Did drinking iced tea really cause my kidney stones?

KidneyStoners.org

Recently, you may have heard patients, newspapers, and websites all tell you, “Iced tea caused your kidney stones!” With so many sources telling you the same thing, it must be true, right?

Wouldn’t it be great if iced tea were the single underlying cause of your kidney stones? If this were really the case, you could simply remove it from your diet then viola, no more stones. But things are unfortunately usually not so simple. To help clarify this issue and give you the information to reach your own conclusions, we’ll go over the evidence for and against tea in the post below.

Who says I shouldn’t drink iced tea?

A lot of people. Here’s a collection of links to recent news articles warning you about the dangers of iced tea and kidney stones:

Loyola Medicine News Release: “Hidden hazards of iced tea: Popular summer drink may raise risk of painful kidney stones, Loyola urologist warns” (July 19, 2010)

Medical News Today: “Iced Tea’s Hidden Risk Of Painful Kidney Stones” (July 23, 2008)

The Washington Post: “Kidney Stones? Lay Off the Iced Tea” (August 15, 2008)

Livestrong.com: “Correlation Between Iced Tea & Kidney Stones” (May 23, 2011)

ABC news: “Iced tea link to kidney stones” (August 8, 2012)

If you read the articles above, you might notice that they all seem to say the similar things. That’s because Loyola re-releases their same press release each summer, which is then picked up by various news outlets to fill out their summer news.

Warnings from experts against tea drinking in kidney stone patients have actually been around for a while. Dr. Linda Massey, an expert in nutrition, wrote back in 2000 that “…it seems prudent that calcium oxalate stone formers, especially those with elevated urinary oxalate values, limit their consumption of regular black and green teas, or at least drink them with generous amounts of added milk.”

What’s in tea that could make it so bad for stone formers?

Tea contains high level of a substance called “oxalate”. Oxalate can combine with calcium to form an insoluble compound (calcium oxalate) that makes up most kidney stones. A high level of oxalate in the urine (hyperoxaluria) is therefore a risk factor for forming kidney stones.

A large amount of the oxalate that is excreted in urine is actually made by your own liver as a breakdown product of normal metabolism and is not from your diet. The amount that dietary intake contributes to urinary oxalate is currently debated, with some authors estimating only 10% while others report higher levels like 50%. (Holmes 2001 and Williams 1989)

In addition to being found in tea, other common food items that are important dietary sources of oxalate include nuts, spinach, beets, rhubarb, chocolate, breads, cereals, and potatoes. There are many other food items that also that contain high levels of oxalate which can make staying on a low oxalate diet a challenge. A list of the oxalate content of various foods is available here from Medscape.

Is diet the only reason for high urinary oxalate?

No. Less common conditions that can also lead to high levels of oxalate include enteric hyperoxaluria, caused by bowel abnormalities or bowel surgery, and primary hyperoxaluria, caused by an inherited disorder of oxalate metabolism. We won’t be discussing them here.

Okay, so tea contains a lot of oxalate. Does drinking it increase the amount of oxalate in my urine?

Maybe…early research into whether drinking tea results in high levels of urinary oxalate found that tea only increased urinary oxalate by small amounts when given to healthy volunteers. This was because while tea contains relatively high oxalate content, only a small amount of that is “bioavailable” or actually absorbed. In contrast, spinach, while also having low bioavailability, has much higher total oxalate content per serving, resulting in a much higher amount of oxalate making its way into urine. The table shown below summarizes the increase in urinary oxalate levels from a large serving of each food and the bioavailability % of oxalate for each food.

One serving of food item Increase in urinary oxalate % Oxalate bioavailable
Spinach 29.3 mg 2.4%
Peanuts 3 mg 3.8%
Chocolate 3.3 mg 2.6%
Pecans 3.0 mg 42.9%
Instant tea 4.1 mg 6.2%
Brewed tea 1.17 mg 0.08%
Brewed tea w/ milk 0.44 mg 0.03%

