In early September, Amy and I visited Maui. While there, I was stricken by a very nasty kidney stone. I've never had a kidney stone before, and I was slow to realize what was going on. My son took me to a doc-in-the-box, where they treated me with a muscle relaxant and lots of ibuprofen. The symptoms faded over then next week, and I assumed I was done with it.
In mid-October, I went for my annual visit with my urologist, and I told him what had happened. While I was free of symptoms, he thought it best that I have an ultrasound and x-ray to see if there weren't other stones forming. So I went yesterday for both. They found a stone in my right kidney that is, according to the x-ray, 13mm x 15mm. I haven't spoken with my urologist about this yet, but if YouTube is right, a stone that size requires surgery of some kind.
When I discussed the Maui kidney stone with my urologist, I wondered what causes kidney stones, and why I should be getting one now. One likely possibility is that, in implementing the MIND diet, I have added a lot of spinach to what I eat. Spinach is high in oxalates, which cause kidney stones. When I look at the material he gave me on kidney stones, I've become convinced that I need to cut back on spinach. I can make up the difference with broccoli and other vegetables.
The material suggested that oxalate is in so many foods, that you can't just cut it out. But I should go light on the particularly high oxalate foods. Unfortunately, many of these show up in the brain-healthy diets, including mine -- spinach, of course, but notably nuts, beans, and chocolate.
I hope to see my urologist soon to review the imaging results. Hopefully he'll have some more suggestions for me.
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