For the group...... having just gone through the excruciating passing of a kidney stone, I wondered what caused kidney stones.
Interestingly, excessive vitamin D is given as one of the causes.
Has any other D user experienced kidney stones?
You have my sympathy. Kidney stones are considered the worst cause of pain by many, if not most, docs. For the general public, if you want to learn about medical problems, i.e. signs and symptoms, causes and treatments of the vast majority of diagnoses, I used to recommend without hesitation MedlinePlus. It's a service from the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health, but now they are too smart by half. It's been redone completely. I entered kidney stones, aka nephrolithiasis, and they give 516 results. It's loaded with links.
You might need a medical dictionary if you're not a health professional. Here's their dictionary.
It took a little while scanning the first page to find "Kidney Stones in Adults." Click on "What causes kidney stones"? This is their entry minus images of some stones.
Doctors do not always know what causes a stone to form. While certain foods may promote stone formation in people who are susceptible, scientists do not believe that eating any specific food causes stones to form in people who are not susceptible.A person with a family history of kidney stones may be more likely to develop stones. Urinary tract infections, kidney disorders such as cystic kidney diseases, and certain metabolic disorders such as hyperparathyroidism are also linked to stone formation.
In addition, more than 70 percent of people with a rare hereditary disease called renal tubular acidosis develop kidney stones.
Cystinuria and hyperoxaluria are two other rare, inherited metabolic disorders that often cause kidney stones. In cystinuria, too much of the amino acid cystine, which does not dissolve in urine, is voided, leading to the formation of stones made of cystine. In patients with hyperoxaluria, the body produces too much oxalate, a salt. When the urine contains more oxalate than can be dissolved, the crystals settle out and form stones.
Hypercalciuria is inherited, and it may be the cause of stones in more than half of patients. Calcium is absorbed from food in excess and is lost into the urine. This high level of calcium in the urine causes crystals of calcium oxalate or calcium phosphate to form in the kidneys or elsewhere in the urinary tract.
Other causes of kidney stones are hyperuricosuria, which is a disorder of uric acid metabolism; gout; excess intake of vitamin D; urinary tract infections; and blockage of the urinary tract. Certain diuretics, commonly called water pills, and calcium-based antacids may increase the risk of forming kidney stones by increasing the amount of calcium in the urine.
Calcium oxalate stones may also form in people who have chronic inflammation of the bowel or who have had an intestinal bypass operation, or ostomy surgery. As mentioned earlier, struvite stones can form in people who have had a urinary tract infection. People who take the protease inhibitor indinavir, a medicine used to treat HIV infection, may also be at increased risk of developing kidney stones.
It appears quite comprehensive.
If you don't like MedlinePlus, try the Mayo Clinic's Diseases and Conditions. Avoid any sites hawking any products. BTW, any sites whose URL ends with the suffix .edu as in education are teaching institutions. Normally, I don't hesitate to use or cite them.
Interestingly, excessive vitamin D is given as one of the causes.
Well you found one source. If you want to rule out excess vitamin D, then get the 25hydroxyvitamin D, aka 25(OH)D, test. However, the test can be problematic. I have read two docs who complained about its results varying too much. I don't know if it's dependent on the lab performing the test, or if it's dependent on the purity of reagents, water or what. But if it's result twice the upper limit of normal, then you probably have your diagnosis, hypervitaminosis D. I'd stop vitamin D for a month and get retested. Make sure the test is repeated at the same lab. If you're first result is hanging aroud the upper limit of normal, then it could still be hypervitaminosis D, and I would proceed as above.
Has any other D user experienced kidney stones?
It's already in the two public references, MedlinePlus and the Mayo Clinic. It can cause too much calcium in the blood, so it gets precipitated into stones.