Kidney Stones Linked To Celiac Disease?

[keithceliac2010]

I am the only one in my family that has been diagnosed with Celiac. I am 99.9% positive that others in my family do have gluten intolerance since they still have the same symptoms as I had before going gluten-free. My father has most all of the symptoms that I had when I was eating gluten(bloating, IBS,chronic fatigue,achy joints,etc), but to date he has not decided to get tested and/or try a gluten-free diet for a period of time to see if his symptoms subside. He has had severe kidney stone issues for decades. He has had several procedures to break them up so he can pass them, but he keeps getting more of them. A recent ultrasound revealed one of his kidneys is full of stones, and now he is getting pain in his other kidney. When he is having a kidney stone attack, he will do ANYTHING to get rid of the pain and most of the time ends up in the hospital, and they send him home with a bottle of narcotic pain killers. I have researched online and have found a few articles that seem to show a correlation between certain types of kidney stones and celiac.

My question is this: Do any celiacs on this site experience kidney stones or have you experienced them in the past?? Does anyone have any personal experience or knowledge of a correlation between celiac and kidney stones?? Any good links that may help explain the correlation?? I appreciate whatever info you guys can share with me.

[Gemini]

I am the only one in my family that has been diagnosed with Celiac. I am 99.9% positive that others in my family do have gluten intolerance since they still have the same symptoms as I had before going gluten-free. My father has most all of the symptoms that I had when I was eating gluten(bloating, IBS,chronic fatigue,achy joints,etc), but to date he has not decided to get tested and/or try a gluten-free diet for a period of time to see if his symptoms subside. He has had severe kidney stone issues for decades. He has had several procedures to break them up so he can pass them, but he keeps getting more of them. A recent ultrasound revealed one of his kidneys is full of stones, and now he is getting pain in his other kidney. When he is having a kidney stone attack, he will do ANYTHING to get rid of the pain and most of the time ends up in the hospital, and they send him home with a bottle of narcotic pain killers. I have researched online and have found a few articles that seem to show a correlation between certain types of kidney stones and celiac.

My question is this: Do any celiacs on this site experience kidney stones or have you experienced them in the past?? Does anyone have any personal experience or knowledge of a correlation between celiac and kidney stones?? Any good links that may help explain the correlation?? I appreciate whatever info you guys can share with me.

I am the Celiac in my family, although like yours, I believe many others have the problem due to symptoms and related autoimmune diseases. However, the person close to me with the kidney stone problem is my husband. I suspect he also has a gluten problem (no, I am not paranoid and think everyone has it, BUT there are a suspicious number who have flaming symptoms!) He does not have an on-going problem but in the past 10-15 years, he has had about 5 episodes that landed him in the ER. It has been about 4 years since his last attack and things seem to be quiet for the moment.

My husband is 51 years old and eats like a teenage football player yet is 5' 7" tall and weighs in at 140 lbs. He looks like a marathon runner. It is not normal for anyone in their 5th decade to be able to eat like a horse and never put on a pound. He also has been diagnosed with osteopenia. Now, that could be from low body weight but really! Men rarely get osteopenia unless there is an underlying problem or they are taking meds which sap their calcium/bones. He also has been anemic in the past and hovers around the barely acceptable mark. He falls asleep on the couch after dinner and can sleep for 3 hours, then gets up and goes to bed and sleeps another 6-7 hours. I had all these issues before I was diagnosed.

I firmly believe that he gets calcium stones from malabsorption of calcium, due to a possible case of Celiac. If it isn't getting completely to your bones, then you either pee it out or it stays in your kidneys and forms stones. Yet, every episode he had we got the same crap from the AMA....we don't know what causes them, blah, blah, blah. They also don't seem to think his intermittent anemia or low body weight is a problem either. You will never see any studies on this because there isn't enough money in it and stones rarely kill people like cancer does. Cancer gets all the attention, which is understandable but not so good for those of us with chronic disease states that don't usually cause death. I firmly believe that one cause of stones is malabsorption/Celiac but good luck getting anyone to listen to you.

My husband knows deep down he has a problem but won't go completely gluten-free. He did have some antibody testing done, which came back negative, but we all know that means nothing. He recently agreed to give up gluten bread and has learned how to make really delicious gluten-free bread. I guess he has not gotten sick enough to give it all up and join me in gluten-free world. When he had his last bout with stones and was begging for morphine in the ER, he did agree to go really light on diary products and that seems to have slowed down the attacks. Easy on the milk and yoghurt, which he ate much more of before all these attacks.

Take it from someone who has seen it all and firmly believes there are many health issues related to gluten ingestion. I am just sick of trying to get doctors to go there and sicker still of trying to convince people to at least look at the issue.

