"my wife, became very ill with a large kidney stone blocking off one of her kidneys and almost lost her kidney. Infact she had numerous stones in both
kidneys with the largest being 20mm [3/4"] in diameter so, after fourteen months of sound blasting, they had reduced them down to one stone which
failed to respond. An operation was in order and arrangements were made for her to travel north to a larger hospital to have this done.
In the mean time an old friend told her about the "Drink 2 litres of coke and eat one can of asparagus over two hours" trick. Being desperate, Carol
did this and a week later fronted up to the hospital for her operation. The surgeon was the same doctor who had been treating her all the time and was
completely dumfounded to find that the stone was gone, he could see where it had been lodged but it had dissapeared."
Any idea How this may have "worked"?
Phosphoric acid in coke.
Asparagine from asparagus breaking down to aspartic acid and oxalates?
this really isn`t my Area and it`s been a Long time since med school!
anyone have any clues how this worked?
cheerz roamingnome - 17-2-2007 at 10:55
Kidney stones are most commonly composed of calcium oxalate crystals
Phosphoric acid(in coke) is a mineral acid and, consequently, offers only hydrolysis, not oxidation
smell of the urine after eating asparagus. Gas chromatography of the urine has shown that the odour could be caused by S-methyl-thioacrylate and
S-methyl-3- (methylthio)thiopropionate,7 while a combination of methyl mercaptan, dimethyl sulphide, and small amounts of sulphur-oxidised compounds
could also be responsible.8 The source of these metabolites is unknown, but the last paper postulates asparagusic acid, which is specific to asparagus
and, when given to humans, causes the same characteristic smell in the urine.8
mabye a plausuble action in there! i wouldnt want to pass kindey stones, i would drink just about anything...
some how makng them more soluble....??YT2095 - 17-2-2007 at 11:22
so it would seem the asparagus plays a Contra role in this? as that breaks down into oxalates also.pvrajan - 18-2-2007 at 04:04
i am hearing this treatment for the first time. and looks goodYT2095 - 18-2-2007 at 05:19
well it will have achieved something medical science has thus far failed to, so I`m somewhat skeptical as to it`s efficacy.Misanthropy - 18-2-2007 at 08:48
I've heard of people using Hydrangea (IIRC) essential oil & marshmallow root for this to help dissolve & lubricate, respectively. Google it. I
think Hydrangea oil contains phosphoric acid....Misanthropy - 18-2-2007 at 08:49
I've heard of people using Hydrangea (IIRC) essential oil & marshmallow root for this to help dissolve & lubricate, respectively. Google it. I
think Hydrangea oil contains phosphoric acid....Pyridinium - 9-3-2007 at 00:41
I've been looking into this, too. I have a couple of papers that might be relevant, will post article titles when I get the chance.
Off the top of my head, a big dose of cola probably overloads the body enough to pass some H3PO4 into the kidneys.
Eating all that oxalate (in asparagus) seems counter intuitive, but these homeostatic systems can be weird like that.Elawr - 9-3-2007 at 07:00
Many large and rapidly growing kidney stones form as a result of bacterial urinary infections. Often these infections are chronic, caused by various
bacteria that normally inhabit the large intestine. However, when in the urinary tract (where thay do not belong), these microbes will metabolize urea
into ammonia. Urine pH tends to rise and conditions then become favorable for struvite (NH4)MgPO4·6(H2O) formation.
These struvite stones respond well to increased hydration and acidic urine. Coca cola works well because its phosphoric acid is fixed. That is to say,
we don't metabolize it we just excrete it and it lowers urine pH. So would HCl, HNO3, H2SO4, etc, but these are not nearly as palatable as food-grade
H3PO4!
Most of our acidic beverages derive from carboxylic acids such as citric, malic, acetic, et cet. These are metabolized to CO2, which is mostly blown
off by the lungs as gas. Very little is available to form H2CO3 as excess acidity that would lower urine pH. At least under normal physiological
condtions.
This could explain why Coca-cola, or as we'uns says it way down heah in good 'ol Al'bama - "Cokola", works better than fruit juices for some
sufferers of renal stones!
[Edited on 9-3-2007 by Elawr]Pyridinium - 9-3-2007 at 10:11
Quote:
Originally posted by Elawr
Urine pH tends to rise and conditions then become favorable for struvite (NH4)MgPO4·6(H2O) formation.
[Edited on 9-3-2007 by Elawr]
Was it just struvite stones? Wasn't the cola and asparagus treatment for oxalate stones as well?
I do know chronic consumption of Coke will lower citrate levels, which will probably lead to more stones. A one-time large dose is a different story,
but after that you'd better get those citrate levels back up.
Anybody have solubility data for the calcium oxalates (whewellite and weddelite) in H3PO4 at 37 C?
Good paper to get:
Rodgers A. "Effect of Cola Consumption on Urinary Biochemical and Physicochemical Risk Factors Associated with Calcium Oxalate Urolithiasis."
Urol. Res.27:77–81 (1999)
[Edited on by Pyridinium]JohnWW - 9-3-2007 at 11:52
The only problem is that the phosphoric acid in CocaCola (which now contains neither cocaine nor cola, with the caffeine source having been replaced
with either coffee or guarana), being a strong mineral acid, is destructive to teeth. After drinking it, wash your mouth out immediately.
