Protect Yourself from Kidney Stones
To avoid painful kidney stones in the hot weather (or any time of the year), follow these recommendations, especially if you have history of kidney stones:
• Hydrate: Don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink. Try to drink several extra glasses of water a day—more if it’s especially hot or if you’re exercising.
To avoid painful kidney stones in the hot weather (or any time of the year), follow these recommendations, especially if you have history of kidney stones:
• Hydrate: Don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink. Try to drink several extra glasses of water a day—more if it’s especially hot or if you’re exercising.
• Increase your intake of lemon and lime juice: These two fruits have high amounts of citrate, which have been shown to inhibit the development of kidney stones. Dr. Goldfarb advises against drinking Gatorade or other sports drinks which have citrate because there’s not really enough of it in them to make a difference and there are plenty of calories, which could make you gain weight (a risk factor for kidney stones.) But lemon and lime “won’t hurt and can make a slight difference. Squeezing lemon on your food and into what you drink may help.”
Haley adds that other fruit juices will not do the trick. Don’t count on iced tea, either, which contains varying amounts of oxalate, one of the substances that helps form kidney stones.
• Watch your urine color: It should be a very pale yellow. If it’s getting darker, says Dr. Haley, then it’s most likely getting more concentrated (which can lead to kidney stones.) Drink more water.
• Avoid foods that are linked to stone formation: Fatty and salty dishes should be avoided, but some healthy foods pose a risk too because they are loaded with oxalates, which contribute to the formation of stones. These include beets, spinach, rhubarb and nuts. Oxalates are also found in chocolate.



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