The amount of water to drink each day to prevent urinary stones

Diet has a lot to do with the formation or prevention of urinary stones, helping to reduce the recurrence rate after surgery by up to 10% after 5 years.

Urinary stones are types such as kidney stones, ureter stones, and bladder stones. They can be formed when substances such as calcium, oxalate, phosphate and urate are concentrated in the urine.

Urinary stone is a fairly common disease in our country, accounting for 5-10% of the population. The rate of recurrent urolithiasis if untreated after one year is 10%, 3-5 years is 30%, after 5 years is 50%, after 10 years is 80-90%.

There are 5 types of urinary stones:

1. Calcium oxalate stones: Formed by excessive excretion of calcium and oxalate substances.
2. Calcium phosphate stones: Form when the urine contains a lot of calcium and alkline, which means the urine has a high pH.
3. Uric acid stones: Formed by acid in the urine. A diet high in purines can increase the amount of uric acid in the urine. If uric acid accumulates in the urine, it, along with calcium, forms urinary stones.
4. Struvite stones: Struvite stones are caused by a kidney infection. Urinary excretion can prevent struvite stones.
5. Cystine stones: Cystine stones are caused by an inherited disorder. This disorder causes leakage of cystine from the kidneys into the urine, creating crystals that lead to stone formation.

Why should you understand each type of urinary stone?

The first step in preventing urinary stones is to know what causes them. This information helps doctors make recommendations and recommendations on dietary changes to prevent urinary stones.

The first step in preventing urinary stones is to know what causes them.

For example, limiting oxalate in the diet will help prevent calcium oxalate stones but not uric acid stones.

Epidemiological studies show that urinary stone formation is related to many causes: sex, age, geographical environment, eating habits, nutritional conditions and other factors.

The disease is often caused by a combination of many causes such as: Drinking less water, improperly supplementing with calcium, metabolic disorders, genetics. Among the above factors, diet is very much related to the formation of the disease. formation or prevention of urinary stones.

Accurate analysis of stone composition provides important clues to further explore the causes of stones. For patients after stone surgery, a reasonable diet can help reduce the recurrence rate of the disease to 10% after 5 years.

Diet depending on the type of urinary stone

Calcium oxalate and calcium phosphate stones

Calcium from food will not increase the risk of calcium oxalate stones. Calcium in the digestive tract binds to oxalate from food and prevents it from entering the bloodstream and urinary tract, where stones can form. People with calcium oxalate stones should have 800 mg of calcium in their diet every day, not only to prevent urinary stones but also good for bones.

One cup of low-fat milk contains 300 mg of calcium. Some other dairy products such as yogurt also contain high levels of calcium. We should supplement calcium by choosing foods rich in this substance in our diet. Taking calcium supplements increases the risk of calcium oxalate stones if they are not taken with food.

Therefore, you should get enough calcium from food or take a calcium supplement in combination with food.

In addition, people should cut down on dietary sodium and protein (meat, eggs, fish). You also need to avoid eating foods high in oxalates such as spinach, rhubarb, almonds, and wheat bran. These foods can increase the amount of oxalate in the urine, where they combine with calcium to form stones.

People with calcium oxalate stones should have 800 mg of calcium in their diet each day.

Uric acid stones

To prevent the formation of uric acid stones, you should limit animal protein.

In addition, we should cut down on foods containing sodium in our diet to reduce the calcium content in our urine. Since sodium is normally salt, it causes the kidneys to excrete a lot of calcium in the urine. High concentrations of calcium, oxalate, and phosphorus in the urine lead to stone formation.

You should also avoid eating a lot of meat and animal protein in eggs, fish, shrimp, crab., which contain purines. This substance can increase uric acid levels in the urine.

Amount of water to drink

Drinking enough water each day is the best way to prevent most types of urinary stones. The amount of water each person needs to drink depends on the weather and the level of physical activity. People who do manual labor or do sports in hot weather need to drink more water to compensate for the amount of water lost when sweating.

Depending on the amount of urine a day, we adjust the amount of water we need to drink. If the urine output is too little, we need to drink more water. Experts recommend that each person needs to drink 2 to 3 liters of water per day.

People with cystine stones need to drink more. Water is best, but some other beverages also help prevent urolithiasis, such as fruit juices.

Some studies have shown that fruit juices like lemons and oranges fight urinary stones because they contain citric acid. This acid prevents crystallization during stone formation.

Posted by BSCKII. Nguyen Dinh Duc, Head of Urology Surgery Department, Ninh Binh Provincial General Hospital, provided information.