Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Health & Nutrition : How to Prevent Kidney Stones

My name is Christine Marquette and I'm a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic

and I am here to talk to you about how to prevent kidney stones. If you have never had

kidney stones the best way to continue preventing yourself from developing them is to drink

a lot of water. That is the best way to prevent the formation of kidney stones. What causes

kidney stone formation is when you don't have enough fluid to flush out various minerals

that can form stones. There are actually four major types of stones, calcium stones, stervite

stones, uric stones and one stone that in particular is fairly rare and that particular

stone is caused by hormonal imbalance but we will mainly talk about the calcium and

the stervite and the uric acid stones. Calcium stones are usually formed by a formation of

calcium oxalate and usually calcium is not usually the problem it is the oxalate that

is the problem. So if you have already had kidney stones in the past you need to identify

what kind of stone it was. Was it a calcium stone or a uric stone or a stervite stone?

If it was a calcium stone you want to eliminate or very much reduce high oxalate foods and

these would be foods such as rhubarb, beets, spinach, swiss char, sweet potatoes, soy,

sesame seeds and almonds. Again those particular foods have a lot of oxalates in them and combined

with calcium forms calcium stones. Uric acid stones are formed by a high consumption of

protein, animal protein in particular so if you have had those types of stones you want

to cut down on how much meat that you are eating because that is what actually is forming

that particular stones. Stervite stones are actually caused by frequent urinary tract

infections so a good way to avoid getting this type of stone is to make sure again you

are drinking plenty of fluids but also to drink cranberry juice because that can greatly

reduce your risk for developing urinary tract infections. Another good method is to make

sure that you also include a glass of lemonade that is made with real lemons whether that

is lemon juice from concentrate or fresh lemons. The reason why is because lemons actually

increase the formation of citrate and citrate and citrate helps decrease the formation of

stones because it prevents these little minerals from actually sticking together in your kidneys

so it is another good method of preventing kidney stones. So again those are your major

things. Look at what type of major stones you have had in the past and avoid those particular

foods and make sure you are drinking a lot of water. So those are your tips for kidney

stone prevention.