Chanca piedra is a plant from South America used by Amazonian natives and other South Americans to treat kidney stones. The herb’s name literally translates to “crushes rocks,” and it purportedly works to lower and normalize calcium levels in urine, since excessively high calcium is the cause of those oh-so-painful kidney stones.
But does it actually work?
I don’t have kidney stones, but in the past month, my diet hasn’t been the best. Due to the amount of traveling I’ve been doing, I find myself eating out a lot and drinking a lot of soda and beer. Whenever I start getting the bulk of my hydration from anything other than water, my urine turns a deep yellow and smells bad. I figure this is due to the higher concentration of sugar and other garbage in what I’m drinking.
A while back, Colin Post sent me some free samples from his company, Peruvian Naturals, and a bottle of chanca piedra was among them. I decided to put the stuff to the test, and chanca piedra is an effective way to cure/avoid kidney stones and clean out your bloodstream.
Chanca Piedra: Nature’s Janitor
Peruvian Naturals’ chanca piedra looks like something out of a nutritionist’s nightmare. The stuff comes in 500 milligram tablets that have the consistency of chalk, while their pungent odor resembles nothing less than some obscure chemical custodians use to scrub out vomit stains.
But this stuff works.
After taking two tablets (one gram) of chanca piedra for a week, I noticed that my urine had changed consistency and was clearer and less smelly. This was despite the fact that I was still eating a pretty crappy road diet. Two weeks after going on the chanca piedra and my urine had become almost water-like, though that was probably helped by the fact that I was eating somewhat normally again.
I also didn’t have anything close to a kidney stone.
While I wouldn’t recommend chanca piedra as a general use supplement, if you’re worried about kidney stones—or actually suffering from them—you should check it out. It’s cheap, takes effect quickly and will noticeably improve the quality of your urine.
Click here to buy Peruvian Naturals Chanca Piedra.
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