Kidney Stones for Those Who

Kidney Stones

For those who have had the unpleasant experience of kidney stones, they can report that kidney stones are small, rock-hard deposits and that it is a brutally painful ordeal when passing them. This paper delves into how kidney stones are developed in the body, why they happen, and how to use preventative measures to avoid them.

The Literature on Kidney Stones

The Mayo Clinic article points out that while in most cases surgery won't be necessary, that possibility does exist for some people whose kidney stones are large. They are generally small stones, and in most cases they cause "no permanent damage," they can have an effect on one's urinary tract. They form sometimes when urine becomes "concentrated" which allows "minerals to crystallize and stick together" in your body (Mayo Clinic).

Once the kidney stone has passed into a person's ureter, which is the tube that connects the kidney and the bladder, the individual may experience a number of sensations that can indicate there is a kidney stone in the bladder. The individual may experience: a) "severe pain in the side and back, below the ribs"; b) some severe pain that spreads to the "lower abdomen and groin"; c) pain that comes not all and once but "in waves and fluctuates in intensity"; d) severe pain whey urinating; e) urine that is "pink, red or brown"; f) urine that smells foul and is cloudy; g) nausea and throwing up; h) a constant urge to urinate; i) chills and fever if the stone has caused an infection (Mayo Clinic).

When the kidney stone is too large to pass through or is causing bleeding, the Mayo Clinic suggests that the doctor may recommend "sound waves" (the procedure is called "extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy [SWL]), which are very strong vibrations, in order to try and break the stone in "tiny pieces that can be passed in your urine" (Mayo Clinic). What lifestyle changes should the patient with kidney stones go through? The Mayo Clinic informational article recommends: a) drink water "throughout the day" (about 2.6 quarts); b) eat fewer "oxalate-rich foods" like beets, okra, spinach, sweet potatoes, Swiss chard, nuts, tea, soy products and chocolate; c) use a low-salt diet and avoid animal meat; and d) eat calcium-rich foods but don't take calcium supplements.

Meanwhile, kidney stones are not a new medical problem, according to the National Kidney & Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (National Institutes of Health). In fact scientists have found evidence of kidney stones "…in a 7,000-year-old Egyptian mummy" (NIH). The NIH explains that the number of patients with kidney stones "has been increasing over the past 30 years" and researchers are not sure why. In the late 1970s, not even 4% of the American population had kidney stones but by the 1990s more than 5% of the population suffered from kidney stones (NIH). Caucasian men are the most likely people to get kidney stones, and from the age of 40 up to 70 men are particularly susceptible to kidney stones (NIH).