Supplement can cut kidney stones risk

DALLAS, March 19 (UPI) -- Healthy post-menopausal women taking calcium citrate supplements are not at an increased risk for developing kidney stones, researchers say.

Dr. Khashayar Sakhaee, chief of mineral metabolism at the University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas says adding a potassium citrate supplement provides even more protection.

"Post-menopausal women who need calcium to prevent bone loss but are at risk of or afraid of forming kidney stones might take both calcium supplements and potassium citrate," Sakhaee says in a statement. "When you give both together, the combination provides additional protection against both calcium oxalate and uric acid stones."

Kidney stones can form when urine contains too much of certain substances, which can create small crystals that become stones. They may not produce symptoms until they begin to move down the ureters through which urine empties into the bladder.