Fact Check: Can a concoction of olive oil, honey and lemon juice dissolve kidney stones in 15 days?

Hyderabad: A Facebook post with a home remedy to dissolve kidney stones in 15 days is being widely shared on social media. A Facebook reel with similar content can be seen here.

The viral posts claim that drinking a mixture of olive oil, honey and lemon juice in water can treat kidney stones.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false.

A simple definition of kidneys and their function is given by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases: our kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist. Our kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute by eliminating toxins and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder. The entire system including kidneys, ureters and bladder is a part of your urinary tract.

What are kidney stones?

According to the National Kidney Foundation, “Kidney stone is a hard object that is made from chemicals in the urine. There are four types of kidney stones: calcium oxalate, uric acid, struvite, and cystine. A kidney stone may be treated with shockwave lithotripsy, ureteroscopy, percutaneous nephrolithotomy or nephrolithotripsy. Common symptoms include severe pain in the lower back, blood in your urine, nausea, vomiting, fever and chills, or urine that smells bad or looks cloudy.’

There are various factors that can lead to kidney stones such as diet, body weight, certain medical conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes, certain health supplements and certain medications.

Kidney stones can appear when there is too much waste in urine which leads to crystallisation. These small stones eventually attract other elements to join along and form a solid that gets larger unless it is passed out of the body with the urine. Once the stone is formed, it travels down to the urinary tract into the ureter or it can stay in the kidneys.

Sometimes tiny beads of the stone move out of the body through urine without causing any kind of inconvenience. But stones that don’t move out cause a backup of urine in the kidney, ureter and bladder which eventually causes unbearable pain.

The logic behind having a drink mixed with olive oil, honey and lemon juice is merely to keep the kidneys hydrated which can easily be done with water also. A few possible causes of kidney stones are drinking too little water, obesity, eating too much sugar or salt, infections and family genes.

Research states that we found that lemon juice is rich in citrate, which can help prevent kidney stones. Citrates are found in several citrus fruits including lemons, limes, oranges and melons. However, there is no scientific evidence to prove lemon juice is effective in eliminating the already formed kidney stones.

If there are symptoms such as pain in the lower back, nausea or vomiting, blood in urine, pain while urinating, being unable to urinate and fever, consult your health expert at the earliest.

If the stone is small in size (below 4 mm) your physician might prescribe you to drink more water and medication to dissolve the stone naturally without surgery which would take about two to three weeks to completely pass. If the size of the stone continues to grow you might go for surgical methods such as ureteroscopy, shockwave lithotripsy, percutaneous nephrolithotomy and open stone surgery.