When it comes to dietary change, people are much more resistant to it than when trying to quit smoking. I believe my father suffers from advanced celiac disease also (he has the genetic markers) but don't try telling him that. I hope your father is more open about it because it could be his problem, most definitely!

[eatmeat4good]

That is very interesting. I have a friend who is wondering the same thing...could kidney stones be caused by gluten?

And the calcium malabsorption idea is very interesting too. Thank you both for your posts. I will be watching this topic to see if you get more answers.

[chasbari]

Hmmm.. Just dealing with a student with kidney stone issues. Slight build. I try not to be paranoid but I see gut issues and gluten issues everywhere I look anymore. I try to be reasonable and think through to why I might be wrong but it keeps coming back to this. I was wondering whether gut permeability issues might have anything to do with it as well. Mal absorption plus excess gut permeability might equal overload on the kidneys for calcium. Sounds plausible that they could be linked.

[T.H.]

I likely had small kidney stones for years, and just thought it was horrific gas pains for about a day - you know, all centered in my lower back - until I had a bigger one that passed and was quite a bit more intense.

As I understand it, kidney stones can be a problem in some celiacs, yes. There's an article on it here:

Open Original Shared Link

Here is what is says about kidney stones and Celiac Disease:

"...Calcium naturally binds with oxalate. In healthy individuals, dietary calcium combines with oxalate in the intestine to form a compound that is not absorbed but is rather eliminated in the stool.

In active celiac disease, the normal mechanism to get rid of oxalate (calcium binding with oxalate) is prevented by fat malabsorption.

If too many fatty acids are present in the intestine, the calcium binds with them instead and is excreted as waste. The oxalate remains to be absorbed into the bloodstream by the colon where it is then excreted into the urine. This process is called enteric hyperoxaluria.

[Gemini]

I likely had small kidney stones for years, and just thought it was horrific gas pains for about a day - you know, all centered in my lower back - until I had a bigger one that passed and was quite a bit more intense.

As I understand it, kidney stones can be a problem in some celiacs, yes. There's an article on it here:

Open Original Shared Link

Here is what is says about kidney stones and Celiac Disease:

"...Calcium naturally binds with oxalate. In healthy individuals, dietary calcium combines with oxalate in the intestine to form a compound that is not absorbed but is rather eliminated in the stool.

In active celiac disease, the normal mechanism to get rid of oxalate (calcium binding with oxalate) is prevented by fat malabsorption.

If too many fatty acids are present in the intestine, the calcium binds with them instead and is excreted as waste. The oxalate remains to be absorbed into the bloodstream by the colon where it is then excreted into the urine. This process is called enteric hyperoxaluria.

[kota]

Yes, I had kidney stones (along with a whole lot of other things going wrong with me) before I went gluten free. I was in the ER for them the first time (January last year) and again in April then went gluten free in June and haven't had another issue since. Not sure what the direct link is or if there is medical evidence out there - but I do think that it's worth consideration. Especially since pain from kidney stones is absolutely equivalent to childbirth!

[Takala]

Oh, God.

Don't remind me.

Before gluten free, my kidneys' mission was to take calcium where ever it could find it, like out of my bones, run it around the bloodstream to try to fix the levels, and make sure it eventually got deposited in the wrong place.

And Tums

[Takala]

I am trying to think of what my husband is going to say when I show him this.......

Inquiring minds want to know ?!

Was it, "so, is oxalate in wheat ?"

[naiiad]

I don't have your answer, but I am only 21 (healthy, eat well) and have two kidney stones. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with my celiacs, but it sure is possible.

[NateJ]

I've battled the Oxalate stones since i was 18 (now 35).

My urologist assured me they are not related, but I don't think they really know.

Currently or as of Feb/Mar both my kidneys are full of debris. I actually passed a rather large stone on St. Pats day.

I've had void test done, and taken stones in I've passed to the Dr. but they don't have any reason

why I get them besides not drinking enough fluids. They tell me to drink 2.5 litres a day, but I only way 115 lbs

so I don't really push that on myself. Mostly because I already fight the bloating and drinking to much makes it worse,not

to mention running to the bathroom every 30 minutes.

I just started gluten free in March so I can't really say for sure if its going to help with the stone issue,

but I'm cautiously optomistic based off what a lot of people have said here.

[dotsdots]

I know this topic is a couple of years old, but I just stumbled upon it and am interested because I have had a myriad of kidney stones. I've been hospitalized 4 times for laser removal where you blast the stone. Had to stay a week in the hospital due to complications one time. I've also had many ER visits and have passed a lot on my own. They were oxalate kidney stones.

 

On About.com, under an article on the complications of celiac disease, they list "a type of kidney stone called an oxalate stone" as a complication. I'm sure you could Google it and get more info as this is how I came across it.

 

So yes, they do appear to be related. I wonder how many others have this same complication?