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Comment by throwanem | Hacker News Reader

Time I made a habit of drinking lemonade - a suggestion I'd have expected from my urologist, but not one I'm sorry to have run across whatever the source.

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Yes, it's strange that my urologist has never mentioned it either. I wonder if this result applies to all types of kidney stones or just calcium oxalate.

A preventative like this is good to know, but, really, all you need to do is drink a lot of water through the day. That is the number one way to avoid a kidney stone. I have had a urologist say, "Hell, you can drink enough beer, and you should be good." - Though, if you are prone to gout (your body generally likes to make crystals), beer ain't a great choice.

That is certainly not "all you need to do". It is good, and helpful, but if a person is prone to stones, it's often not enough on its own.

Also I just hate drinking water unless it’s hot.

I know doctors tell us to chug water but it’s just tiring sometimes. In winter for example, I just don’t feel thirsty and I just get bored heating water, making time to drink it etc.

So yeah, drinking 2-4 litres of water can feel unnatural to me.

I mean, ideally you don't do it all at once, but if you can chug a pint of beer then you can chug a pint of water, too.

Thirst is weird. I find it manifests as an unaccountable malaise and lack of focus well before I begin to perceive the sensation I understand as thirstiness per se.

Completely agree , If I’m ever feeling cloudy, foggy, down, extremely tired during the day I usually feel better almost immediately after 2 glasses of water.

Yes I know what you mean, you don’t have to drink it all at once, but I still get bored having to drink. It’s just. Personal thing I guess. Kind of have to force water into my system.

Believe me when I say that I make strong habits of anything and everything I come across, including hydration, that offers a reasonable prospect of reducing the chance I will have another kidney stone.

See a urologist because self-diagnosis has a fool for a patient.

Maybe because unscientific, folk advice on the internet isn't a replacement for evidence-based medicine.

I drink lemonade regularly (I make my own), but to prevent heartburn, as lemon turns into a base in your stomach and is very helpful with heartburn. Now knowing that it is also good for kidney stone prevention just puts the cherry on top!

It looks [1] like limes have about as much citric acid, so cherry limeade should be as good an option, too!

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2637791/

Instead of dissolving tooth enamel, working on cavities, and type-2 diabetes perhaps take magnesium citrate in reasonable amounts in pill form. There is no sense to drinking sugar water.

Can you link a study showing that magnesium citrate pills block the progression of kidney stones? If not, I'll stick with lemonade, which does have such a study. I don't need to put sugar in it.

> lemon turns into a base in your stomach

This doesn't make any sense to me. How can two acids combine to create a base?

Thinking the same. Lemonade gives me severe heartburn. Hurts just thinking about what a glass would do.

You're trying to make sense out of pseudoscience quackery. Please don't.

A good way to dissolve your enamel and get cavities. See a urologist instead.

...he said, in direct response to a comment which includes the phrase "my urologist."

I can see that you know how to produce language, albeit by all appearances rarely at best to worthwhile effect. Do you know at all how to consume it? Or is jumping to wrong conclusions and then being snide about them the only trick you have?

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