Nope, that's not a misprint!  We received a call the other day from a longtime customer, and she went on to explain a natural remedy that her son used to get rid of his kidney stones.  The remedy?  A six-pack of Coca-Cola and a bunch of asparagus.  When I first heard of this, I was in disbelief...so I decided to research it, and sure enough, I came across a wealth of information and stories of people that have had success with this odd natural remedy.

Kidney stones are one of the most painful and common urologic disorders.  Every year, millions visit their health care provider for kidney stone problems.  A kidney stone is a hard mass that develops from tiny crystals that separate from urine within the urinary tract.  Urine is supposed to contain chemicals to prevent the crystals from forming, but it doesn't work that way for everyone, and so they can form "stones".  Sometimes the crystal remain small enough that you can pass them in your urine without ever noticing...but the larger 'stones' can be quite painful to pass, and can even cause a trip to the emergency room.

The cause of kidney stones is not always known.  There are certain foods out there that can certainly promote the formation in people that are more susceptible, but scientists do not believe that there is any particular food that causes stones to form in individuals that are not susceptible to them.  However, in my research of kidney stone remedies, I did find some other recommended foods for helping with kidney stones!

I could get into more detail and discuss a lot of the scientific findings, but that's not what I'm here to do!  I'm here to create awareness about the most intriguing remedy that our customer told us about...the Coke and asparagus method.  How can 2 food items that are so different from each other on the nutritional scale be so beneficial for kidney stones?  Well, the acidity of the Coke, combined with the healthy properties of the asparagus (very folic-acid rich) apparently create one powerful diuretic to help pass kidney stones.  

The remedy works like this: On an empty stomach, preferably mid-morning (this allows you more time to expel the by-products of the cleanse), drink 6 cans of Coke (72 ounces) over the course of 2 hours.  Quickly steam or boil 8 ounces of asparagus, and puree in a blender.  Within 5 minutes of drinking the last can of Coke, eat the asparagus puree slowly.  The remedy should begin working immediately and the stones should pass in much smaller particles within a few hours.  Drink a lot of distilled water after the asparagus to keep your body hydrated.
       
I came across a couple people that took the asparagus puree drink before the Coke, but the method we first heard about was the one described above.

We do not endorse this method, but because it was something that we heard about first-hand and also read several testimonials on, I decided to look into it a bit further and pass it on to our readers.  It should be said that plenty of distilled water (must be distilled) is the most recommended method of dissolving and flushing out kidney stones.

Thank you, Nancy, for introducing us to this odd natural remedy!