Hi - I've been lurking for a few weeks now and have found the discussions
very interesting and helpful.  I can reccomend "Why We Get Sick: The New
Science of Darwinian Medicine", 1994, by Randolf M. Nesse and George C.
Williams, Ph.D.

On the subject of kidney stones, they state as follows on page 82:

"Oxalate is another common plant defense.  Found in especially high
concentrations in rhubarb leaves, it binds metals, especially  calcium.  The
majority of kidney stones are composed of calcium oxalate, and doctors have
for years reccomended that such patients keep their diets low in calcium.
However, a study of 45,619 men, published in 1992, showed a higher risk of
kidney stones for those who had low calcium intakes.  How is this possible?
Dietary calcium binds oxalate in the gut so that it cannot be absorbed.  If
dietary levels of calcium are too low, some oxalate is left free to enter
the body.  If, as researchers S.B. Eaton and D.A. Nelson have argued, the
amount of calcium in the average diet is now less than half what it was in
the Stone Age, our current susceptibility to kidney stones may result from
this abnormal aspect of our modern environment, which makes us especially
vulnerable to oxalate."

Ken
----- Original Message -----
From: "Marylee" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2001 8:58 AM
Subject: Re: uric acid kidney stones?


> On Sat, 4 Aug 2001 18:12:40 -0700, Kimberly Rogers <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>
> >I understand what you're saying, but I've been told that there is a
> >connection between too much calcium intake and kidney stones.
>
> You're right in most cases.  Seventy percent to eighty percent of all
> kidney stones are composed of calcium oxalate.  However, there are also
> struvite stones composed of magnesium and ammonia, cystine stones develop
> from an excessive build up of the amino acid cystine, and uric acid stones
> develop from the build up of uric acid.
>
> Marylee