Kidney Stones

[confusedks]

My dad has had kidney stones for years and years and I was wondering if anyone had them before going gluten free and if they have now stopped? He has not been tested, but this may be enough to push him to get tested. I was wondering if anyone had experience with this?

Kassandra

[trents]

I am not aware of any link between celiac disease and kidney stones. Are there are other reasons to suspect your dad has celiac disease, I mean besides the fact that you, a near relative have it? Actually, kidney stones are kind of a medical mystery. I don't think doctors have established a strong link between propensity for kidney stones and diet, lifestyle or other medical issues.

Steve

[marciab]

I don't know if kidney stones and celiac are related. I just had my first one back in May, but my family has a strong history of kidney stones. My sister had her first one in 30 years back in March.

My mother, my sister, me, my daughter, my brother and at least 2 my cousins on my mother's side get them. And except for me and my daughter, we don't live anywhere near each other.

I haven't taken the time to look into this yet. Mine and my sister's were tested and we were told that they were calcium based. My daughter still doesn't have her lab results.

My sister and I were both told to drink fresh lemonade and grapefruit juice because they have an acid in them that helps to break up stones.

Most of the people in my family have allergies (wheat is common), but weren't tested for celiac. So far none of them want to know either ...

Marcia

[confusedks]

The reason I think he has Celiac is because he has had GI Symptoms his whole life. He was once hospitalized for what they thought was diverticulitis, but then it wasn't. He had such bad stomach pains, the only thing that helped him was morphine. He then lost about 25 lbs. which was A LOT because he is a small person. Nobody ever tested for Celiac, but he also has depression, etc. I just wish he would get tested.

Kassandra

[marciab]

JSYK, The area of pain isn't always enough to tell you whether or not it is a kidney stone.

My pain from my kidney stone was to the left of my belly button. I thought it was food poisoning.

Morphine would be the right drug for a kidney stone. They gave my daughter more drugs on top of that for the pain.

It's common to lose weight with stones, because they create poisons that make you nauseas, but 25 pounds would be a lot to lose with a stone. Unless he didn't get on antibiotics and couldn't eat .. Was he nauseas ?

Marcia

[confusedks]

He wasn't hospitalized for the kidney stones when the weight loss happened. He had no appetite at all which is the reason for weight loss. He was in a lot of pain in his stomach. That's the only reason he lost so much weight. He was also dx'd IBS at the end of all of this because they didn't know what it was.

Kassandra

[marciab]

From the sounds of it, it could have been kidney stone related. They do tear up your digestive tract for a long time. From what I have seen at least until you have passed them.

My sister had problems long after I did and my daughter had intermittent nausea and pain until it broke up and she passed it 3 weeks later.

But if it were me, because he has a diagnosis if IBS, I'd go ahead and get checked for celiac too. It's just a blood test. ANd doctors have been told to look for this now.

He could just eliminate gluten too and see if it helps. Get the test first though ...

It's too soon for me to know if this diet is going to help me with my kidney stones. And I haven't looked or seen anything that might connect the two.

Marcia

[Mosaics]

My dad has had kidney stones for years and years and I was wondering if anyone had them before going gluten free and if they have now stopped? He has not been tested, but this may be enough to push him to get tested. I was wondering if anyone had experience with this?

Kassandra

I don't know if there is a link between kidney stones and celiac disease either. I tend to think not. Here is my experience. I was diagnosed with celiac disease 3-4 years ago and have been gluten-free since. I had a kidney stone attack just this past Monday. My CT scan showed that I have one in each kidney and that one was moving and the other was not. My brother that has tested negative for celiac disease has had at least two kidney stones. My sister, who does have celiac disease, has had one kidney stone. My father had several kidney stones in his lifetime. I don't think he had celiac disease. We hadn't ever even heard of it back then, but when we look at our family history, we know that the celiac disease came from my mother's side of the family since she has it.

So that's two family members without celiac disease/with kidney stones and two family members with celiac disease/with kidney stones.

[Guest The Weasel]

Some people speculate they are related, I've read quite a few articles about it and they do make sense (better sense than I could) about the build up of junk in your body from celiac disease going untreated. However, I don't think that would be THE only reason to assume one would get them. I've had two, one last August and one this past week. The gluten-free diet has not helped them, at least from my experience, they are also not common in my family...in fact...I'm the ONLY one who has had any and thus far I'm the only one who has tested positive for celiac disease (though I SWEAR my Mum has it).

[estelita]

Interesting topic. I have had kidney stones in the past. Will have to monitor myself now that I'm gluten free and see if the trend continues!