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Prevent Kidney Stones Naturally

Posted on by Paula Gallagher

Kidney stones are nearly twice as common now as they were in the early 1990's. A new study from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) has found that one in 11 people have kidney stones as compared to one in 20 in 1994. Obesity, diabetes and gout all increase the likelihood that a person will develop a kidney stone. Experts point out that while kidney stones can be treated, they can also be prevented by eating a healthy balanced diet, staying hydrated and getting plenty of exercise. Here are other tips to support kidney health and prevent kidney stones: 1. Maintain a healthy pH. Using a green food supplement will usually raise your pH (this is a good thing), making it more alkaline and thereby reducing the leaching of calcium. If your body is too acidic, then calcium can leach from your bones to try and neutralize the acidity. The excess calcium is sent to the kidneys, where over time stones can form. To prevent this from happening, it is important to maintain a healthy and balanced body pH. You can monitor this with pH papers. At the end of this blog, there are tips for testing your pH levels. Also, learn more about the importance of maintaining healthy pH here. 2. Ensure that your bones are absorbing calcium effectively. A naturopath I worked with recommends silica to help with the uptake of calcium into the bones. 3. Eat plenty of fiber. It helps the body excrete excess calcium that might otherwise be reabsorbed by the intestines when it is not needed. A daily fiber supplement is a convenient and effective way of increasing your fiber intake and reducing reabsorption of unneeded calcium. Kidney stones are excruciatingly painful. They begin as small crystals that form in the kidneys and can grow into the size of small grapes. But, by following the above the steps, you may be able to prevent kidney stones. How to Measure Your pH Using pH Paper The easiest way to get an idea of the pH level in your body is to measure your saliva or urine with pH test paper. When liquid comes in contact with this pH test paper, it turns a color that corresponds to a chart that comes with the test paper. The chart ranges from blue to yellow with blue indicating alkaline and yellow indicating acid. Using your urine to test the pH of your body is not completely accurate. One of the reasons is because your kidneys will dump excess acid in several ways that will show up in your urine. As much as these methods are not completely accurate, they can still be close enough to give you a pretty good idea of the pH levels in your blood and in your internal organs. Tips for How and When to Test Your Saliva When you take your saliva pH, take it at least 1 hour before or 2 hours after you eat. Take measurements 2-3 times a day so you can get a feel for your average. Take a sampling of your saliva pH for about a week before you make any dietary changes. This will give you a baseline from which you can measure your improvements. Track your pH levels over the course of several months after you have made your dietary changes. Your pH levels probably won't change overnight, so don't be discouraged if you don't see any improvement right away.
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