Kidney Stones: Drink More, and Don't Cut the Calcium (the Paradox)

Summary

The evidence-based levers for preventing the common (calcium-oxalate) kidney stone are clear and partly counterintuitive: **fluid is king** (drink enough to make more than 2 to 2.5 litres of urine a day), and **restricting dietary calcium backfires** because calcium eaten WITH meals binds oxalate in the gut so it never reaches your urine, which means normal food-calcium PREVENTS stones while low-calcium diets and between-meal calcium pills can make them worse; lower sodium and animal protein and raise citrate (citrus) on top of that, and remember the whole playbook is calibrated to the calcium