Data from Brinkley 1981 and Brinkley 1990

Another group of researchers again looked into this topic and found that in a group of healthy volunteers drinking 6 cups of two types of black tea over a 24-hour period, the total amount of oxalate excreted in urine was 28.9 and 24.0mg for each type of tea. While that sounds like a lot of oxalate, the researchers also checked the amount of oxalate excreted by the same volunteers over a 24-hour period while not drinking tea and found that their “baseline” amount was 26.8mg. When averaging both teas, the net result of drinking 6 cups of black tea was an average decrease of 0.37mg of urinary oxalate compared to not drinking tea. They concluded that, “….It would, however, be very difficult indeed to consume an excessive amount of soluble oxalate from drinking tea.” (Savage 2003)

If you’ve read this far you must be thinking that this whole tea thing must have been totally overblown – in the laboratory studies above, drinking tea led to only negligible increases or, in contrast, decreases in urinary oxalate. Well, things may be a little more complicated than that. Both studies above used normal healthy volunteers with no history of stones. But stones formers may be different than non-stone formers when it comes to oxalate absorption. More specifically, some stone formers appear to be super-absorbers of oxalate. These individuals, when tested, have higher urinary levels of oxalate than normal. They represent about 20% of all stone formers (Laminksi 1991). In a study where an oral oxalate “load” in the form of sodium oxalate was given to a group of stone formers, those who had pre-existing elevated urinary oxalate as a risk factor absorbed and excreted more oxalate than the stone formers without a history of elevated urinary oxalate. (17.2 mg versus 12.1 mg excreted in urine after six hours following the 440 mg oral load) This suggests that for some 20% of stone formers, their bodies seem to be more sensitive to dietary oxalate and therefore drinking too much tea might be a concern for them. However, note that in this study the subjects drank pure sodium oxalate and not tea so it is still unclear whether tea would be a problem even in this group of patients. (Krishnamurthy 2003)

Enough with the laboratory studies, do tea drinkers actually make more stones?

The short answer is no. In fact, tea drinkers may actually make fewer stones! Here are four studies on this topic:

Study #1. Drinking tea decreases the risk of stones among male health professionals: Curhan and colleagues looked at fluid intake from different beverages and the risk of developing kidney stones in a group of 45,289 male health professionals over a six-year period. For every 8oz daily serving of tea, the risk of developing stones was decreased by 14% in the study. (Curhan 1996)

Study #2. Drinking tea doesn’t increase or decrease the risk of stones among Finnish male smokers: Hirvonen and coworkers looked at dietary data from a study involving 27,001 Finnish male smokers, originally conducted to study lung cancer prevention. They found that drinking tea neither increased nor decreased the risk of developing kidney stones among the study subjects. (Hirvonen 1999)

Study#3. Drinking tea doesn’t increase or decrease the risk of stones among men from the Carolinas or Rockies: Shuster and colleagues performed a study involving 2,295 men from the Carolinas and the Rockies. In the study, those who were primarily tea drinkers were not at increased or decreased risk for the development of kidney stones compared to non tea drinkers. (Shuster 1985).

Study #4. Drinking tea decreases the risk of stones among female nurses.  In a study of 81,093 nurses followed over 8 years, each 8oz serving of tea that was drunk on a daily basis decreased the risk of developing stones by 8%. (Curhan 1998)

Moving off the topic of tea, it may interest you that the other beverages found to decrease the risk of stones in the above studies included (grouped by study): beer, coffee, and wine; beer; beer and coffee; coffee and wine.

Now I’m confused, if tea has a lot of oxalate, why didn’t tea drinkers make more stones?

Possible reasons for this paradox include:

1)   Not much oxalate is actually absorbed by drinking tea in most people* so the oxalate content of tea becomes a non-issue

2)   The volume of fluid in tea helps to dilute the urine, counteracting the small amount of oxalate absorbed

3)   The caffeine in tea encourages higher urine output, again diluting the small amount of oxalate

4)   If you drink tea with milk, the calcium in the milk binds the oxalate, further reducing the amount of oxalate absorbed.

*As discussed previously, this may be different in the approximate 20% of stone formers who have high urinary oxalate as a risk factor; they may be “super-absorbers”. However, we haven’t yet seen a study demonstrating significant absorption of oxalate from tea, even among this group.

Okay, what’s the bottom line? I’m a kidney stone patient – should I stop drinking tea?

