What Questions Should I Ask My Healthcare Provider
- Do I have a kidney stone or is there another reason for my symptoms?
- What type of kidney stone do I have?
- What size is my kidney stone?
- Where is my kidney stone located?
- How many kidney stones do I have?
- Do I need treatment or will I be able to pass the kidney stone?
- Should I be tested for kidney disease?
- What changes should I make to my diet?
- What type of procedure should I have to get rid of the stones?
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Kidney stones can be frustrating at best and agonizingly painful at the worst. To stop your situation from getting worse, you should be evaluated by a healthcare provider as soon as possible. The pain can get severe, and surgery might be necessary. Remember: dont skip your prescriptions, drink lots of water and follow any dietary guidelines. Also, remember that kidney stones are a temporary condition. They wont bother you forever.
Last reviewed by a Cleveland Clinic medical professional on 05/03/2021.
References
Can Sexual Intercourse Helps In Clearing Kidney Stones
It is logical to assume that symptomatic kidney stones can significantly compromise the quality of sex life, but according to a new study conducted by scientists at a research center at Ankara, Turkey, it was suggested that sexual intercourse can help in the removal of small kidney stones. According to the study reported in the Urology journal , scientists presented statistical evidence that men who engage in sexual intercourse at least three to four times a week, are more likely to pass kidney stones in the urine.
What Are Kidney Stones Symptoms Causes Diagnosis Treatment And Prevention
Kidney stones are common if you havent had a kidney stone, you likely know someone who has. Kidney stones affect 1 in 11 people in the United States. Overall, about 19 percent of men and 9 percent of women in the United States will develop a kidney stone by the time they are 70 years old.
Kidney stones are hard, rock-like deposits that form in the kidneys, two organs that filter waste and extra fluid from the body. Kidney stones typically develop when there is too much waste and not enough fluid in the kidneys.
Passing a stone the process of the stone moving out of the kidney and into and through the ureter can be excruciating. Some women say the pain is worse than childbirth, says Naim Maalouf, MD, an associate professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Your bodys waste can include minerals and other substances that combine to form stones, ranging in size from a grain of sand to the size of a pea, or even as large as a golf ball.
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The 4 Surgical Methods Of Kidney Stone Removal
Are you worried about how to get rid of kidney stones after the failure of all possible home remedies? If so, this article is for you. Here, we have covered the top four surgical procedures that are being used in this modern era to remove and treat kidney stones.
Before knowing the best and safest kidney stone removal surgeries, learn exactly when you need to undergo the surgical intervention.
Kidney stones are formed when calcium, oxalate, and phosphorus levels in the urine are higher than the normal range. And, people who eat food items high in animal protein and contain too much salt or sugar are prone to developing kidney stones.
One can develop kidney stones of different shapes and sizes. So, based on the severity, complexity, shape, and size of kidney stones, Urologists or Nephrologists will recommend the best suitable surgical procedure.
If kidney stones are smaller, they tend not to cause pain or other symptoms and can pass out of the body in urine. So, they are called Silent stones. On the other hand, if kidney stones are large, they may not pass out of the body as silent stones do. So they are referred to as Stubborn stones.
Almost 86% of stones tend to pass spontaneously within 30-40 days. But this duration is dependent on the size of the stone and its likelihood of passing spontaneously.
- Percutaneous nephrolithotomy
- Ureteroscopic lithotripsy or ureteroscopy removal of the stones
- Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy
There Are Multiple Ways To Help Pass Kidney Stones
While there isnt a medication that can magically make the kidney stone come out of your body, your doctor may prescribe an alpha blocker to help with the pain. Alpha blockers help relax your urinary tract muscles and allow you to pass the stone without too much pain.
However, there are other natural remedies you can try while attempting to pass a kidney stone. Try to:
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How Do Health Care Professionals Treat Kidney Stones
Health care professionals usually treat kidney stones based on their size, location, and what type they are.
Small kidney stones may pass through your urinary tract without treatment. If youre able to pass a kidney stone, a health care professional may ask you to catch the kidney stone in a special container. A health care professional will send the kidney stone to a lab to find out what type it is. A health care professional may advise you to drink plenty of liquids if you are able to help move a kidney stone along. The health care professional also may prescribe pain medicine.
