Does Too Much Protein Cause Kidney Stones?

Kidney stones are bundles of waste products--hard mineral collections of calcium and other materials that grow in the urinary system. Eventually, it crystallizes into a stone that causes severe pain.

Stone Types

• The National Kidney Foundation indicates four primary types of kidney stones exist: struvite, calcium-oxalate, cystine and uric acid. Of the four, only uric acid stones are principally caused by excessive consumption of protein.

Uric Acid

• Uric acid stones develop when urine is especially acidic. This occurs primarily in people who indulge in too much red meat. Animal protein, in particular, breaks down into amino acids, like uric acid, and encourages stones to form.

Calcium

• A high protein diet also leads to kidney stones as extra protein tends to force calcium to be excreted from the body, raising calcium levels in the urine, and encouraging stone growth.

Medicine

• The medication allopurinol (brand names Zyloprim and Aloprim) helps to minimize uric acid levels in the blood and urine to keep uric stones from building. It encourages the body to make a different, easier to dissolve chemical, called xanthine.

ESWL

• According to physicians at Cornell University's Department of Urology, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy is an effective and nonsurgical way of treating softer stones like those of uric acid.