Atkins/Low Carbers Support

[Wifezilla]

If you eat garbage, become fat, and abuse your body for 43 years, is your change in diet when you are 44 and 45 to blame for your health problems? Or is it the entire lifetime of damage PRIOR that should be examined if you have a health problem?

In my case, the high carb diet I lived on until I was 43 made me fat, pre-diabetic and gave me high blood pressure. If I drop dead tomorrow, it isn't following a low carbohydrate diet for 2 years that did me in.

 

[TXmom]

I totally agree with Wifezilla on this one...it's amazing how people abuse their bodies (us included, prior to Low Carb), and then blame their new diet for their health problems.

By the way, my husband has horrible kidney stones, and he hasn't eaten Low Carb a day in his life. I feed him low carb meals sometimes, but he hits the drive through during the day and also drinks regular sugary cokes on a regular basis. I do not push my diet on him although I give him the information I have. It's his choice, just as Low Carb is my choice.

 

[Wifezilla]

My buddy Frank eats a typical American diet. He has had several very bad kidney stone episodes. One was so bad he went in to shock and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. He has never low carbed a day in his life.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Quote:
Wow, that was very mature.

 

[Wifezilla]

It was blunt and direct. This is a SUPPORT thread. You are NOT being supportive. So, therefore, you need to start your own thread.

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Wifezilla, obviously you are not understanding my posts. I did not come here to attack Atkins or anyone who is doing it. I simply came here to post a warning for people who, like me, may be prone to developing calcium oxalate kidney stones while doing Atkins. If you will go back and reread my OP, you will see that. But let me state it once again... IF someone is doing Atkins or any other low carb diet and that person starts having pain in their kidneys, that person should probably consult a physician. Now, that said, I am not saying that every person who does Atkins WILL develop stones. In fact, I asked my urologist yesterday if only people prone to developing the kinds of stones I have would be the ones that would have problems on low carb diets and he said yes. If you aren't someone who will develop extremely painful, kidney damaging calcium oxalate stones, I am very happy for you and I wish you continued success with your diet lifestyle. BUT, not everyone who does Atkins will be as fortunate as you, so please, understand that my posts serve only as a warning for the people like me, who aren't as fortunate. Atkins, or low carb, is not for everyone and I just want to warn anyone who may be doing it and ignoring lower back/kidney pain like I did. That's all. Understand?

Now, I'm really done here. Best wishes to all of you who are able to succeed with the Atkins program.

 

[Wifezilla]

I understood your posts perfectly along with the inaccurate, outdated information about the cause of kidney disease. You are perpetuating a myth.

Here is some recent information about the increase in kidney stones in CHILDREN. These are not children following South Beach, Atkins or Natural Health and Weight Loss like me....

"Root causes

Most urologists believe that the rise in rates is linked to the increase in childhood obesity and poor diets.

* Obesity. High levels of glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol and insulin affect acidity of the urine. Studies at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have shown that people with metabolic syndrome -- characterized by obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol -- are at an increased risk for kidney stones. High levels of insulin, in particular, correlate with higher urine acid levels, which can cause uric acid stones.

Langman says he has seen an increase in overweight patients with stones, especially in African American and Latino children. He says stones almost never occurred in these groups just a few years ago.

* Too much dietary sodium. Most stones are made of calcium, and an abundance of sodium causes the body to release more calcium into the urine. Physicians worry that sodium intake in children is on the rise because they are drinking more sodas, eating more often at restaurants and noshing on more convenience foods.

In a 2007 letter published in the journal Hypertension, pediatric nephrologists at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam used a database of urine samples to find if there was an increase in sodium intake by children in recent years. They found that pediatric patients ages 5 to 10 were getting more than 50% more sodium in 2005 compared with 1995.

A report published in 2001 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion found that 68% of children ages 7 to 9 were exceeding the maximum recommended sodium intake. This was probably because of an increase in consumption of salty snacks and fast food, the authors said.

* Lack of dietary calcium. This may seem counterintuitive because stones are made of calcium, but if children have a low calcium intake, it can cause their gastrointestinal tract to overabsorb the chemical oxalate, a component of stones."
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-kidney25-2009may25,0,7601108.story

Here is one more story....
"Weight gain and obesity appear to increase the risk of kidney-stone formation, particularly among women, according to a report published in the January 26, 2005, issue of JAMA.

A group of researchers performed a prospective study of three large cohorts: 45,988 subjects in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, 93,758 older women in the Nurse's Health Study I, and 101,877 younger women in the Nurse's Health Study II.

Over a combined 46 years of followup, investigators documented 4,827 cases of kidney stones. When age, diet, and other variables were accounted for, a man who weighed more than 220 pounds had more than 1.4 times the risk of developing kidney stones as a man weighing 150 pounds, according to researchers. The effect was stronger among women, with overweight women having nearly twice the risk of kidney stones. A similar link was observed between kidney stones and waist circumference. The differences seen among the overweight and obese cannot be explained by dietary factors, according to the authors."
http://docnews.diabetesjournals.org/content/2/4/14.4.full
**


If you are trying to lose weight, the simple fact that you are OVERWEIGHT means your kidney stone risk is already elevated, particularly if you are a woman. Going on a low carb diet to lose the excess weight is NOT the cause of the stones. The stones already formed while you were piling on the pounds.

By continuing to confuse cause and effect, which is what your previous posts have done, you prevent people from making informed health decisions.