Ask the Nurse

I passed a kidney stone a few years back and can no longer eat a lot of calcium rich-foods. I do not take a calcium supplement. Any suggestions?


Most kidney stones are calcium oxalate and having a kidney stone does NOT mean you should NOT ingest calcium in your diet.

Most folks need to ingest, preferably in their diet, about 1,000mg of calcium daily in divided doses.

Your physician may want to order a renal urine panel to check how much calcium, oxalate, citrate and uric acid you are excreting over a 24 hour period. Some people leak out too much calcium in the urine causing kidney stones and osteoporosis, and the treatment is to take HCTZ orally to stop this leak. Others have low urinary citrate and high urinary oxalate and need to increase citrate in their diet (citrus/lemon juice to water) and/or reduce oxalates (rhubarb, tea, spinach, peanuts and eggs).

If you can not get enough calcium in your diet and are needing to take a calcium supplement then it should only be the CITRATE salt of calcium:

  • Calcium citrate/Citracal

All My Best,
Speaking of Women’s Health nurse

May 17, 2017 at 2:57pm