Quickly summarizing the above: 1) Tea contains oxalate, which at high levels in the urine can increase your risk of stones. 2) While tea contains oxalate, not much is actually absorbed by your body in most individuals.  3) Based on the only studies available linking beverage intake to actual development of stones, drinking tea may actually decrease your risk of stones. 4) The decreased risk of stones may be due to the increased urine you make when drinking tea

Our final take home points:

  • For better or worse, drinking iced tea probably did not “cause” your stone. Cutting out iced tea will probably not make your stones go away but neither do you have to swear off drinking it either.
  • If you like iced tea and you are a stone former, drinking a moderate amount is unlikely to cause you to develop more stones. Based on the available research, it may actually decrease your risk of stones.
  • If in doubt, ask your doctor for a 24-hour urine test to measure your urinary oxalate levels. If you have normal urinary oxalate, you don’t have to worry much about restricting the amount of oxalate you eat or drink. If however you have high urinary oxalate, work with your doctor to develop a plan to lower your oxalate intake.
  • Realize that no one (including us) can really tell you for sure sure whether tea is good or bad for kidney stone patients until a well designed study is done in which a large amount of individuals are randomly assigned into tea drinking and non-tea drinking groups and then followed for many years to see which group develops more stones. This study is unfortunately unlikely to happen.
  • In the end, most stone formers might do better for themselves by keeping things simple. Focus instead on the three basic dietary recommendations given below. There is less controversy about the benefits of these recommendations in reducing your risk of stones and as a bonus they will also help to improve your overall health.

1) Increase your overall fluid intake to keep your urine dilute and close to colorless

2) Watch your salt intake- try to keep it at 2300 mg a day or lower*

3) Watch your animal meat intake- try to keep it less than 6oz a day and instead eat more fruits and vegetables*

*The amount of salt and animal protein suggested above are actually the same as those recommended for all adults, stone formers or not, by the FDA and USDA. Examples of the amounts of salt and protein found in common foods are available here.

References 

Brinkley et al, “Bioavailability of oxalate in foods”, Urology 1981

Brinkley et al, “A further study of oxalate bioavailability in foods”, J Urol 1990 

Curhan et al, “Prospective study of beverage use and the risk of kidney stones”, Am J Epidemiology 1996

Curhan et al, “Beverage use and risk of kidney stones in women”, Ann Intern Med 1998

Hirvonen et al, “Nutrient intake and use of beverages and the risk of kidney stones among male smokers”, Am J Epidemiology 1999

Holmes et al, “Contribution of dietary oxalate to urinary oxalate excretion”, Kidney Intl 2001

Krishnamurthy et al, “The urinary response to an oral oxalate load in recurrent stone formers”, J Urol 2003

Laminski et al, “Hyperoxaluria in patients with recurrent calcium oxalate calculi: dietary and other risk factors”, Br J Urol 1991

Massey, “Tea Oxalate”, Nutrition Reviews 2000

Savage et al, “Bioavailability of soluble oxalate from tea and the effect of consuming milk with tea”, Eur J of Clin Nutrition 2003

Shuster et al, “Primary liquid intake and urinary stone disease”, J Chron Dis 1985 

Williams et al, “Oxalate synthesis, transport and hyperoxaluric syndromes”, J Urol 1989

About Dr. Mike Nguyen

Mike M Nguyen, MD, MPH, is a urologist and an Associate Professor of Clinical Urology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles, CA. He specializes in the treatment of kidney stones with both surgery and dietary prevention and the in the treatment of kidney and prostate cancer using the latest robotic surgical approaches. He sees patients at clinics located in Los Angeles and La Canada, CA. He is the founder of the www.KidneyStoners.org website.

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Alice Silvers

Darn. You had me right up to the end. But then you stated the globalist viewpoint of less [or no] meat and more vegetables. Now everything you said is suspect. Please don’t give in to Marxist pressure.

Peanut eater

Too much tea and other high-oxalate foods can cause oxalate nephropathy. This rare condition doesn’t cause kidney stones, but it means you get oxalate crystals in the nephrons. The kidney can’t perform its function as well and over time the kidney can’t filter your blood as well. I know this because it happened to me. I recommend (1) making sure your primary care physician asks for kidney function tests yearly and (2) limit your tea, spinach, pecans, rhubarb and other high oxalate foods. I read an article about someone who drank about a gallon of iced tea a day (that wasn’t me). But I did drink lots of tea, eat lots of peanuts, have a spinach salad ever lunchtime, etc.

