Many organisms that infect the urinary tract alter the urine pH, for example by secreting the enzyme urease, which generates the alkaline ammonia from the neutral urea. While a urine pH above 7.5 has often been seen by clinicians as indicative of a urinary tract infection (UTI), there is no evidence I know of that you can reduce your risk of a UTI by modifying your urine pH.
I've been plagued by calcium oxalate kidney stones since I was 24 when I got the first one while stationed on Guam, allegedly "the kidney stone capital of the world." It also runs in my family, although I get the most, by far. Over the next 50 years, no matter how much water I drank, I would get BIG kidney bean sized kidney stones every ~4-5 years that were impossible to pass, no matter how much morphine I got, and which had to be blasted apart. Not too long after my last incident about 5 years ago, where they had to blast 11 stones, I discovered:
Effects of green tea on urinary stone formation: an in vivo and in vitro study. (PMID: 16724910)
Preprotection of Tea Polysaccharides with Different Molecular Weights Can Reduce the Adhesion between Renal Epithelial Cells and Nano-Calcium Oxalate Crystals (PMID: 32411319)
Molecular Mechanisms of Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate for Prevention of Chronic Kidney Disease and Renal Fibrosis: Preclinical Evidence (PMCID: PMC6752729)
I then started drinking a lot of green tea. Over the last few years, I have passed a couple of small stones and have peed out "sand" a few times. I continue drinking a LOT of green tea,
My retired RN friend used to work at a retirement home where they used d-mannose to prevent urinary tract infections. It was researched and written about by an MD in the 1980s.
Thank you for article! I've been researching and self experimenting for 10 years to prevent kidney stones and am a student of SallyKNorton .com who is an author and expert in oxalic acid. Her teachings and book have literally saved my life! Contrary to your recommendations, she advises on reducing collagen intake since it increases risk of calcium oxalate stone formation and explains the biochemistry. She also advises to toss the cooking liquid after boiling veggies which have high levels of oxalic acid which come of out of the veggies, but she recommends adding potassium citrate to your drinking water. Please see her book and life's work "Toxic Superfoods" as well as her research on how to reduce oxalic acid overload which continues to "poison" many of us, especially those of us who are health food crazy like me!
I’m curious to learn more about alkalinizing acids that feed into the citric acid cycle - I hadn’t read about that as a technique to buffer body acidity elsewhere…..are there other benefits or cautions for supplementing with citric acid feedstocks?
Nah, use Mag Citrate. Most kidney stones are calcium oxalate, but not all. When you give Mag Citrate, the Citrate ion combines with the calcium on the calcium oxalate to make calcium citrate. Calcium citrate is 567 times more soluble in water than calcium oxalate. Voila. Kidney stone is history.
I am wondering whether it is best to sample the first morning urine since it would be the most consistent time point to measure pH changes from day to day.
I've been plagued by calcium oxalate kidney stones since I was 24 when I got the first one while stationed on Guam, allegedly "the kidney stone capital of the world." It also runs in my family, although I get the most, by far. Over the next 50 years, no matter how much water I drank, I would get BIG kidney bean sized kidney stones every ~4-5 years that were impossible to pass, no matter how much morphine I got, and which had to be blasted apart. Not too long after my last incident about 5 years ago, where they had to blast 11 stones, I discovered:
Effects of green tea on urinary stone formation: an in vivo and in vitro study. (PMID: 16724910)
Preprotection of Tea Polysaccharides with Different Molecular Weights Can Reduce the Adhesion between Renal Epithelial Cells and Nano-Calcium Oxalate Crystals (PMID: 32411319)
Molecular Mechanisms of Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate for Prevention of Chronic Kidney Disease and Renal Fibrosis: Preclinical Evidence (PMCID: PMC6752729)
I then started drinking a lot of green tea. Over the last few years, I have passed a couple of small stones and have peed out "sand" a few times. I continue drinking a LOT of green tea,
Great post!
My retired RN friend used to work at a retirement home where they used d-mannose to prevent urinary tract infections. It was researched and written about by an MD in the 1980s.
Thank you for article! I've been researching and self experimenting for 10 years to prevent kidney stones and am a student of SallyKNorton .com who is an author and expert in oxalic acid. Her teachings and book have literally saved my life! Contrary to your recommendations, she advises on reducing collagen intake since it increases risk of calcium oxalate stone formation and explains the biochemistry. She also advises to toss the cooking liquid after boiling veggies which have high levels of oxalic acid which come of out of the veggies, but she recommends adding potassium citrate to your drinking water. Please see her book and life's work "Toxic Superfoods" as well as her research on how to reduce oxalic acid overload which continues to "poison" many of us, especially those of us who are health food crazy like me!
I’m curious to learn more about alkalinizing acids that feed into the citric acid cycle - I hadn’t read about that as a technique to buffer body acidity elsewhere…..are there other benefits or cautions for supplementing with citric acid feedstocks?
Interesting! Wouldn't it be best if the Urine changes the PH in a natural circadian rhythm to eventually prevent both versions of stones and bacteria?
Nah, use Mag Citrate. Most kidney stones are calcium oxalate, but not all. When you give Mag Citrate, the Citrate ion combines with the calcium on the calcium oxalate to make calcium citrate. Calcium citrate is 567 times more soluble in water than calcium oxalate. Voila. Kidney stone is history.
Potassium citrate is the recommended treatment for many...
I have wondered whether magocitrate might also help but can't find anything
Would the alkalinization of the urine caused by Mag Citrate stop the dissolving of the kidney stone by Citrate?
I am wondering whether it is best to sample the first morning urine since it would be the most consistent time point to measure pH changes from day to day.