Larger kidney stones or kidney stones that block your urinary tract or cause great pain may need urgent treatment. If you are vomiting and dehydrated, you may need to go to the hospital and get fluids through an IV.
How Does The Urinary System Work
The body takes nutrients from food and converts them to energy. After the body has taken the food that it needs, waste products are left behind in the bowel and in the blood.
The urinary system keeps chemicals, such as potassium and sodium, and water in balance, and removes a type of waste, called urea, from the blood. Urea is produced when foods containing protein, such as meat, poultry, and certain vegetables, are broken down in the body. Urea is carried in the bloodstream to the kidneys.
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How Are Kidney Stones Diagnosed
Your healthcare provider will discuss your medical history and possibly order some tests. These tests include:
- Imaging tests: An X-ray, CT scan and ultrasound will help your healthcare provider see the size, shape, location and number of your kidney stones. These tests help your provider decide what treatment you need.
- Blood test: A blood test will reveal how well your kidneys are functioning, check for infection and look for biochemical problems that may lead to kidney stones.
- Urine test: This test also looks for signs of infection and examines the levels of the substances that form kidney stones.
Are There Any Foods Or Drinks That Help Treat Kidney Stones Are There Any Home Remedies
There are three liquids rumored to help with kidney stones:
- Cranberry juice. Although cranberry juice can help prevent urinary tract infections , it doesnt help with kidney stones.
- Apple cider vinegar. Vinegar is acidic and it can sometimes create changes to your urine, which helps with kidney stones. But, this doesnt always help. Talk to your healthcare provider about the use of vinegar.
- Lemon juice. Lemon juice is rich in citrate, which can help prevent kidney stones from forming. Citrates are found in several citrus fruits including lemons, limes, oranges and melons.
- Coffee. Studies show that coffee may decrease your risk of developing kidney stones.
Avoid soda and other drinks with added sugar or fructose corn syrup. They increase your risk.
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Medication For Kidney Stones
For most people with recurrent calcium stones, a combination of drinking enough fluids, avoiding urinary infections, and specific treatment with medications will significantly reduce or stop new stone formation.
Certain medications such as thiazide diuretics or indapamide reduce calcium excretion and decrease the chance of another calcium stone. Potassium citrate or citric juices are used to supplement thiazide treatment and are used by themselves for some conditions where the urine is too acidic.
For people who have a high level of uric acid in their urine, or who make uric acid stones, the medication allopurinol will usually stop the formation of new stones.
Kidney Stone Causes And Risk Factors
Both men and women can get kidney stones, but menâs chances of getting them are about double that of womenâs.
Itâs often hard to figure out what caused a kidney stone. But they happen when your urine has high levels of certain minerals. These include:
If you donât have enough urine in your body to water down the high concentration of minerals, stones can form. Think about stirring up your favorite drink from a powder mix. If you donât add enough liquid — say, water or juice — the powder will clump up and turn into hard, dry chunks.
Things that can raise your risk for kidney stones include:
- What you eat
- Some medications like triamterene , a diuretic that treats high blood pressure antiseizure drugs corticosteroids and protease inhibitors like indinavir sulfate for HIV.
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Sudden Urge To Urinate
If you find yourself suddenly needing to urinate or needing to urinate more frequently than normal, it may be a sign that a kidney stone has reached the lower portion of your urinary tract. Like cloudy urine, increased urgency is also associated with urinary tract infections, although with kidney stones, urgency can be present even without an infection.
Pain Or Burning During Urination
Once the stone reaches the junction between your ureter and bladder, youll start to feel pain when you urinate. Your doctor might call this dysuria.
The pain can feel sharp or burning. If you dont know you have a kidney stone, you might mistake it for a UTI. Sometimes you can have an infection along with the stone.
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Prevention Of Future Stones
Once your health care provider finds out why you are forming stones, he or she will give you tips on how to prevent them. This may include changing your diet and taking certain medications. There is no one-size-fits-all diet for preventing kidney stones. Everyone is different. Your diet may not be causing your stones to form. But there are dietary changes that you can make to stop stones from continuing to form.
Diet Changes
Drink enough fluids each day.
