
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  #3   ^
Old Tue, Feb-06-18, 20:01
Joanna J Joanna J is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 35
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 124/122/113 Female 62 "
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: Maryland
Default 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
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  #4   ^
Old Tue, Feb-06-18, 20:13
Joanna J Joanna J is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 35
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 124/122/113 Female 62 "
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: Maryland
Default

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
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  #5   ^
Old Tue, Feb-06-18, 21:01
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robynsnest robynsnest is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 2,146
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 336/286/199 Female 5'11"
BF:Losing it....
Progress: 36%
Location: Canada ay?
Default

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.
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  #6   ^
Old Wed, Feb-07-18, 13:04
teaser's Avatar
teaser teaser is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 15,075
 
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
Default

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.
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  #7   ^
Old Wed, Feb-07-18, 14:41
Joanna J Joanna J is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 35
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 124/122/113 Female 62 "
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: Maryland
Default

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)
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  #8   ^
Old Wed, Feb-07-18, 16:22
teaser's Avatar
teaser teaser is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 15,075
 
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
Default

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.
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  #9   ^
Old Wed, Feb-07-18, 16:36
Joanna J Joanna J is offline
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Posts: 35
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 124/122/113 Female 62 "
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: Maryland
Default

Thank you Doc

i will start with a low dose supplement
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  #10   ^
Old Fri, Feb-09-18, 01:24
Grav Grav is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 1,469
 
Plan: Banting
Stats: 302/187/187 Male 175cm
BF:
Progress: 100%
Location: New Zealand
Default

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.
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  #11   ^
Old Fri, Feb-09-18, 06:23
teaser's Avatar
teaser teaser is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 15,075
 
Plan: mostly milkfat
Stats: 190/152.4/154 Male 67inches
BF:
Progress: 104%
Location: Ontario
Default

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.
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  #12   ^
Old Fri, Feb-09-18, 06:47
JEY100's Avatar
JEY100 JEY100 is offline
Posts: 13,340
 
Plan: P:E/DDF
Stats: 225/150/169 Female 5' 9"
BF:45%/28%/25%
Progress: 134%
Location: NC
Default

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.

Last edited by JEY100 : Fri, Feb-09-18 at 06:58.
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  #13   ^
Old Sun, Feb-11-18, 10:37
Joanna J Joanna J is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 35
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 124/122/113 Female 62 "
BF:
Progress: 18%
Location: Maryland
Default

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