Composition of the Diet and Calcium Kidney Stones

Kidney stones occur frequently. As many as 10 percent of men and 3 percent of women have a stone during their adult lives1. About 80 percent of all stones are composed of calcium oxalate, alone or with a nucleus of calcium phosphate (apatite)1. The first step in the formation of calcium stones is the formation of microscopic crystals in the lumen of renal tubules as a result of supersaturation of the luminal fluid with calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate. Crystal growth, and therefore stone formation, is enhanced by the attachment of crystals to the surface of cells in . . .