If you are not producing enough urine, your health care provider will recommend you drink at least 3 liters of liquid each day. This equals about 3 quarts . This is a great way to lower your risk of forming new stones. Remember to drink more to replace fluids lost when you sweat from exercise or in hot weather. All fluids count toward your fluid intake. But its best to drink mostly no-calorie or low-calorie drinks. This may mean limiting sugar-sweetened or alcoholic drinks.
Knowing how much you drink during the day can help you understand how much you need to drink to produce 2.5 liters of urine. Use a household measuring cup to measure how much liquid you drink for a day or two. Drink from bottles or cans with the fluid ounces listed on the label. Keep a log, and add up the ounces at the end of the day or 24-hour period. Use this total to be sure you are reaching your daily target urine amount of at least 85 ounces of urine daily.
Reduce the amount of salt in your diet.
Eat the recommended amount of calcium.
Reducing Kidney Stone Risk
Drinking enough fluid will help keep your urine less concentrated with waste products. Darker urine is more concentrated, so your urine should appear very light yellow to clear if you are well hydrated. Most of the fluid you drink should be water. Most people should drink more than 12 glasses of water a day. Speak with a healthcare professional about the right amount of water that’s best for you. Water is better than soda, sports drinks or coffee/tea. lf you exercise or if it is hot outside, you should drink more. Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup should be limited to small quantities.
Eat more fruits and vegetables, which make the urine less acid. When the urine is less acid, then stones may be less able to form. Animal protein produces urine that has more acid, which can then increase your risk for kidney stones.
You can reduce excess salt in your diet. What foods are high in salt? Everyone thinks of salty potato chips and French fries. Those should be rarely eaten. There are other products that are salty: sandwich meats, canned soups, packaged meals, and even sports drinks.
Some herbal substances are promoted as helping prevent stones. You should know that there is insufficient published medical evidence to support the use of any herb or supplement in preventing stones.
- What food may cause a kidney stone?
- Should l take vitamin and mineral supplements?
- What beverages are good choices for me?
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Drink Plenty Of Water Every Day
One of the easiest ways to reduce your risks of developing kidney stones is to stay hydrated. If you dont drink enough, the urine volume in your kidneys decreases and becomes more concentrated. Low fluid volume in your kidneys means the minerals that cause stones are less likely to dissolve.
Dr. Seaman recommends drinking about eight glasses of water a day, enough that your urine remains essentially clear to pale yellow in color rather than dark. You may need more water on days that you sweat heavily.
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Stages To Passing Kidney Stones
The goal of this blog is to provide insight into the process of passing a kidney stone. In particular, we will address what you should expect at each of the four stages along the way. For the newbies, kidney stones can be one of the most frightening experiences of a persons life. The pain starts almost immediately out of nowhere and typically generates significant panic for the person experiencing the pain. The pain is so great that it commonly elicits a ride in an ambulance or a middle of the night emergency trip to the ER. Either way, not a ton of fun.
To make matters worse, Hospital staff dont always know whats happening to you and provide very little useful advice. Even after they have identified that its a kidney stone, very little is communicated. And trust me, this comes from first-hand experience over multiple kidney stones. It is nothing short of shocking to learn about the lack of education for a condition that impacts over 1 in 10 Americans.
So, lets dive in.
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Telltale Signs You Have A Kidney Stone
Most people have two kidneys located behind their abdominal organs along the middle of their back. The purpose of your kidneys is to filter blood and send any waste thats collected into your urine.
Sometimes, these waste products build up and form small, hard deposits called kidney stones. Stones develop inside kidneys, but they exit the body through the urinary tract.
Because the ureter is small, passing a stone can cause complications inside the urinary tract, as well as a range of unpleasant symptoms from abdominal pain to nausea. About 1 in 10 Americans will experience at least one kidney stone in their lifetime, but learning to recognize the telltale signs of a kidney stone isnt always easy especially if youve never had one.
Our team at Advanced Urology in Redondo Beach, Culver City, and Los Angeles, California, is here to help. While small stones might pass without your knowledge, larger stones can cause excruciating pain. Make an appointment at Advanced Urology if you have
What Do The Kidneys Do
Kidneys have many jobs, from filtering blood and making urine to keeping bones healthy and making a hormone that controls the production of red blood cells. The kidneys also help regulate blood pressure, the level of salts in the blood, and the acid-base balance of the blood. All these jobs make the kidneys essential to keeping the body working as it should.
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