Al

After 3 stones over 21 years I saw the commentary on the ‘stone crusher’ tea Quebra Pedra from the Amazon – people seem to recommend this in a number of articles so I take this now – has no special taste and we shall see if it keeps me free:

https://thedailyhealth.co.uk/quebra-pedra-kidney-stones-00236/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-202016/Is-alternative-cure-kidney-stones.html

[…] drink tea – or drink more of it. There is a lot of contradictory research on whether drinking tea can lead to kidney stones. Many health experts believe that Southerners are […]

Claire enjoyed reading these comments I’ve had stones 30 years had 5 operations had no problems for the last few years had red grapes yesterday started having really bad pains in kidney area , I guess grapes are out , ouch !

I drink swiss regular tea with a little lemon in it was at the er room said i had 2 2mm stones is this really proof the tea gives u kidneys stone’s what about the other things out there you drink or eat

Chris O Grady

I never had Kidney stones till I gave up smoking. Now I have a number and one 4mm stone to try and pass.
When I gave up smoking. I started to eat more nuts. Drank more tea and even started to drink green tea. Cut down on coffee.
It has been 2 months since my diet included nuts and tea.
Now I am passing stones.
I will stop drinking tea. Go back to coffee. And will stop eating the nuts. They were a type of filler for not smoking. Will let you know if this helps.

Wilson

Nuts are high in oxylate as well as cocoa, peanut butter black tea, spinach is very high!

Don Michel

While playing at ‘prevention’, I have found a way to eliminate most of my pain. I have a vibrating cushion. Woke last night at 3am, with the familiar pain, and I laid on the cushion. The vibration seems to shake the stone through the system, avoiding hang ups. Hangups seems to cause most of the pain. I actually fell asleep on the cushion – woke an hour later feeling fine. I’ve done this 8 or 10 times now, and for me it always works.

Robert Hill

The brand of iced tea I like is the Brisk 50/50 tea/lemonade. I wonder if the citrates in the lemonade counter the oxalates in the tea? LOL 😉

Kidneystoner

From my experience, this is indeed true. I got hooked on a certain brand of iced tea with lemon because it tasted so similar to my mother’s. (My mother has long ago passed so I guess there was an emotional connection.) I was drinking over a 2-liter bottle of iced tea per day for about 6 months. A few months ago, I was sent to the ER to discover I had developed 5 kidney stones. Having had a 9 lb. 11 oz. baby to compare, childbirth is worse but I would put kidney stone pain in 2nd place. I have ceased drinking iced tea. I think a glass or two wouldn’t hurt you but drinking it excessively, like I was, is not smart.

Vern Davis

When I drink tea it is always sweet tea. Does this make a difference in producing kidney stones? I drink black tea.

Kidneystoner

In my experience, it was black tea.

Ashley P

Never had a stone until I started drinking black tea. When I got rid of black tea from my diet the stones went away. For some it is just the tea.

[…] Did drinking iced tea really cause my kidney stones … – KidneyStoners.org. Recently, you may have heard patients, newspapers, and websites all tell you, “Iced tea caused your kidney stones!” With so many sources … […]

Erin P

I will say I had been someone who had a very hard time with kidney stones, 2 a year for 6 years and as soon as I cut out my tea, they were gone. I made the mistake of giving into my maternity cravings and would make my green tea and sure enough they came back again. 5 years of no tea drinking and knock on wood….the stones are gone.

Scott

I have passed over 160 stones in 23 years. Five operations

When I gave up dark tea and switched to green tea my stones went away

Christopher S

Amazing article. Thanks.

My comment, as a stone former, (excruciatingly painful – well you’ll know if you’ve had it :-)), find a tea that has no oxalate, (as per this article), and I’ve found one. Rooibos tea, (aka Red Bush tea), also free from caffeine, (and not truly a tea, more of a herb), is definitely worth a shot. It’s becoming much more available in the US now, even on Amazon. Make sure you choose USDA organic.

Since switching from black tea, (never tried green tea) to red tea (almost) exclusively, no more visits to the surgery!!

