Kidney Stones Support Group

What does lemonade do to help? Is there a particular kind that you should drink?

Those are great tips,thanks for shareing.Sadley for those with cystine type stones,it don't work too well.There are different types of stones caused by different factors,once tested a good urology doc can put you on the right diet just for youe type of stone.I highly recomend testing of your type of stone.Best wishes to you Maria,thank you for your help.More water,less cola I think helps all types of stones.The lemon increases acidity of urine,helps prevent infection and recurances.

I have heard the lemonade is supposed to soften the stones. My brother and I both use the Real Lemon (bottle) concentrate. That way we aren't stuck with all the sugar or artifically sweetners, you can just add it to water maybe a little sugar to lessen the tartness.
I have heard absolutely that testing for type of stone is very important and then altering your diet accordingly to cut down on reoccuring stones.There are some postings older that explains the different types and what foods cause them to form.(Within the last month I think)
Hope it goes well for you. Rhea

Lemonade is rich in potassium citrate. This helps prevent the excess formation of Oxalates which binds to Calcium in your system to form the Calcium Oxalate stones. Colas actually are not bad if following the Low Oxalate Diet...which is definitely something to check out, as it helped my body stop forming the stones. No situation is hopeless... it is all up to how willing you are to admit that you need to change what you put IN to your body, because what comes OUT is a direct result...

thank you Maria, i had a kidney stone that has just been lasered and i've spend a lot of time on the internet viewing often conflicting information. However drinking lots of water seems to be the advice that has been proven to work. And drinking lemon juice also popped up quite a few times however I dont know whether there has been any medical research on it.

I believe that my stone occurred because I drank a LOT of coke. I drank at least a bottle a day and didnt drink much else on a lot of days.
One tip I found which seemed to make sense was to drink twice the amount of water for each "bad" drink (tea, coffee, soda). So when I do have the occasional coke (no more than 1 glass per day) I will follow it by 2 glasses of water.

good luck guys...

Maria, what you wrote is soooooooo true! I drink the lemon water often and cut back on the pop and it worked for me!! Haven't had a episode since September 2007!! All of you that are going thru pain I know how you feel. I hope more people take this route instead of the surgeries. In 07 my doctor said I still had big stones in my kidney's but since I've been drinking lemon water I've been fine. Good luck to you all!! =D

Thanks, Maria.

I agree that lemon and lots of water really help. My mom suffers from kidney stones and when she has pain from them, she'll drink water with lemon every 30 minutes until the pain subsides.

I was told to give up caffeine more then a year ago by my heart doctor and all I drink now is water (tons of it) and lemonade. I have a huge stone in my right ureter right now that will be lasered this coming Thursday. How long do these things take to grow cuz I'm a bit worried about what the future brings if all I do drink is what I'm supposed to and I still get the stones. This stone is only number 6 in 10 years so its not too bad. The first one was a 6mm which they removed with a basket retrieval, the other 4 were tiny enough to pass on their own, and then there's the beast (9mm) which we've affectionately named Spike. Spike apparently has a couple of small friends up there with him but they are still in the kidney(at least as of my x-ray this past week). I'm worried that I'm just gonna be prone to these darn things no matter how good I am about what I eat or drink. What else can a person do???