Nowadays, an increasing number of white-collar workers suffer from kidney stones. Experts point out that this is not only related to objective factors such as a busy work pace and high stress for office workers but is also closely linked to their unhealthy lifestyle habits. Among these, a few bad habits are the main culprits causing the disease. Skipping breakfast can lead to kidney stones.
What habits cause kidney stones? Here are 5 tips to prevent them effectively.
Tip 1: Don't skip breakfast.
It's not uncommon for office ladies (OLs) to skip breakfast. Some are rushing to work and don't have time, while others skip it to lose weight. This seemingly ordinary habit is a significant cause of stone disease.
According to health experts, the likelihood of developing stones from skipping breakfast is quite high. This is because after a long night's sleep, the body needs to replenish energy with food in the morning. The gallbladder, as part of the digestive system, secretes bile in the morning to prepare for digesting food. If a person skips breakfast, the gallbladder has no food to digest, and the bile stays in the gallbladder for a long time. Over time, bile can accumulate in the gallbladder or intestines, and cholesterol precipitating from the bile can easily form stones.
Don't make any excuses for skipping breakfast. Eating breakfast doesn't take much time and won't make you gain weight. Even something simple like drinking a glass of milk or eating a slice of bread can be effective for prevention.
Tip 2: Don't overeat and limit excessive nutrition.
Overeating often leads to a diet high in protein, sugar, and fat, which increases the risk of stone formation. Normally, you should eat more whole grains and vegetarian foods.
Tip 3: Avoid foods high in oxalic acid.
If you are a stone patient and have been cured, to prevent recurrence, especially for those with oxalate stones, you should avoid foods high in oxalic acid, such as spinach, beets, mushrooms, potatoes, chestnuts, strong black tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate, persimmons, and bayberries. For patients with uric acid stones, you should try to eat less food high in uric acid, such as animal offal, seafood, coffee, cocoa, black tea, chocolate, and peanuts.
In summary, the main cause of kidney stones is still diet, especially foods high in calcium and oxalic acid, which promote the formation of kidney stones. Therefore, we need to pay attention to food choices in our diet for kidney health, especially for kidney stone patients, who should never gamble with their own kidneys.
Tip 4: Don't drink enough water.
Many OLs drink less water due to a fast work pace. Even those who have time to drink often don't consume enough, which is another important cause of stone disease. Experts say that drinking less water reduces urine output and makes the urine overly concentrated. This increases the concentration of salts in the urine and the amount of precipitation, making it easier to form kidney stones or urinary stones.
Drinking more water can increase urine output, dilute the urine, lower the concentration of crystals in the urine, and flush the urinary tract, which is beneficial for preventing stone formation and promoting their expulsion. Therefore, even if you are not thirsty, you should drink more water. You should drink 2000-3000 ml of water daily, equivalent to 10-12 large glasses of water, and it's best to choose plain water.
Tip 5: Don't be sedentary.
Lack of exercise can also lead to stone formation. The nature of an OL's work involves long hours of sitting, with few opportunities for exercise, and many people don't like to exercise after work.
Experts point out that if a person exercises very little, on one hand, it is not conducive to calcium absorption, which increases the calcium salt content in the urine and can lead to kidney or urinary stones. On the other hand, the abdominal wall can become lax, leading to organ prolapse, which can compress the bile ducts, causing poor bile excretion and accumulation, thus forming gallstones.
Remember to exercise more and don't just "sit and wait" for stones to form. After working in the office for about two hours, you should get up and do some simple stretching exercises. In your spare time, you should also ensure a certain amount of exercise, with at least 30 minutes of exercise every day.