Touching wood too!!

Ranjan

I am 57 and a vegetarian and had kidney stones for the first time recently. I eat and consume all `bad-for-kidney-stones’ foods such as spinach, nuts including pecans, 1-2 cups of black tea per day, and somewhat spicy and salty food. I do not drink much water though (which is probably the culprit). Not sure what to do about tea. Is red rooibos tea better than black tea?

Christopher S

Yes Ranjan,

I just left a comment above…

Just Say No to Tea

Perhaps there is a conspiracy against iced tea by Loyola College. Or perhaps someone is conspiring against Loyola. Hahahaha.

Oxalate Stone Former

I’m one of the unfortunate ones who forms stones, and after a long history of this, along with numerous surgeries for stone removal, I determined long before the study sited that drinking copious amounts of black tea caused me to form calcium oxalate stones. Loving my ice tea, I justified drinking large amounts of ice tea by the hydration from it. Wrong. It took me about 6 years to learn this, but each time I eliminated black tea from my diet, the stones did not form. Can’t say that we all have similar metabolism and body chemistry, but large amounts of tea will cause some to form stones. Moderation, in all respects, is the key to healthy living.

Christopher S

Hi Oxalate Stone Former,

Gee, I’m loving this article.

As per my replies above to Ranjan and Erin P / Scott, I would tell you that you can make the most amazing iced tea with red tea (aka rooibos tea) from South Africa. Look it up… it’s available on Amazon.com and some stores, I think AKiN’S & Chanberlin’s. But go find some somewhere and try this amazing rooibos tea. Plus no caffeine and very little tannin, so good sleep and no bitter aftertaste.

Check it out… that’s actually what I was doing when I found this article.

Leandra

I started drinking tea daily in college and then I started getting kidney stones. Stopped drinking tea haven’t had a kidney stone since that was six years ago.

Mark McGrail

I have had kidney stones since I was 27 years old. I am now 55. Three years ago I stopped drinking coca-cola. I was drinking four or five 12 ounce cans a day. After I stopped I have not had a single kidney stone. I still drink hot and iced tea with no issues. I feel it was the soda that was causing my kidney stones.

Michelle

I have uric acid kidney stones so I guess drinking tea wont hurt me anyway. I drink tea occasionally, but I drink Lemonade everyday. I still have stones.

Quartz

Everytime I drink more than 2 cups of green tea, I end up with kidney stone symptoms….I have tested this several times and the result was the same…so disappointed as I have read green tea has benefits…i became a stoner 16 yrs ago before i ever drank green tea, but I was a big iced tea drinker…..lately when i get stone symptoms i also have flu like symptoms…..maybe my kidneys are getting stressed from the stones….my problem is scans are not picking up the teeny ones, but keep showing a 2 mm one in the right kidney….the equipments failure to pick up small stines complicate treatment so so bad….i have made the asparagus soup and drank the 6 cokes method….it has worked for me…maybe you should google it and try it…it can’t hurt…..

Vanessa

I’ve passed over 200 stones since 2001 and my urologist said drinking tea was a huge no no so I cut it out completely. I still passed as many stones as before so I’m thinking you’re onto something!! I sure miss my tea!!!

Sunday

I stop drinking tea but so thankful to read this 🙂 I love Green TEA 🙂

Aloke

I hate adding milk to expensive Darjeeling black tea.
Is it ok to follow-up a cup of black tea with some milk or yoghurt or a caltrate supplement (they can combine in my stomach instead of my cup!)?
How quickly does the oxalate in tea get absorbed?

Fredd

Since I began drinking tea because of its general heath benefits, My stones have been so small (although appearing more frequently, probably because they are small) that they have been passing on their own as opposed to in the past where they required surgical procedure. I drink pure green tea, pure black tea, and pure rooibos tea. I am convinced they are helpful to stones.

Matt

There are a number of studies that say that green tea, in particular, reduces kidney stone formation and is more beneficial in this regard than black tea. My stone production did reduce somewhat when consuming a lot of green tea. I think it makes the oxalate stones a little softer and easier to pass apparently.

http://www.webmd.com/kidney-stones/news/20091120/green-tea-may-prevent-kidney-stones